Kensington Place

What a nice place to be seen and watch kensington church street.

With this attentive and friendly service, we felt more than welcome. All staff looked after us so well.

What to say about the food?: Georgeous!!! and what strange so cheap???

We definitly come back, and recommend it!

Chaotic,rude service – waiting over an hour for our main course,inedible,unchewable steak,couldnt get a drink to save our lives until the Maitre D intervened and very mediocre food.
To top it off our waiter made sure he counted out our money at the table(we had placed the exact amount there as the service was so bad)in a very obvious way as to make the point that we hadnt left a tip !

Really disappointing in every way – at the end of the evening we felt like we had been robbed ! Not really the feeling you want after a night out.

The Maitre D to give him credit tried very hard to apologize but unfortunatley by then the damage had been done.
I wouldnt go back there if you paid me.

As a restaurant Kensington Place is good. I couldn't fault the food, small portions but small in the way that you can get through all three courses.

But, as a D and D / Conran restaurant is is a let down. Don't confuse Kensington Place with Bibendum, the Orerry or Pont de la Tour. This is a local neighborhood restaurant in comparison. Fortunately the bill didn't make this mistake. Three courses for two, a couple of glasses of wine, some other drinks and it all came to less than you would pay for one person at the places I just mentioned.

Service was decidedly mixed. Our waiter (order taker) was good but the other staff didn't keep to the same standard (e.g. bread waiter served bread, but didn't return later to offer more, my wife called him, he was happy to give her a piece but then disappeared without offering me any!)

Food arrived promptly, actually, too promptly, an hour after walking in I was half way through the cheese. Felt like they were in a hurry – people were starting to wait. But then they no sign of the bill, and when we did get it we had to wait over 20 minutes.

As I said, good restaurant but don't compare it to other D&D restaurants, it just doesn't have the sophistication. Leave me wondering about the rest of the chain – or at least the ones I've not been to.

I was so shocked to find on my “Wild wood pigeon” starter the foot of the bird on my plate that I almost got sick on my seat !
As a main I ordered a poached Sea bream and missed that the dish was including an oxtail !!!
No need to say this has disgusted me even more.
My friends had Pot roasted chicken and the Balsamic glazed pork belly and they were extremely plain in flavour.
I missed the Amaretto in the vanilla Bavarois poached pear, honeycomb and Amaretto syrup and the selection cheese was very average.
Fortunately we had a lot of good wine and the service was very good even if you could tell the staff was stressed as they were not enough of them.
We end up to pay £250 for 5 and I was ashamed to have dragged my French friends in a restaurant where they think modern cuisine is to mix oxtail and poached white fish !!!

I have been a regular diner at Kensington Place since it opened, but have noticed over the last few times the beginning of the rot that blights restaurants that either feel they don't have to make an effort anymore or start employing staff that definitely give that impression. My visit last Friday showed off the above two traits admirably and explains why that visit will be my last. My wife, twelve year son and I arrived at the restaurant at 9 pm. The welcome was a little strained and for some reason we watched as our original table was hastily changed to one near the bar and wedged under an over hang. We then waited …and waited. I noticed the table next to us were also looking annoyed. Trying to catch a waiters eye was impossible so I stood up to get the managers' attention. He seemed genuinely concerned that I was standing up, but completely ambivalent to the fact that we hadn't been given any menus , bread , butter …recognition! We were then offered drinks which duly arrived and our waiter who seemed genuinely surprised we had interrupted his evening came over with a half empty basket of stale bread. KP used to be well known for its home baked breads and was something that you would never think would be allowed to decline. The waiter was more than happy to say that this was the only bread we were going to be offered. . My elder son then arrived, but with no one meeting or greeting at this stage I had to get the barman out of the cellar to take his coat and bag.
The menu has evolved into a single sheet and now shows signs that it is being written by a chef who has no experience of front of house, no interest or knowledge in his clientele and devised with his own ego at the fore front. Struggling to find something on the menu that actually sounded appealing I resorted to the sirloin steak. When I ordered this from our nonchalant waiter, (no pad, no interest, no charm) I was told that it was served medium rare. Fair enough , but I asked mine to be cooked a little more and served medium. There then followed the most unforgivable, arrogant and depressing reply. The steak…my steak I was informed, could only be served medium rare. The waiter without noticing my disbelief then tried to give me some story that the chef only wants it to heat the meat to 55 degrees. As this conversation was now heading towards farce I asked to see the manager. He also said that the chef would only serve the steak medium rare , but then lost the plot completely by saying that it could also be served well done. My protestations that I was the customer went unheeded, my idea that the chef could perhaps just pull the steak off the heat earlier on the way to cooking it well done did not receive any consideration..only the blank passionless argument that the chef only wanted to or was only capable of serving the steak those two ways. I was still in disbelief and shock when I looked at my two sons and realised that this sort of rudeness, arrogance, crassness and incompetence was not something I ever wanted them to think should ever be considered acceptable as customer service. We left straight away, not eating, hugely disappointed and fuming. I will never go back, the great thing about London is there is so many places that try hard and realise that customers aren't a never ending supply. That attitude was something that caterers fooled themselves into thinking was the case twenty years ago …we have all grown up a lot more since then and we have all witnessed the casualties of that misguided notion. I hope this review will put off enough people so the owner will realise that a re-think and review is essential and that remembering that putting the customer first again is only the start on what will then be a long road to recovery.

Went for a sunday lunch the other day. We arrive to a half empty restaurant and are placed next to the toilet, despite our booking. There were several tables available away from the toilet during the whole stay. The only thing that sort of saved this experience was that the food was tasty, had the pork belly. The service was very poor, no attention to customers and lack of basic knowledge that you require from a waiter.

I probably wont come back.

/P

It's a big disappointment if you remember KP from its heyday. Not that it's bad, just average. Tough competition from newcomer Kensington Wine Rooms, 50m down the road, who have a fabulous selection of wines by the glass and really deliver on value for money.

I recently rediscovered Kensington Place and having gone for lunch and loved every mouthful, I returned with my other half for his birthday dinner. The meal was sensational for the price, quality, everything – we couldn't fault it and as at lunchtime, we enjoyed informed, delightful service that was neither intrusive nor overbearing.

In the midst of a recession, restaurant's like Kensington Place have a thing or two to teach their greedy, poor quality rivals. It is a delight to find it still producing food of the quality that helped gain it's reputation so long ago and, what's more, under new ownership – well done and we will keep coming back!

Philippa

Fabulous food. Standard of spoken English and knowledge of the menu was really poor however and made it impossible to ask even basic question – ie what does the chicken come with? Very very frustrating that not one of them was fluent in either the language or the dishes on their menu. Perhaps this is what's accounting for the lack of patrons. Neverthless if you can bear with that, in the mains both the lamb and chicken are excellent and the cheese plate is generous (the chicken comes with red peppers, potatoes, turnips and carrots in case you need to know – I might as well tell you as the staff wont be able to!)

Had a private function for 100 guests at the Kensington Place Restaurant and I have to say it was marvellous. The staff were efficient and courteous and some were even witty. The assistance from the Sales & Marketing Manager was exceptional prior and during the event. The restaurant was also able to accommodate a strange request on the night for a raw fish (long story!).
Kensington Place offered us a fabulous evening that was appropriate to our budget and the food was amazing. Jerusalem artichoke salad, aged beef skirt steak and the ‘Crunchie’ – kept our guests more than happy. Although, a fight almost ensued on our table over who had the biggest piece of honeycomb on their ‘crunchie’. I will definitely be paying Kensington Place another visit.

Words cannot even describe how disappointing our dinner was at Kensington Place this week. Since the takeover by D&D it's gone from reliably good, to absolutely terrible. The food was beyond average- my cod was raw in the middle, the sauce surrounding it tasted like it was from a jar, the fish pie was no better than an M&S one, and the slowcooked beef was tough and chewy, not tender and melt in the mouth as promised. If you used to love Kensington Place, please don't go there now- you'll be left with a bad taste in your mouth.