Del'Aziz Bermondsey Square

Just been here for lunch and it was pretty terrible, nothing authentic about it at all. I had the chicken shish pitta which was awful! The pitta hadn't been toasted so was dry and crumbly, the tzatziki tasted as though it was off and the chicken hadn't been seasoned in any way. The salsa they brought with it was tasteless and boring. The accompanying chips were fine, but frankly they should be at £3.50 per portion!

The service was ok but slow and there was no atmosphere to speak of. Save yourself from a bad experience and go to Tas Pide on the Southbank instead which is excellent!

I was at Del’Aziz in Bermondsey and absolutely loved the look of the place. Enjoyed myself lots and will be hanging there again.

I dined here twice last week as very convenient to my hotel. I am surprised by the negative reviews as I found the food and service to be excellent. £19.50 for a three course dinner is excellent value and on both evening the staff were pleasant and attentive. I would definately dine here again.

I've been going to Del'Aziz regularly for the last several months and have always enjoyed it, even if the Moroccan food was less than authentic. It's good for brunch and the European-style desserts are fantastic. But my experiences there over the last two weeks have been so poor that I am convinced this restaurant is in serious decline.

Two weeks ago I was there for brunch with a friend and before we were even seated we were told the kitchen was overloaded and therefore we would have to wait for 20 minutes before placing our food orders. Certainly not the best welcome. I ordered scrambled eggs which, when they finally arrived, were mealy in texture and were surely made from powdered egg mix. I know real eggs when I taste them.

Then last weekend I took two girlfriends there for brunch on Sunday and left feeling disappointed by the whole experience. The restaurant wasn't even full but it still took over 45 minutes for us to get our starters, a green salad and a single order of hummus, neither of which require any preparation. It was another 20 minutes before we got our main dishes and while mine tasted fine, one of my friends was decidedly unhappy with hers and sent it back to the kitchen. We eventually asked to speak to the manager, who didn't seem to take our complaint seriously and had no explanation for why our meals were taking so long but did offer us complimentary dessert as compensation. Meanwhile a fire alarm went off in the restaurant, followed by the acrid smell of something burnt coming from the kitchen…

At the end of our meals we decided to have our coffee in the lounge area, which I normally really like but we were shocked when we saw the many large, obvious stains on the upholstery and bits of food scattered across the floor.

I was so disgusted with my experience there that I e-mailed the other restaurant manager, who I have dealt with before under more positive circumstances in the past. A week later I still have not received a response, nor has my complaint even been acknowledged.

If you're planning lunch or brunch in Bermondsey I suggest avoiding Del'Aziz until they get their act back together (if they ever do) and opting for The Garrison instead which is not only good but far more consistent.

Now for someone who grew up in Morocco and has eaten Moroccan food in numerous countries around the world the meal in Del Aziz has to be the least Moroccan place of them all and the worst meal I have had in my life when thinking of all the other restaurants I have been to. The fast food joints surpassed Del Aziz. For starters we had tiger prawn borek (£6.5) and grilled sardines (£5.50), each starter plate had only 2 pieces of each item, the portions were very small, and it did nothing for our taste buds. To be honest the starters looked more like those small samplers they pass around in supermarkets. For the main meal we had ordered a vegetable couscous (£11.50) and a Moroccan lamb (£13.50), before ordering we were assured by the head waiter that the Moroccan lamb was an actual lamb shank, yet when the food arrived it was a skewer of lamb, with 5 small pieces only. My vegetable couscous was beyond disappointing, there were 3 table spoons of couscous and 1 table spoon of vegetables on my plate. The couscous dish consisted of mainly tomato paste broth with a few left over vegetables thrown in mainly for garnish I think. This did not come close to what a real Moroccan couscous dish should taste like, I have never seen thick tomato paste for a Moroccan couscous vegetable broth in my life. We had waited 45 minutes for the main dishes to arrive and after eating it we were so disappointed we just wanted to pay and leave. Even our beers were warm, when we asked the waiter for a cold one we were told we only have these. I think the chefs need some serious lessons in BASIC FOOD PREPARATION, and the managers need to make sure that the meals that are served in their restaurant actually tastes like food, forget the elaborate labelling Mediterranean this, Iranian that and Moroccan this. The staff are clueless and have no idea what the items are on their menu. They keep on passing huge baskets of bread around hoping that this will numb our taste buds to their bad meal and terrible portions. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

I ventured down to Del Aziz with my partner Saturday night gone, in full knowledge of the fact that it was going to be about as authentic as a supermarket takeaway. But despite this fact I still expected it to meet all the other elements of a world cuisine restaurant and bar, namely service and atmosphere. As we were heading down for a few drinks I wasn't too concerned as long as they didn't end up tasting like coloured sugar syrup, which thankfully they didn't. In fact the drinks themselves were well made and delightful and so they should be after 10 mins in the making!

Let's start from the beginning the barman (yes all one of him) was a bit on the slow side to say the least, a luxury he can't really afford when he's on his own with a bar full of thirsty drinkers. Despite this though he still felt the need to take his 10 min cigarette break leaving us waiting to pay our bill and several customers waiting to order. Not acceptable. On top of this the waiting service (all one of them) flitted in and out as and when suited her so you were never quite sure whether to wait or give up and go to the bar.

Shall we do the math here: The restaurant = empty. Bar = pretty full with a higher mark up on products and higher chance of repeat customers. The focus should therefore be where??. Its a classic case of a venue with potential but staff with lack of direction. Let's hope they clean up their act soon but I'll give it a good 6 months before I next go back that's for sure.