Langan's Brasserie

Met a friend for lunch on Saturday who was over from Canada- Lunch at 1.30

I had the roast duck which was cooked to prefection. My friend the monkfish which she also enjoyed – it was beautifully cooked and the flavours amazing.

Only problem I had asked for a bottle of sparkling water which never arrived. And I had forgotten about until after I had finished my main course.

Apart from that everything was as good as ever – there was no rushing us off the table to set up for early dinner – My friend has now gone back to Canada with only good comments to make about our lunch and Langans – definitely a restaurant she will visit when next in England

It is very hard to disagree with the previous 4 -5 reviews. I've been in and out of LB for years…yes the food quality has gone down hill massively … yes the service has somewhat deteriorated … yes they cant hope to cling on to the old reputation … yes the menu needs to be changed … yes the clientele has somewhat gone down hill… Would I go back ?.. well I always end up dining there during the course of the year … do I go out of my way to go there … no…but if someone else pays or has arranged it …I'm back to square !… Come on guys !! Something HAS to be done … Bring LANGANS back to where it should be !! if you leave it like it is …it will not only fall off my radar screen …but will end up closing own …which would be a great shame !

Never again, and no one is more upset than I. Having rated Langans as ‘the place to go’ – it was there for all our celebrations over 30 years – our last visit was simply awful. From arriving into the cold and atmosphereless dining room with lighting having all the ambience of a supermarket meat counter (when we asked for it to be turned down the waiter joked (?) that we should get sunglasses) to tasting our meals we realised that the dream, like the chips, was cold and over. The food arrived in a flash (hold on doesn't food need to be cooked?), the beef rib over cooked, as I have said the chips looked like yesterday's re served (I was assured that they always looked like that which was more of a worry), nowhere to put my bread roll except the table and so … where should I put the butter and do I really need to be worrying about things like this on an evening out … We finished off with creme broulle lollypop – served staight from the fridge for health and safety reasons. Words with the management made me realise that our relationship was well and truly over – shrugs and eye lifts say more than words. This was a treat for friends, we were left embarrassed as they were by this attitude to customers about to shell out 20% of the total for so called service and of course being in company you cannot complain too loudly – unlike the people on the table next to us. Langan's has become the restaurant that everyone drove from the suburbs to avoid. Shame.

It is all too easy to decry LB as having seen better days. Of course it has, but somehow that is not the point. People still pour in, not for the food (heaven help anyone who thinks that this is the epitomy of fine dining), but for the whole experience. Yes, the service is Wong Kei-esq and the food stuck in 1985, but the atmosphere still rocks and the dining room is somehow quaint and cool at the same time.

We started with the fabled spinach souffle with anchovy sauce. Why I don't know; maybe because it is so feted (or rather was, in days gone by). Souffle is supposed to be light, fluffy and airy, not solid. The anchovy sauce was very pleasant, but served merely to mask the blandness of the egg creation.

A main course of lambs kidneys was more like it, perked up with some serious english mustard. The wines are a good selection of reasonably priced bottles, with a fair few by the glass. The coffee is fine too, but the bill leaves you thinking how the hell did that happen? And why?

Would I go again? Of course. If somebody else was paying, I wasn't hungry and somebody more famous than the latest girl to take their top off on BB was there.

I walked out of the restaurant relieved that the worst culinary experience of my life was over but also incredibly angry that I had been robbed for the privilege of finding out how bad the London restaurant scene could get. I appreciate the place has a history and was somewhat interested to be a part of it but the menu was historic, the food moreso. The menu was boring and what turned up on the plate was not only boring but did not even taste fresh. The most disappointing meal I have had in London. I will never be going back even if others are paying.

Its a while since I visited Langans but last week went for lunch with a couple of my friends. The service, food and drink as always were very good however, it appears it is now acceptable to have what can only be classed as upper class prostitutes parading up and down and letching at tables full of men, in several cases they sat themselves down, invited or not and made a spectacle of themselves. There were several tables with couples and some with ladies who were also out to lunch with close friends, we could not get over how this was permitted and how cheap it made this wonderful restaurant look. We did complain however were told that nothing could be done as it was time of year, what a shame as if time of year denotes that to be acceptable whilst people are dining then my business and that of my friends will be taken elsewhere in future!

Langan's, Stratton Street is still one of London's very best rooms

Sadly, everything else now lets this grand old lady down. It appears that there is no longer a guiding spark applying quality control and attention to details.

The menu still rests in the glory days of the sixties when it's name was made .. It's not a bad menu, it just needs updating a bit to keep as fresh as evergreens like The Wolseley and The Ivy.

The food quality is out of the fifties, different components being way overcooked or undercooked on an apparently random basis. The most consistent feature being soggy overcooked vegetables and flaccid, poor quality chip shop chips.

The service is patchy, uncaring and impersonal

The pricing remains at high 2007 levels

All in all a real tragedy; I've been going to Langan's since the early eighties .. This visit in March 2009 will be the last until someone who cares, takes over the active management of the restaurant