Toca do Coelho — Restaurant in London

The place is OK but the service is terrible and the staff don't know how to treat their customers. When I came in I was told that Lasagna was the 'prato do dia' at £16.95. I already found it expensive enough but I said why not. London is expensive anyway. When ordering I was told that the lasagna would come with rice and salad, I asked whether there were other options but was just told that it was standard for it to come with rice and salad.

I had an ok meal, the portion was large although the lasagna was a bit tasteless.

When the bill came in I pointed out to them that they forgot to charge me £5 for a pint of superbock. The lady didn't even say thank you and added an extra £5 into the total amount (it went from £22.95 to £27.95). To my astonishment they charged me £2.80 for rice which was never mentioned to me when purchasing the 'prato do dia'. They also charged 30p when I requested milk with my double expresso although this is standard practice in most places.

She still decided to charge for the superbock AND the rice - despite me telling them with all due conscience that the superbock was not added into the bill and was not told that the rice had an additional price. No thank you, no nothing, she went to speak with someone but was still charged £27.95.

£27.95 is quite a lot for one person. It's way too expensive compared to other restaurants in the area, and most importantly they don't know how to treat their customers when they point inconsistencies in the bill, not even a thank you when you tell them that an item is missing.

It was my first time and I will never return here. Please go the 'O Saloio', it's less than 10 minutes walk, has a typical Portuguese atmosphere and design and greater variety of food. Prices are more reasonable too. They know how to treat their customers whether it's their first time or repeat customers.

This place seems to value every single penny rather than a customer's satisfaction. Unless the management get in touch they've lost a customer and...

Sidenote: The waitress was very friendly and did her job well :-) however, the food which I had ordered was not so great. Paid about £20.00 ish for the meal in total. Ordered a noodle dish and a salad and a drink, however, I didn’t even receive the drink lol. This was a takeout order so I did not open up the boxes to double check in hopes to preserve the warmth of the food. But I should’ve done that lol the drink I ordered was missing, but also, the salad which costed about £8.00 filled up about 1/8 of the container/box, and the noodle dish wasn’t warm. (I realize the drink was missing while I was walking back home 😭).

Not trying to nitpick on all of that, but it’s just something that stood out to me. Regardless of all of it, the waitress was very polite, kind and friendly and efficient.

Would I recommend to someone else to try this restaurant? Maybe

Would I ever come back here again? No

…But then again, my review is coming from a takeout standpoint so I cannot say what my experience would be like if I was dining in. So, in conclusion, take my review with the grain of salt and maybe try dining in instead...

I have always been a regular coming to this restaurants even before it became Toca de Coelho, I got served by a very nice gentleman, I ordered a meal and a drink. My nephew was with me and I had ordered for him as he popped into Tesco to grab water for himself, I told the waiter he had gone to tesco and will order a drink once he’s back.. Once my nephew came back in the manager was giving looks nodding his head no. I told him we will order a drink, he then told the waiter off in front of customers. I then spoke to then manager and told him he didn’t need to tell him off and with his awful tone he had he replied ‘I wasn’t telling him off’

I then walked up and apologised to the waiter for any inconvenience and asked if he could cancel my order..

The manager needs lessons on how to speak to people, he could have approached us and spoke in a nicer manner and NOT told the poor waiter off in front of people.....