Le Chardon

I've eaten at this restaurant over about 10 years. In recent years standards have dramatically fallen. Unfortunatey although aware of this, I booked a table for 4 for their New Year's Even dinner. It was a disgrace. At £55 + service charge per head + drinks one one have expected that staff at Le Chardon would have tried to make the New Year's Eve dining/event enjoyable. When we arrived at 9.00pm the signs were not good: no candles, no special decorations, no flowers and resentful staff were even reluctant to take diners' coats. Service was very slow. At around 11.30pm poor service and an unfriendly mood deteriorated even further. Desert was an indifferent cheese cake and then kitchen rubbish was taken out through the restaurant; the kitchen door was opened to ensure that there was a cold draught; resentful staff moaned together in the backroom; and many diners were not served their final course. There was no competent managerial presence. Worse of all diners were subjected to very loud, horrible, and utterly inappropriate techno-music blasting from some obscure radio station. Requests to change the music were treated with disdain – clearly the plan to clear the restaurant before the New Year was working. Before midnight most diners had left.

A cold, hostie, unfriendly experience – in short a rip-off.

The service from one person was pretty poor, she kept knocking into my chair without saying “sorry”, reaching over my shoulders to pour wine, and dropped water over my my napkin which was neatly folded in front me. She kept slapping down the glasses as though she couldn't be bothered, had to ask for side plates for bread (which in turn was cold and hard).

The food wasn't that great for the price, the ostrich was tasteless although the fishcakes were nice, the crepes were like they had been made previously and stacked between greaseproof paper so they could be slapped in a plate for the orange sauce to be poured with a ladle and microwaved for warmth (we refused to pay for that one!!), and lastly, we refused to pay the service charge due to poor service, (the total was something like £57.80), they got the hump and gave us the change back in 10p's – in this case we thought this was quite childish £2.80 in 10p's…, We won't be going back there – i think this restaurant has put the French to shame…

I first eat at Le Chardon in 2000 when I moved to East Dulwich and it was excellent. Fish Soup, Pheasant and crème brûlée; all very French and done really well. Repeat visits were always enjoyable, until now.

Either the restaurant has changed hands or the owners have lost interest because it feels different for all the wrong reasons. The whole experience seems cheap and tacky now. From the square plates (eurchh!), to the individual white bread roles and arrogant waiters. The fish soup is no longer rich and luxurious and is now a thin and bland broth. The pigeon breast, whilst nicely cooked was cold. My wife's ostrich steak was ordered ‘medium’ and arrived rare. When I mentioned this to the waiter he arrogantly suggested that we shouldn't order Ostritch medium anyway and it should be done rare (so why did he ask us how we wanted it cooked then?!). The desserts which were stated as home-made on the menu are simply home-made-grade and bought in. My toffee pudding was like a something we had at school and my wife's chocolate mousse was more sauce than mousse.

When the bill came, they hadn't charged us for our mains, and the bill still came to £65 with service added by the house. Not a cheap restaurant but one that seems to be plagued by cheapness.