Funky Asia

When I turned up to this restaurant it was full of promise. Great décor, seemingly good atmosphere and tasty cocktails while we waited.

From that point on the evening descended into the worst restaurant experience I've ever had.

I will be fair – what I had of the food was alright. Fishcakes were fine nothing special and no better than I've had at any other thai restaurant, but not bad.

Unfortunately, neither I nor the rest of my party saw our main courses. Our starters arrived almost an hour after we were seated, and our main order wouldn't have ever been taken had we not asked. We were kept well supplied in alcohol, such that it was when we were getting increasingly hungry when we realised our mains had not turned up 3 hours after being seated! We were given no indication when or if they would ever turn up – we then realised other customers found themselves in the same predicament.

When we decided to cancel our order and leave, they had the gall to charge us for the mains we never saw. Suffice it to say after some unnecessary and distressful negotiation we only paid for what we'd seen and consumed!

If a situation had arisen in the kitchen, it ought to have been mentioned to us at the start of the evening, unfortunately the staff seemed out of their depth, poorly organised and, quite frankly, badly managed.

If you find yourself hungry and in the area, I suggest you go to Nando's across the street!

My ratings are based on what food I did have. Service, atmosphere and value for money cover the whole evening/farce.

Went there as a knee-jerk reaction to seeing a new restaurant opened so close to the office and was looking forward to the food because of the chef's background, Roka is a big favourite of mine. The place was unfortunately empty but I assume that this is just because it is so new.
The menu covers several asian styles of food, but we decided against the sushi as we can get that in a number of places and were looking for something a little different. We therefore ordered a whole range of different dishes from ‘small bites’, toban and mains. The stand out dish or me was the salt & chilli squid, a very light cover on the squid really lifting it above the norm on this often presented dish. My colleagues both voted the Duck Breast Hanoi-style as their favourite, the savoury sauce bringing out the duck far better thaan any sweet, fruity sauce in my opinion. On the disappointing side were the two tobans we had, yes they were presented with good theatre of steam and smell, but the taste just wasn't really there and after the great squid earlier the seafood toban really disappointed.
Service was prompt, non-interfering and when questioned very knowledgeable about the dishes, and as one of our party had a Taste card we also enjoyed 50% off the food (I have to get one of these things!). I do think that we will go back again but probably be more selective in our dishes.