Brasserie Vacherin Croydon

I've eaten here upwards of 20 times since it opened. Im not sure what has happened..? Significantly gone downhill since 12-18 months ago. Service was OK but the food was oily and certainly no longer fresh. You have to pay for a slice of bread… This is not a sustainable way to run a restaurant – others like me will vote with their feet.

Very disappointing experience. Has Malcolm John sold this place as the usual exceptional quality associated with his name seems to have departed from this restaurant. The last, and last!, time I went there they gave us crisps as an aperitif – nice thought but they were dripping in oil – I sent them back and they were replaced with similar oily crips. Free I know, but still. With dinner I ordered chips which were dripping in oil – you could squeeze the oil out. I sent them back. Actually the time before I was there I also sent the chips back for the same reason. You would not expect this from a restaurant of this calibre. I'm sure it sounds like I'm oil sensitive – I really am not. In addition it seems like the staff are trying to increase their wine sales – they filled up our glasses so quickly and repeatedly asked if we wanted another bottle. The pudding was really average. We left feeling that the experience was very average and we didn't feel the money was well spent. Thats why I was wondering if Malcolm John had sold this place – his other restaurant – Le Cassoulet is one of my favourites. I won't be returning anytime soon.

Frankly the food was really good, the service was really poor. I It is abundantly clear that this restaurant is designed to take as much money as possible and the diners are an inconvenience: you'll need to beg for tap water instead of paid for fizz, your arms will ache as you struggle to get someone to take your order, your patience will be strained attempting to understand the unintelligible waiters, you will lose your patience with waiters that top up your wine glass every two minutes to get you to drink more and you will strain yourself clambering over fellow diners because you are crammed in so tight. Had fabulous French oysters and tail end steak that was supposed to be medium rare but was instead medium cooked. The fish was perfectly cooked and everyone loved the tiramisu. To add insult to injury, when I complained to the Maitre'd he gave us 15% off vouchers instead of money off the bill. When we read the small print we realised why – they expired at the end of the month. Cynical and petty way to deal with unsatisfied customers. Maybe Fish & Grill is OK for smaller parties but, if you want great food and great service in Croydon go to Galicia instead, for better value to boot.

We stopped in here for dinner one evening as we'd walked passed the restaurant several times. We were asked if we had a reservation. We said no, and the very aggressive reservations person insisted on taking our name and address down (even though the restaurant was half empty). Service was hit and miss. At times we had several staff waiting our table. At other times none. The T-Bone steak we ordered looked like it has been sliced in half lengthways, it was so thin. The fish pies were so runny and insipid, we may as well have eaten baby food. Except that baby food might have had more flavour. Not recommended at all.