Hedone

The quality of the ingredients are indeed superb. Cooking is outstanding, precise, perfectly seasoned and innovative. A true flavour sensation experience with wine and service to match.

I have to say I tend to agree with Naomi and not the newspaper critics who have been singing the praises of this restaurant. Having read the professionals' reviews, I was so excited about going to this restaurant and I had high expectations but I'm afraid that I have come away thoroughly disappointed with both the restaurant and the critics. There were some glimmers of genius; the savoury take on a jammie dodger, the egg starter with flavour combinations I have not come across before and the blueberry tart with melt in your mouth buttery pastry. However, other dishes, to my mind, either simply did not work or were over or under seasoned. Taking a bite of turbot and coming up against a mouthful of crunchy sea salt was not pleasant and, personally, having a grouse claw complete with fur and claws on the plate for decoration is wrong and at the very least unnecessary. Oh, and a few pointers for service: if you really do want customer feedback, when you ask for it and a customer gives it to you in a very polite and inoffensive manner, please do not come back to confront them (whilst the sous-chef loiters and glares at the customer in the background) with the other half of the grouse to demonstrate to them that their personal opinion and preferences are wrong; please never clear away one guest's plate whilst another guest is still eating; please do not clear away a customer's glass when it still has wine in it; and please fix your loos so that they flush.

These are all perhaps basic errors you would expect, and have some patience with, of an amateur starting out in the restaurant business but certainly not errors I would expect from a chef and a restaurant which are meant to be top of their game and which the critics are in love with.

This is a pretentious obscenely overpriced restaurant and its offering is the worst combination of minimal ingredients cooked without real purpose. No warning is given when booking that this is a set menu restaurant (a very restricted set menu ) – the minimum price being £50 per head. Only slim people can eat here because the tables are so close together it would be very uncomfortable for anyone larger to get into their seats, wiggling in between tables. Customers are offered their 4 course meal from 2 fixed starters, a choice from 2 main courses and finally a dessert from 3 desserts (1 of which ran out) . The audacity when we explained that 1 guest could not eat dessert was that they could choose from 3 further starters which are listed but these are more ecpensive and therefore a supplement would be added. A complimentary appetiser was served – insufficently cooked fish – 1 bite – sent back and never replaced. My first compulsory starter was mackerel – or rather a sliver of mackerel. My main couse was 2 noisettes of lamb (1 noisette and 1 grissle) and a quarter onion. I could have added insult to injury by choosing the 5 or 6 course option (£10 per course extra) and opened up 3 exta starters (slivers!) to choose from. We might have thought we were at a health farm for losing weight. The wine – nothing under £35 and even then only 2 under £40 and when we asked advice we were told “well it's up to you”!!! My friends replacement dessert having run out of te raspberry tart on the menu – 1 fig cut into slithers!!
Neither our friends nor us have come across such a rip off in many many years – this is the emperor's new clothes big time – the only good thing to say about this restaurant was the bread (thank goodness cos there wasn't much else to eat!)
Oh and this lovely pleasure was only a mere £268.82 for 4 for the least expensive menu ( and that icludes having had the supplement given complimentary) – 1 bottle of wine and 1 bottle of water…what a bargain…not!