Cheyne Walk Brasserie

This place used to be wonderful, now you are met by rude staff who hurry you along . The service however is awful. It took at least 45 minutes for our order to be taken. The crudite basket is lovely but our mai courses left a lot to be desired. The fish was limp and old and the meat chewy and tasteless. Mine was so bad I couldn't eat it and refused to be charged for it, even though they tried to keep it on the bill three times! Very overpriced and will not be going back.

21st May 2011. From other reviews we were expecting the staff to be a bit aloof. In reality on both our visits we found them helpful, friendly and reasonably attentive. We had the meat platter and found the steaks to be excellent both in quality and presentation. The atmosphere was both friendly and cosy rather than chic, but It is a Brasserie so expect a limited menu and an open grill in the dining area.

Regarding value: the vegetables are not included in your meal choice, which does add up at £4+ a time, also the water at a similar price is relatively expensive. The wine list is extensive and of good quality but does not include many in the lower £20 range or any of the New World varieties which we find tend to be better value than the lower priced French wines. Our bill for 4 came to around £250, some £50 of this was for wine and water and for this amount we know where can eat as well in similar or better surroundings for less. We suggest they source some good Chilean or South African wines to sell at £18 to £25 and see if they get more return customers. It is a converted Pub after all, so how much Chateau Lafite can they sell? However if the owners can fill the place then they have priced correctly, they should know their market.

Would we go again? yes. However we eat out 4 / 5 time a week and we like to vary our venues, baring in mind we could get similar for 10% less this would not be on a too regular basis.

We also eat at: Piccolinos ( off Regent St and Wimbledon village), Semplice in Woodstock St, Sonnys in Barnes, Rowleys in St James, Elena's L'Etoile in Charlotte St; Motcombs in Motcomb St; Singapore Garden NW6 4DY for Chinese. We like, The Goring, the Dorchester and Daylesford Organic for lunches and afternoon tea. But if i want the best food I stay at home, my wife is a great cook and used to own her own restaurant.

Hope this has been useful the intention is to improve not to criticise as we would like to go more often.

Visited for the first time in Chelsea Flower Show week for lunch. Three of us ate and we had the fixed price 3 course meal for £24 per head. With a bottle of Chateau de Pinet (my sister raves about this one and it's not easy to source) the bill came to £117.
I had scallops to start, a turkey dish for main, creme brulee for pud- all FAB. Sorry but I'm not one for eating out so excuse the adjectives!
Food excellent- I would definitely recommend this place to anyone.

Bad value for money. This place is full of surly staff, serving food that is no better than a home BBQ. I had limp ravioli with barely any lobster (probably crayfish anyway), followed by un-cuttable duck breast. The place was too noisy to bother complaining to the nonchalent staff. The cheapest reasonable wine was a bottle of St. Veran at £36.00. Starters were £17.00 and mains £22.00, but required side dishes at £4.00 each, bringing an average main course to £30.00. Add the £6.00 cover charge (just another annoyance) and 12.5% service charge, and you're paying River Cafe prices for a sunstantially inferior product. I came away feeling disappointed…

My first trip and possibly my last. We were asked to arrive promptly so at 7.45 so that the restaurant could have the table for a later booking. We spent most of the evening chasing our order, the service being inattentive and not particularly charming. When the food did finally arrive it was ok although not hot enough. The wine list was very limited and the quality of both wines chosen by the glass very ordinary. There was nothing ordinary about the bill which was far from value for money given the quality of the food and service. Not sure what everyone has been going on at about here.
Alex S

It is such a shame that the lack of warmth from the front of house and their accompanying pomposity always spoil the experience here. We have eaten here amongst all the eurotrash, gaudily overdressed types a handful of times and just feel this restaurant has an overblown opinion of it's worth…on more than one occasion we have arrived without a booking and were made to feel as though they were doing us a huge favour by allowing us to eat there – boring! The restaurant hadn't even half filled up before we had left on each occasion.
It is a shame as the serving staff are nice, it serves lovely food and is nicely decorated, but it has all the charm and welcome of queueing to get into a West End nightclub.

Both my husband and I have been going to CWB for years and have celebrated birthdays and other family events here. We adore the location and the decor is lovely, however the ambience is really low key and relaxing which is what you want after a busy week! Having become parents for the first time, we have discovered to our delight, that it is a wonderful place to have lunch on a Sunday with a well behaved toddler too (yes we are always conscious that we don't want to offend the majority of diners that are not accompanied by children)! The majority of “child friendly” restaurants that we tried in the the first few months of having our son left us very disaappointed and hungery – granted they have have baby changing facilites that CWB does lack, but I would not mark the restaurant down on this. CWB may not be a cheap place to have lunch, but the food is always consistently good (it certainly isn't fine dining, but the food has a real rustic charm) with a very impressive list of excellent French wines, and after a busy week as a full time working mum, I always look forward to the few hours we spend at CWB on a Sunday.

Cheyne Walk Brasserie was my favorite restaurant in London (and probably Europe) until today. One quarter into 2009 I would have thought that the credit crunch would mean that service and experience translate into a more positive experience. My spouse and I have dined at the restaurant bi-weekly for the last two years. I arranged for a group of eight people to dine for lunch today. Not sure I need to go in that restaurant again. Ever. The service was terrible. The food only okay. There were dreadful children everywhere. A family of 20 with zillions of awful children and making no effort to control them were in the next room. And I had sold the restaurant as my absolute favorite. I am embarrased that the wait staff obviously knew me when I entered. The best thing that the restaurant could do would be to ban children completely. Really I am horrified. I will be spending my money once every two weeks somewhere else.

When the waitress answered me that no, “we don't serve walkie-talkies”, I knew two things; one, my gin & tonic wouldn't arrive and two, the service personnel might be a bit unexperienced.

Apart from numerous, quite funny, experiences like that, I really liked the place. It's quite far away from everything, but I would say that the cosy decor, decent food and generally nice atmosphere make it worth a visit. The service wasn't slow but had clear issues with remembering who ordered what and when to bring the different items, but still friendly and not unaware of their mistakes at least.