Tosa — Restaurant in London

What a way to wrap up 2023! it was the service that killed the experience! We made a reservation in advance for lunch on NYE. We were seated on a table which was next to the main foot traffic so we asked to be moved but they were very particular with seating arrangements, and the member of staff told us very bluntly that the table we wanted to move to was reserved. I guess they have special tables for special guests. We settled with a table at the back of the restaurant. A young Japanese member of staff took our order but when we explained our allergy intolerance she froze and the lady who moved us initially came to take the order. She perked up a little when she took our order, seemed chattier than before. She explained that they don't normally accept that many allergies and it's a working kitchen and there's a possibility of cross contamination which we fully understand. The food came, the grilled dishes were served plain to avoid allergens, we enjoyed most of it until we realised there was mayo in the maki roll we ordered half way through eating the dish as it was mixed with other dishes, we alerted the staff and she could not believe there was mayo, but we were fine and said we wanted to order another one of the same without mayo. We said we wanted a new order, we didn't even ask to return the order with the allergen, we were going to add a new order. The older lady came she said they have run out of salmon, avocado and cucumber and seemed very nonchalant about the allergen in the dish and turned her back on us before we even finished talking to her. Clearly she didn't want to serve us. Appalling and rude service! Never had anyone turned their back on us at a restaurant. Photos of the food we enjoyed initially but we didn't manage...

Awkward & Expensive: so we based going there on the reviews on here and were actually really disappointed! It was completely dead silent in there: no people, no music, just dead silence, which made it really awkward because as the only (except for 1 other family) people in the restaurant, the staff could hear literally everything you said: the same way you would feel about talking in a silent doctor's waiting room! Also it's one of those menus that has weird bad quality Iphone-taken images of the food making it look really unappetising!

Then to the food: so we thought it wasn't too expensive until we discovered how TINY the portions were! All in all the TASTE of the food was good (which is why i did give it two stars), but the way it was presented and size was terrible!

We ordered the following to share: sashimi (11 pounds) a grilled salmon for 11 pounds (which came out as literally JUST a piece of salmon on a plate), grilled asparagus (which was literally ONE PIECE of asparagus- ONE!), grilled mushrooms (ONE MUSHROOM!), cold spinach salad (which was literally again, just cold spinach)....... After eating all this, we were still starving as we had basically both had half a piece of salmon and a mushroom: we debated ordering some more but firstly we felt we had already spent enough money (30 pounds) on such little amount of food and also, would we really get more full from half a piece of asparagus?

Then the bill (including one glass of wine) came to 42 pounds (because of course they had also added their own 4 pound gratuity charge).

So all in all we left 42 pounds for a restaurant where we didn't get full, paid a lot of money, felt awkward most the time and were forced to pay a...

So on an early Saturday evening I decided I fancied some Japanese food and decided to give Tosa on King Street a try. What a total disappointment that turned out to be and I wish I hadn’t bothered. Claiming to be a dog friendly restaurant, I went there with my dog - just the two of us. On arriving the tables set outside for alfresco dining were only sparsely occupied and it was completely empty inside. Basically anyone could tell it was not busy at all. I wasn’t met with a warm and friendly greeting and instead was confronted with a somewhat harsh and rude attitude from a member of staff. They abruptly told me that there were no tables available - all reserved apparently- and no real effort was made to accommodate me and my dog. I was more than happy to sit and dine outside with Charlie (my dog) as there was plenty of space, but frankly they couldn’t be bothered to make table arrangements to accommodate us - how poor! Feeling slightly disappointed at the initial response, I felt I should give the business another go at accommodating us and approached other members of staff to see if they would be more customer focused and resourceful. I needn’t bothered as I was basically ordered not to talk to any other staff members! What a poor experience and I won’t be going there...