Sauté Restaurant — Restaurant in St Albans

Would not recommend.

We booked a table for 18 people, including 8 children (under age of 12). This was mentioned at the time of booking on the phone. We arrived slightly late and were seated on two separate tables. A frown on the face of the manager/owner from the start. We arrived at 9.50pm and were told the kitchen closes at 9.30pm but they kept it open till 10pm for us. We had 10 mins to order for 18 people! We ended up getting platters. Initially we ordered 4 platters and a few starters and drinks then the waiter appeared after 5 mins saying ‘we need to order more as we have taken up two tables’. So we ordered another 2 platters. I don’t see why the staff at any restaurant should dictate how much food we should order and there is no mention of a minimum spend for large parties on their website.

Food arrived. Very small portions per platter. The children were talking amongst themselves, the restaurant was very loud and was hard to hear each other over the noise. We also noticed someone had turned up the music volume, as we were sat right next to the speakers. The manager came and asked us to ask the children to be quieter. the children were not being loud or ‘naughty’ to begin with anyway. So anyway this manager then came another two times complaining that the children are loud and they are getting complaints. we were on a separate side of the restaurant to other customers so no idea how it affected other customers.

This put a downer on our meal. The children didn’t enjoy themselves, we didn’t either. The manager couldn’t wait to get us out the door. We spent a good £400 on average food and terrible customer service. If there were issues with children attending then this should have been made clear on the phone when booking or on the website - we would’ve happily found an alternative place.

Rest assured, we won’t be returning. The customer service especially by the manager was awful. The waiter was so lovely and...

This new place has taken the place of Freddie's. Freddie retired, but I believe he is still the landlord.

Turkish/Mediterranean cuisine, only been open a few weeks.

Lunchtime menu available Monday to Friday, giving you two courses for £11.95, which is good value, although I haven't tried that menu yet.

We went on a Sunday, beginning of July 2017. Not too busy (but it's still new) and I liked that the waiter gave us a table in a quieter section of the restaurant, as there were families with young children in the neighbouring section.

We didn't order a starter, which was just as well as the waiter brought us complimentary olives (very tasty) with a generous bowl of bread. This was flatbread, but not pitta as we usually know it. Flat but leavened, so a different texture from pitta. Very nice. A starter wasn't really necessary with all this.

We both had lamb sish kebab, which is served with a good portion of salad (not just the usual bit of garnish). The meat was tender, and very tasty. We were given a bowl of chilli sauce and one of garlic sauce to go with it. We had one portion of chips between us.

The food is good and tasty. There was plenty of it, and we were full at the end. With the complimentary bread, we probably didn't need the chips. Neither of us could have managed a dessert. They did give us complimentary Turkish delight at the end, so I didn't miss having a dessert (not that I could have eaten one).

We didn't have alcohol, but they have a wine list, beers, and also cocktails.

Prices - this was the full price menu, as the lunch deal is only weekdays. The kebab is £16, and the chips around £3. For the quality and quantity of food, I thought it was good value.

We will go again, next time to try...

Went to sauté this evening for my friends 60th birthday. It was a large group of 12 so we had to pre-order our food, which was more expensive than the original price and a change in menu, 2 weeks before we were due to visit. After we arrived it took them over 45 minutes to bring our drinks out. When our mains came out, mainly shish/mixed shish, there was no rice or salad included, just simply 4 or 5 cubes of meat. When I asked the waitress about this, she said the meat was now served on a bed of vegetables, this was 2 pieces of courgette, a slice of onion and a slice of pepper. This was not sufficient as a main meal, especially as rice/chips/salad were not included and the price was more. The service was slow. We waited 2 hours before our mains were served and it wasn’t even that busy. The food had a 10% service charge which we paid at the time of placing our order but then they tried to place a 20% charge service on our drinks bill which in the end, we refused to pay. I don’t mind paying service for just that, good service but the mains without the sides as you would expect was a complete rip off, £24 for 3 cubes of chicken, 2 of lamb with little else. I will not be returning to this...