The Forge

I've been to the Forge several times over the last year, and it is currently my favourite West End restaurant. The ambience is excellent, with its tastefully decorated space divided into comfortable areas, white tablecloths and assured and consistent service. It encourages you to relax and enjoy the food, which has always been interestingly prepared, and proven all-round good nosh. Compared with other restaurants in this space: at Andrew Edmunds, the food is as good, but the venue pokey in comparison; and at Quo Vadis, the venue is good, but the food frankly not as good, and for more money.

Having experienced enjoyable meals in both its sibling restaurants, we thought it time to try the Forge for a relaxing Sunday lunchtime. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that this is the poor relation of the family by a country mile……

It started well enough. The restaurant itself is very pleasant, with a bright and welcoming interior, even on such a grey and dismal day. The décor more than lives up to how it is represented in the photographs on the website. However, the layout is not exactly conducive to providing excellent levels of service. It comprises a series of interconnected rooms, which meet centrally at a small lobby/reception area. As such there is nowhere really for waiting staff to loiter unobtrusively, making it difficult for the diners to see, let alone beckon a member of staff, or indeed for staff to monitor the progress at each table. This may explain why we were offered bread immediately on sitting down, but our order for aperitifs, was not taken for some 10 minutes or so later.

To the food……disappointment upon disappointment. Each dish was nigh on poorly presented, tepid and pretty tasteless; the only exceptions to this general rule being the tempura prawns and the main course lamb. For once we were grateful of the minute portions as very little left you with the feeling of wanting more, although we would suggest that the “T-bone halibut” is rewritten on the menu using a lower case “t” to avoid any misrepresentation issues in future. Particular note needs to be made of the side dishes. As each of the mains comes with very little in the way of accompaniments, you are forced to order additional dishes each at the princely sum of £3-3.50 each. We were somewhat under whelmed to receive the tiniest portions of each vegetable dish; cauliflower cheese comprised one large floret, of indeterminate colour that appeared to have been grazed in a cheese-like paste of quite an alarming colour (think Red Leicester!) Dauphinoise potato was just a lump of potato cake, tasteless, dry and very disappointing – if that was someone’s first experience of this most unctuous of dishes, they would never go anywhere near it again! My friend has asked me to make particular mention of her Apple Charlotte – we can only imagine that it was made with the very oldest of bread available such was the impossibility of breaking into it. We hate to suggest it, but our overall impression was that very little food is actually cooked fresh during the Sunday lunch session but simply reheated on order.

All in all a great shame as on paper and in photographs, it promised so much. If we were to return, it would be to big sister, le Deuxieme….

As others, we wondered if a couple of slightly adverse reviews were accurate — but as ever it depends on the day , who is serving, is it's the head chef''s day off, etc. Despite booking for a late dinner post-Royal Festival Hall concert (Transatlantic Sessions — brilliant — look up their tour and go!!) at 11 p.m. on a freezing Monday in January, we were pleasantly surprised. Just a few people in, but enough to avoid the last customers morgue feeling. A nice touch was that although numerous tables were empty they all had lit candles throughout our meal, which kept the place bright and cheerful. The service was spot on, the waitress was attentive without being obtrusive, and the young lad who did the wine knew enough — when the one I ordered was not available he was able to suggest equivalent alternatives (although I chose a different one!), and all were smiling and responded well to a brief chat. We had the £29.50 3-course menu (only possible when booked on-line) that allowed selection from most items on the main a-la-carte menu plus a free kir royale, which for a decent restaurant in this area is amazing value. The dishes were very well done (starters devilled lamb kidneys on baked sourdough/braised wild boar with quince, fennel & orange, mains breast of guinea fowl with tallegio and tarragon risotto/pan fried seabass fillets with roasted red peppers and basil mash, desserts pear crumble/a chocolate and orange concoction), well plated and nicely served. We did end up being the last to leave, but there were no signs at all of them wanting us out, although we were not over-enamoured by sweeping-up and general clearing up elsewhere in this pretty large restaurant. Overall a very pleasant experience and we would recommend it, especially as one of the few good restaurants around to take last orders at midnight.

Amazing Venue: decoration simple but nice and clean. Candles and flowers are a nice touch on the tables. At certain times it is very quiet so makes conversations hard to have.
Food was amazing cooked perfect and good portions, and good wine menu.
Service was great staff all friendly and helpful.
Toilets were also clean and tidy.

I was a bit dubious about this choice of restaurant for dinner on a Friday night having read some of the reviews. Fortunately, it was the perfect setting for catching up with friends – plenty of space between tables, time to linger and enjoy the delicious food.

We booked a 3 course set menu for £27.50 and were really impressed with the abundant choice of dishes and the prompt appearance of the Kir Royale included in the offer. I opted for the bresaola with crispy artichokes and a parmesan and rocket garnish to start, followed by a generous sea bass fillet on a bed of lobster risotto, and chocolate tart with pistachio icre-cream for dessert. The food was faultless and the service was excellent until the restaurant became busier and we were left waiting to pay (one of my pet gripes).

True the atmosphere is less buzzy than you'd expect, being in the heart of Covent Garden, but it's the perfect setting for a meal where conversation with your guests and unpretentious food are the most important elements.