Unwined in Waterloo — Restaurant in London

Worst customer experience I have ever had, do not go here. If I could rate this a 0/5 I would. I thought Ant & Dec were about to jump out as this was the most comical and awful dining experience I have ever had. I turned up on a Friday night at 7:30pm. My cousin had made the reservation for 3 x people, requesting inside seating, but when I turned up, we were seated in an outdoor space covered in tarpaulin with hardly anyone else there, so I wasn’t overly impressed to start with. The menu was very misleading on a couple of occasions. One being that my cousin had ordered Jukes No 8 ‘the Rose’ which was described as crisp, rhubarb & raspberries but it was foul and tasted and smelt of vinegar which was not mentioned on the menu. But the worst part of the evening, happened to be the disaster we had with the food. Firstly, there was a ‘misunderstanding’ with the butter and we were only brought out normal butter instead of the Stilton & black pepper butter we ordered. I know this sounds measly but it all goes downhill from this point. Secondly, we went to order, and the waitress informed us that all of the small dishes (4/9 total menu) had run out. Bearing in mind that it wasn’t even 8pm on a Friday night, and that the restaurant wasn’t busy, I think that is pretty terrible to start with. We proceeded to order a charcuterie board to share, and the vegan smoked aubergine ragu for my vegan cousin. I had asked whether we could swap the crackers on the board to bread, to be told no by the waitress, without checking with the manager or kitchen, which felt like very poor customer service. The waitress came back a few moments later to ask if we could have cheese on our charcuterie board instead of some of the meat as they didn’t have enough, which I thought was pretty rich seeing as they wouldn’t swap out the crackers, but we agreed. However, the worst bit of the evening was the waitress then said that they couldn’t make the tagliatelle vegan as they used egg pasta, and that it was and had always been a vegetarian dish. My cousin has been to this restaurant multiple times before and had this as an option, has she eaten egg this whole time?! This for me was the final straw. This tagliatelle is stated on the menu (at the restaurant and online, both attached) as a vegan option and the other 2 x vegan options were out of stock. This is completely misleading and mis-selling. I asked if the waitress could ask what the kitchen could make that was vegan but this request was batted away. Therefore, I asked for our orders to be cancelled as there was nothing my cousin could eat. Typically, when we received the bill it still had all the food we couldn’t order and service charge, I had to ask for this to be changed to just our drinks (including the disgusting vinegar one which wasn’t consumed), which we wouldn’t have even ordered if we knew we couldn’t have food. Overall, throughout our time at Unwined Waterloo, the service was more than lacklustre and given all the issues we experienced, there were no apologies, manager intervention or any accommodations. Now in hindsight, we do have to laugh about how horrendous our experience was and my recommendation to all those who have made it this far, is that there are many other places to eat and drink in Waterloo which are more accommodating, affordable and friendly (I would’ve rather had a Greggs at this point). Particular shout out to Pizza Pilgrims who saved our evening and filled our hungry belly’s! Shame on you Unwined. Please update your menu with the correct dietary requirement labels. For reference, I have highlighted in red what was unavailable to order and purple the mis-labelled...

Went here for the first time tonight, and have to say it has made a wonderful impression. I was somewhat familiar with the Tooting branch, and this one lives up to that excellent reputation. As in the Tooting branch, the kitchen changes every two months or so, as does the wine line.

Firstly, the food was inspired and very well priced. The chef's may be there on a resident basis, but Unwind know what they're at and they seem to be careful about who they have in the kitchen. All the dishes are paired with a matching wine and the price by the glass seemed pretty reasonable too. One really nice thing is they also act as a wine seller, and you if you like a bottle you can buy one to bring home at around 2/3 of what the restaurant price is.

The staff were also superb. Firstly, they were super friendly and chatty, and really their stuff when it came to the wine. Personally, I'm doing a dry January, but the waitress suggested that I have a home made quince cordial in sparkling water that they'd been serving with prosecco and it was delicious. My date got a really nice glass on Donkeyhote, and we got a great story about where the name of that wine comes from. We also had a momentary crisis at our table, but the staff were super at dealing with it in a very calm and controlled manner.

This is a place I'm going to be returning to again and again. The changing menu will keep things interesting. Perfect for a quick midweek bite or something more extravagant on the weekend, it's going to be one of those places I'm going to really enjoy showing...

Really lovely wine bar. I had been to the one in Tooting several times, so was excited to see a branch had also opened up in Waterloo. Really liked the International Women's Day themed wines on offer, and it always makes it feel like more of an experience when the staff tell you the stories behind the wines.

The only little thing was... My friend and I had decided to go for dinner and then drinks. We went to Pizza Pilgrims only a few doors down from Unwined in the same road, and my friend only ate half of her pizza so asked to take the other half home. We then wanted to go for a couple of wines but when we walked into Unwined all the staff were looking at us funny. We were sat at a table, and then a minute or so later our waitress scurried back and said we weren't allowed to eat food from outside in here. Of course, we weren't eating anything - she was taking it home. Our waitress was lovely - it was clear that she had been told to say something by other staff. It made us feel a bit small and there was just no need to make your customers feel like that. Going for dinner and then drinks is...