Great Eastern Dining Room

I ate there three nights ago. Food was good, but the manager – a woman, I did not take her name – distinctly lacked charm and diplomacy.

We sat down at 7.30 and were told we would have to give the table back at 9pm. We wholly understood.

At ten to nine, my friend and I were finishing off our cocktails. We were clearly almost through. But then the manager came by our table and said, with all the charm of a brick wall, ‘Do you want dessert? Because we need the table back at 9.’

We told her no, we didn't want dessert because we knew we had to give the table back shortly. She said nothing and left, only to return 4 minutes later with the bill, announcing, ‘here you go ladies, sorry but we need the table back.’ Again, no charm, no people skills, little sincerity.

Nonplussed, we made it off the table at exactly 9pm and went downstairs to the bar. When we emerged half an hour later, our table hadn't yet been given to anyone. All that unpleasantness for nothing.

My point in all this: as a manager, do not be aggressive to someone who did not provoke you. Learn the art of good management. It isn't rocket science and there are enough restaurants in London that pull it off.

I can forgive mistakes where food and service are concerned if the team serving me can charm their way out of it and apologise, but I can't accept – and won't pay for – rudeness.

What a top little spot. Suggested by my son we had a super meal in this buzzy establishment. It was full on a Tuesday night but a decent sized bar coped with the overflow. Crowd was largely 30ish and professional and the atmosphere up beat as a result. Pan Asian food was excellent and reasonably priced, service attentive without being OTT. New Head Chef apparently who is certainly doing the business. Apparently a DJ fires up downstairs on the weekends, pretty much your one stop shop.

Go soon.

We stopped in expecting a quiet beer and a meal last wednesday however we found the bar to be bustling and full of life with a great atmosphere.

We hadn't booked a table but the staff were great and managed to squeeze us in. The whole menu looked great so we let our waitress take care of the food for us. She put together a fantastic selection of share dishes wasabi prawns, san choi bau and a fantastic little duck watermelon and cashew salad we then moved on to a fantastic black cod and sweet miso.

Finished off with a couple of single malts. Great night out im sure i will be back for more!

We went here for a couple of drinks last Friday and turned into something a little more special!

We started with a couple of cocktails, which were all made with fresh ingredients and expertise whilst we grazed from the bar dim sum menu. We then moved through to the dining room when a couple of friends joined us, where we feasted on delights such as the ‘Thai Beef Salad’ & ‘Beef Tobanyaki’, these were complemented perfectly by the bottle of well priced Bordeuax that was selected by the waitress.

Only downside was we had to leave the table after two hours as they needed it back to keep up with demand, nevertheless we moved downstairs to Below54 where they were spinning funky disco beats and serving more great cocktails until 1am, a one stop shop!

Having dined at Great Eastern at the weekend, we were impressed by the energetic atmosphere and friendly service. The bar offered a wide selection of cocktails served by a skilled barman that was very helpful when we were making our selections. The restaurant was quite busy, so it took a little while to be seated, however we were well looked after and the food was very impressive. We especially enjoyed the wasabi prawns and the steamed Seabass, and the berries with white chocolate sauce were a perfect finish. We will definitely be back!

I love the energy here – we dined early on intending to bar hop around Shoreditch to see what is going on but after an excellent meal with a tasty bottle of german riesling, couple of cocktails & some sake to start our waiter secured a table in the bar & that was us for the evening, two friends came to meet us & we meandered through the (very good actually!) cocktail list. I'm admittedly fussy about service & the standard of both food & drink so must must tip my cap to all at the Great Eastern Dining Room for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Toilets were a bit untidy & we did wait a little longer than i would have liked for our main courses, however the staff were always charming & it did seem to be very busy – on balance i would recommend & return.

The crab was excellent; the maître d' was not.

We went for a bottle wine in the bar after and I ordered a bottle of wine and was charged incorrectly. When I told the server the bar manager came along and told me I was ‘fucking lucky’ to be getting such nice wine at that cheap price. The server threw my voided receipt at me when I asked for confirmation of the cancelled transaction. Total morons.

What do sloppy service, oily uninspiring food and poor decor all have in common – they all reside here at the Great Eastern Dining Room. Last Saturday my partner and I ventured east for a night out and were in need of an early evening bite to eat, so tried GEDR for some light dim sum. We arrived to an empty restaurant which was fine as it was only 6pm, but to my amazement instead of being seated towards the front so that we could enjoy the light and warm evening, we were given a corner table right at the back. Immediately this struck me as rather odd as any decent restaurant would have given us the choice, seeing as it was both empty and early.

Onwards though sadly not upwards, this restaurant managed to provide me with plenty to complain about – staff too busy gossiping to pay attention, my very simple vietnamese lemonade which I ordered to begin with, arriving after one of the dim sum dishes because they had to go out and get ginger (sorry is this not a restaurant serving asian food, with ginger therefore being essential!) and seriously oily and tasteless tempura followed by seriously oily pumpkin gyoza (I don't believe they have heard of draining here). What's more, by the time we were through we still had to consciously flag a waiter down to pay the bill despite there being only three other tables filled since!

The only highlight of the night were the maki rolls, which to be honest I could have got from my local Pret for half the price and disappointment. One to miss for sure, unless your tastebuds have gone on holiday or you like throwing your money down the drain.