The Don Restaurant

A very good lunch or dinner option in the heart of the city tucked away behind bank.

I had not been to the Don for a couple of years (used to be a regular) had recently returned to the City to work. I took a client on Friday and was, frankly, embarrassed. I had a mackerel starter which came in a in a bizarre watery liquid with wet lifeless vegetables an acerbic olive tapenade on top. Could not eat.
Then I had a salmon main course – no form of vegetable or greens – assumed there would be some as there appear to be no options for extras. The salmon was over-cooked, tasteless and came on some sort of tapioca like substance with a white sauce which filled up a bowl to the brim …. It looked like an apple crumble. Again I could not eat! My client had a couple of dishes which I cannot recall but he but had a similar overall impression. I was so embarrassed.
I have never had occasion to tell a waiter at a business lunch that the food was awful in front of a client but I did. The reply was “I will tell the chef”. – Naturally we skipped dessert!
Shocking

Vistied The Don last month for a business lunch. The service was good but slightly over bearing. The menu was very interesting but the end result had mixed results. All of the food was presented well but some times did not live up to the promise of the menu.

For examble:-Tian of Hand Picked Crab and Avocado on a Chilled Crab Bisque Sauce -sounds great but tasted of tinned crab with a marie rose sauce!

Roast Loin and Braised Belly of Black Bigorre Pig with Choucroute-Very nice but not memorable, a waste of great ingredients.

Yorkshire Rhubarb Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream- A huge helping of crumble, sadly no better than my 14yr old can put together.

There are better places to visit in the area at this price.

Lunch today, Salmon en-croute, the en-croute was soft and uninspiring, the salmon was tasteless, the apple dessert appeared to have been made long before it was served. My lunch partners steak looked as though it had been sitting undrr a hot-plate for a little while, it looked dry and brown outside. The service comprises several youths who were clearly jolly good friends and enjoyed eyeing up the female customers.
Disappointing, the decor is lopsided with metal spirals and large expanses of white walls, strange…
I shall look at other venues in future.

I have been coming to The Don a couple of times a month ( restaurant and bistro) for the last few years. It never fails to impress… A brilliant place to take clients- I know that we will always be well looked after, which is a must when entertaining. The service is always discreet and the food is always faultless. A truly brilliant restaurant that deserves huge recognition for maintaining a brilliant standard through the years!

I am a busy person but feel I should congratulate the team at the Don for continuing to deliver excellent food(I love the scallops en croute and tournedos rossini)in such a professional yet friendly manner.The service is consistently good and this is one of the few CITY restaurants I visit where I know I can be sure my clients and I finish on time if we have any time constraints.The staff are responsive and very efficient yet the quality and value is maintained.The table spacing is excellent so I have no concerns when discussing business.I love the building and recently was invited to a dinner in the private room(a vaulted old port cellar in the basement) which was so atmospheric and special.I congratulate the team there and am impressed that over the years the high standards and,in my view excellent value for money with good portion size, continue.The Don deserves recognition ..its more glitzy rivals may come and go ..yet it continues to present an excellent choice for lunch or dinner when food service and ambience really count.We may try the new openings around but we always come back and continue to be very impressed!

I was amazed upon visiting this place after hearing for so long about its reputation. Stuck down a frankly dangerous flight of stairs in a dingy underground cavern with no natural light we paid what seemed like a lot of money for a very average meal indeed. Being a French restaurant one might imagine that they would be able to cook steak well; embarrassingly in front of my business associate guests, this turned out not to be the case. I won't be paying a return visit nor recommending it.

There must be something wrong with me. Two years ago I posted probably the only poor review for The Bleeding Heart in the past decade, and now I'm going to something similar to The Don.

Maybe it's the expectation, but my visit left me feeling like an ever so slightly average shag. You've tried to like it and you've performed some moves, but you just can't help feeling underwhelmed.

For a start the interior was all cooky, rather than the big booming City hall I'd hoped for. Tables were too near each other. Then my table had a pronounced list, so that each time I moved my arm, it jiggled my glass. Maybe I'm sounding like a junior grade civil cervant here, but at a restaurant where praise has been so lavish it's the small things which count. Then the sound of the flash frying twice made conversation all but difficult, resulting in a slightly embarrassed pause. Again, not a major problem, but they all start to add up.

The food, admittedly, was excellent – rabbit with wild mushrooms, bacon and lentils, however, the service was next to useless – constantly over-bearing and at one point, with the client conversation at a delicate junction whereby they could leave at any point, the bloody stupid waitresses asked us all three times whether we wanted any more water.

Sorry – not impressed. There are many other places for similar prices where the food is as good, but the overall experience far superior. But then again, maybe it's just me…

Possibly my favorite place in London; I have been coming here for years.
The service is faultless – ensure on booking however you distingusih between the bistro, the main restaraunt and the more intimate restaraunt and where you would like to be seated.
The menu is really imaginative – without being overly fussy. Flavours are not drowned and too complex – but all the same some superb dishes. The chef used to be at the Bleeding Hart, Hatton garden – and moving here has really established it as a great place to dine.
The wine list – as part of the Bleeding Hart sisterhood – is fantastic. And you can be assured of a sip of a few before you make a tough choice. On the other hand – if you just want a glass of house, it's going to great wine, which has been breathing, is at the right temperature, rather than thinly disguised paint thinner as is so othen the case.
Finally the Maitre De – A great man. A perfect choice, knows his wine impeccably, he and the chef work perfectly, and the place runs like clockwork as a result.
In a word – go.