ULI — Restaurant in London

Where on earth do I start. Judging by previous reviews, what was once an evidently acclaimed local eatery has had a catastrophic fall from grace under new ownership.

My two fellow diners started off with soup; the thom yum and the sweetcorn/crab. The thom yum, although a famously spicy broth, was almost immediately sent back for being far too spicy; this was seemingly not recognised by the waitress, as it wasn't taken off the bill. The sweetcorn/crab was remarked upon by my associate as being extremely sweet (having had a spoonful, I can say with confidence that I've had less sugary-tasting Skittles). As if this wasn't enough, we found a long strand of what appeared to be a plasticy material within the soup. We decided to give ULI the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was a piece of crab exoskeleton; however, upon making this clear to the waitress, she simply looked at it and walked away; an utterly bizarre reaction in any case, let alone considering the price tag that accompanied the dish (more on that later).

The starter that I opted upon was the prawn dim sum. It had both the slimy texture and soul-crushing tastelessness of gelatine. There were absolutely no positives that I can possibly infer upon this dish, but I was still optimistic while waiting for the chicken, duck and soft shell crab salads.

How naive I was to assume that the salad would restore my faith in ULI. I genuinely believe I could've found a fresher set of salad leaves in Dante's 9th Circle of Hell. It was extremely evident that the salad was not at all fresh, but instead had been kept in a lukewarm fridge for, according to my estimates, an absolute minimum of 3 days. The duck salad was drenched in hoisin sauce and accompanied with watermelon (which upon further research is apparently a decent enough recipe, but sadly not in this case), the chicken salad was simply repulsive and the soft shell crab was, again, overly spicy and served at the worst possible temperature that one can serve a deep-fried soft shell crab; worse than lukewarm, but not entirely cold. The chicken and soft-shell crab salads were promptly sent back to the kitchen, again met with a seemingly unfazed reaction by the serving staff, which I quite frankly was shocked to observe.

As a naturally optimistic individual, I was internally wanting of a redeeming set of main courses. What we received were probably the most edible of the dishes we had ordered, but were still fairly grim. The black bean beef was watery and very salty and the half-portion of crispy duck pancakes, priced at the eye-watering sum of £32, was dry, microwaved and accompanied by a thoroughly dehydrated portion of scallions and cucumber. Incorporating side portions into my analysis, the pak choi were inedible, and the rice was overcooked, thus incredibly dry.

At this point, we simply gave up. We asked our unresponsive waitress for the bill, and what came next will shock any prospective customer: the tab, including 2 x 330ml beers and 2 bottles of water for 3 individuals, was £195.

This was undeniably the pièce de resistance of the entire evening. We had just been served some of the most shocking food we had ever consumed, and even upon showing evident dissatisfaction by sending dishes back to the kitchen, had received no response by serving staff at the time. Yet the end of the meal resulted in a near £200 bill with no deductions made, according to the bill-payer. I was outraged, but my fellow diners did not want to make a scene; we opted to pay up and quietly leave.

In the build up to writing this, I read various reviews which state that the current owner/manager, Michael, who also has an alleged 40 years experience as a restauranteur, was dismissive of customer's opinions and apparently ill-taking to criticism. Michael, if you are reading this, it is mandatory that you take this review to heart. This was the most awful meal that I have had in a very long time, and at the eye-watering sum of £195, I think it is quite obvious that you need to immediately sack your head chef and reform your...

Absolutely appalled with the customer service I had received on the phone today from the Manager Graham. I was really looking forward to going to Uli Restaurant for my Birthday as their menu had a variety of dishes being that there are a lot of dietary requirements within the group which were attending my meal.

When calling in the first time to book the reservation, Graham could not take my call as he had a 'Private Party' of 100 people so he could not speak about this further so I had to call back the next day at a specific time. Very off putting if you ask me as all customers matter but I did as I was very impressed with the menu and so were others.

With such a big group of 13 people, we would have to choose from a Set Menu which is NOT stated on the website at all so that was already the 1st issue as something like this should be on the website for customers to see and be aware of. When asking Graham (Manager) why this was not on there he explained that he did not know.. ridiculous.

Within the large group that were attending my birthday meal, there were a lot of dietary requirements and I was asked to inform him if there was which I did so there was a compromise of allowing us to pick our own 5 mains, 5 starters etc which was pretty decent. I had to get back to Graham with the deposit of £20 per person to secure the seats. When I ended up calling back again Graham was busy and could not take the call so I had to call back around 11:30am the next day which I did.

By this time the numbers had decreased by 5 people as they could not make it anymore so when calling back, Graham was unavailable to speak with so as time was getting on and this needed to be booked asap I asked Micheal who I spoke with on the phone if he could deal with this and he proceeded to say yes.

I explained that the numbers have gone down to 8 people and I understand that if there is more than 7 people you would need to pick from a Set Menu but as there is only 8 people could he make an exception and he said yes that will be fine and that he would authorise this, he also explained that he will be working on Saturday 6th October as well so no problem so I thought GREAT no limited options and everyone is happy. The table was booked and everything was sorted.

The next day I received an email from Graham asking to confirm the numbers so I was very confused as everything had been sorted. Obviously NOT. When calling in to speak after speaking via email, he was extremely rude over the phone, pretty much blaming myself for communicating with somebody other than him so began explaining that maybe I would have done that if you was not busy all the time when I had called in furthermore all of your staff should be informed of what is okay and what is not okay. Micheal should never had said yes to picking from the main menu and making the exception so I am so livid that Graham had spoke to me the way he did over the phone, talking over me when I was trying to speak.

What customer service is that?!

No resolution was given at all. I would have thought that being that his staff member had given wrong information and agreed to something that should not have been agreed to which gave me high hopes. As a Manager you should AT LEAST say okay there was miscommunication from my colleague on this occasion we can do that for you but NO Graham decided to say "If you would like to go to another restaurant I would understand" and what that says to me is that you are not willing to even help regarding this issue whatsoever and you'd rather lose customers than provide a resolution over something that was the restaurants fault.

I've never been spoken too in that way from anybody and this is not great customer service at all.

DISGUSTED WITH THE LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE AND I HAVE NOT EVEN STEPPED FOOT...

Uli's ambience is inviting and seems a nice place for groups, but there are 2 major reasons why I would not do that anyway. First issue is the seating, the tables are too close to each other, which maybe uncomfortable during any day, but becomes disastrous at this time of epidemic! But the major issue is that the place is incredibly over priced compared to what they offer. We ordered 5 dishes, 3 small and 2 main, and beers. To start with the beer, that was Korean, but flat, pale in taste and was double the price of any proper good beer you can find in London. I can understand paying extra for an imported beer, but the least you hope for is having a good one. Alas, it was less than average. out of the 5 dishes were ordered, only 2 were worth their price. The Asparagus was really nice, and their own Curry, Uli Curry, was also quite delicious. But the Sea bass was just a fillet (it does say so on the menu, but we expected a bigger fillet considering it is listed under main), half a fish only, and it did taste like a "farmed" sea bass. lacking the "ocean" taste you get from a proper fresh Sea Bass. it was made Thai style, yet all you could taste was the over powering lemon juice with occasional under cooked lemon grass getting stuck in your teeth. it was 19£, which is almost the price of a fresh full Sea Bass in any other great restaurant in London. The Vietnamese Summer rolls were as any summer rolls you get from an Asian take away, although the prawns lacked taste, and the vegetables tasted like regular Tesco's salad bag. The Black bean sauce that was served with it was nice, but far from justifying it's price! The Salad was a good portion, but again, Shrimps lacked any taste and Vegetables tasted pale and a regular supermarket salad bag. Cheap supermarket materials are clearly used. And the Idea that the location may justify the bill, even though it does not at all. Of all the great places to eat in Notting Hill, better options...