Silver Palate — Restaurant in St Albans

We love the silver palate, and have been regularly since we moved to the area.

The food quality, iIMHO, remains great, but the service has become…weird.

Generally, the waiting staff are great.

However, 2x we’ve been with visitors, enthusiastic to share our love for the place, and had a bit of embarrassment.

The first was a weekday lunch (2 adults and a toddler), and although not that busy, when I pointed out that the platter marked vegetarian was brought out with (fish based) taramsalata, the waitress’ I advised of this had a demeanour as though I was causing inconvenience. She did check (I presume she was more junior member of the waiting staff?) and came back to say that there is an error in the menu, and it shouldn’t be marked “V.” There was no refund or partial refund or complimentary drink etc offered.

The second time, we took a group of 8 adults. Quickly and comfortably seated; orders taken quickly, despite it being busy. That was good; clearly we had an efficient waitress. But when we pointed out one order of the eight was still to be taken, we were made to feel like we were causing inconvenience. The main waitress dealing with our order was efficient but borderline brusque at times.

When the orders came out, 2 were wrong; our lead waitress apologised, and the incorrect orders were replaced. This time, she DIDN’T act like we were inconveniencing her, and pointed out that she had put the order through as requested, and couldn’t account for the kitchen staff. There seems to have been an issue with the fresh (orange?) juice provisions, as 2 of them came with bugs in them; unfortunately one of the guests had hair in their plate. The dish was replaced, but not before we were again made to feel like we were being difficult/inconvenient.

So our party ended the meal feeling a little uncomfortable as customers, although everyone enjoyed the actual food. But then, the lead waitress who HAD come across as annoyed at us took the cost of the drinks off our order; which obviously we really appreciated!

If this review is a bit confusing, it reflects our somewhat confusing experience!

Still recommend Silver Palate for the food, for sure, and we’ll definitely be back! But whilst they navigate changes (is it increased footfall, or staffing issues?) we may hold off introducing visitors, and just keep coming to enjoy it ourself, as we’ve generally had a really good experience when it’s just us. I hope this feedback is useful, and taken in the constructive spirit...

Popped in for brunch with my partner. Initially we were served by a lovely and friendly waitress. We ordered drinks and asked for a few more minutes to decide on food which we were told was not a problem. No more than a minute after this interaction, the very abrupt and borderline actually quite rude slightly older female manager(?) came over to take our food order as clearly no communication was had. Unfortunately owing to her abrupt and rude demeanour, we - as we are painfully polite to a fault - ordered without fully having decided because neither of us dared to ask for a bit more time. Our order was taken without much conversation bar some grunts of acknowledgment and a sigh when she asked how I wanted my eggs and I had the audacity to think about it for more than a second, baring in mind I hadn’t even been given time to decide on my choice at this point. The food was then brought out by the same delightful lady who without saying a word practically threw the plates down onto the table without so much as an ‘enjoy’. Hilariously I must note, midway through our brunch a lone male driving a brand new Ferrari, which he aptly parked directly outside in the clearly marked disabled bay without a blue badge displayed, came in and was not asked to move from the disabled bay but was treated completely differently by the now smiling, giggling and eye-lid fluttering manager, a true juxtaposition to our treatment. The food itself was okay, my eggs were underdone and as such had that almost gloopy film over the top of the whites. Otherwise the food was of a decent standard. But unfortunately the rude service really diminished our experience, left a sour taste in our mouths and we are doubtful that we will...

This was our first visit here, which was based on a recommendation from a friend who had visited the week beforehand. Such a lovely place to relax and eat good food. The guy that greated us in was friendly, welcoming and kept us updated about the tables as they were busy. The communication about waiting is key, so we really didn't mind a little wait at all. We weren't waiting forever for our food to arrive and the service was spot on, without too much interaction during eating (which is a plus)

I would highly recommend Silver Palate if you fancy something different with great surroundings.

The only thing I didn't do was pop into their Deli next door, but I'll save that for next time as we...