Tootoomoo Whetstone — Restaurant in London

PLEASE READ UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW

It's like they read a book on how to run a restaurant but every other page was missing!

My wife and I dined here on Saturday 17th February 2018, It didn't go well. Our table was booked for 7:15pm and we arrived promptly on-time. Nobody had time to even acknowledge our arrival and we stood at the bar for 10 minutes before anyone greeted us. We were eventually told our table wouldn't be long. A few minutes went buy and the barman kept asking us if we wanted a drink while we waited. A fair question but if the table was about to open up we don't like walking across a very busy restaurant holding drinks. It would have been preferable if the barman said, 'why don't I get you started on some drinks, if your table opens up don't worry we will send your drinks over to your table.'

We were then seated at a table that had been empty (and clean and ready) the entire time that we were waiting. The table was a real 'wobbler' and we had to ask for the waitress to sort it, which she did straight away. Our drinks order was then taken followed by our food order. Our starters arrived literally inside 2 minutes, our drinks however did not. We had to ask for our drinks twice. We had almost finished our starters when the drinks finally arrived with a 'sorry it's busy' apology. When our mains arrived which would have comprised a total of four plates, one dish was missing so we just polity mentioned it to the waitress who rudely made the international 'I've only got two hands' gesture. We were only pointing it out in case it was forgotten as it's the the kind of place that gives you the feeling things will be forgotten. Anyway, on this point, and to the lady who brought the dishes, carrying multiple plates in a busy restaurant is a skill that waiting staff should master, see my attached image. Anyway, we both ordrred ordered the Szechuan Chilli Style Beef. my wife's was ok but mine was so liquid it was like soup. It was also riddled with dried chillis that had to be set aside, dozens of them. Trouble here is the waitress comes and asked if everything is ok but 15 seconds after the plates have been put down in front of us.

On the way out , while walking through the utter confusion I did get asked how everything was, frankly that is not the time.

Lastly, £8 for a teeny weeny Margarita? In Whetstone, while on a wobbly table? I don't think so.

UPDATE 21/02/18 Nilesh very graciously called me and apologized, it seems they melted-down on that night and service as below their usual standard. I have upgraded my review from 2 stars to 4 stars on the basis that on our next visit everything (or most)...

Bit of a mixed experience. Rather condensing man greeted us on arrival. When seated, by a different not condescending man, the menus differed to those on the website, specifically dim sum was missing. We were told that they don't do dim sum on a Saturday which was disappointing. All the food was lovely, we had two vegetarian starters and two vegetarian mains (although the green curry was rather runny). Green tea was disappointing as it was a tea bag in a latte glass but the mint tea was fresh mint leaves so much better. The margheritas were superb. Whilst waiting for dessert we were asked to move to a different table in order to accommodate a party of 6. This was done very politely and with no expectation that we would move, just a request, however it still felt like the wrong thing to ask of your customers. The lack of dim sum and the table move were however acknowledged by a 15% discount on the bill which we didn't ask for. I would go back because the food was lovely and I'd like to have a better...

Often go to the restaurant in crouch end but decided to go to whetstone for 2 hour brunch today. a lot bigger and busier,, had an excellent Italian waiter (didnt grab his name)

Food was... just OK? seemed slightly underseasoned. for example the duck spring rolls i could barely taste any duck, was literally like it had been boiled and put in the roll could just taste the vegetables.

The lemongrass chicken dish wasn't well presented, taste was fine just looked a bit sloppy.

The rendang was decent, rest of starters good.

Toward the end was difficult to get any thing else, really wanted more of the elderflower and ginger non alcoholic drink, but couldn't get a waiter to come over. when finally found one, he said our time was up and didnt give which was disappointing.

Overall i think if you are not drinking alcohol its not worth getting the brunch as we exxentially spent 100 pounds between 2 with service charge which was a bit trumpy in my opinion.

Would go back but...