Bar Shu

Very expensive and the portion is very small, the vegetable of typical water beef are all Chinese leaf that should be mixed of vegatables.Even the boxes to be charged by 50p each for the left over food, no complimentary fruits after the meal and only an overpriced bill at the end. Do not go there and you will be disappointed.

coldish chinese food and particularly cold rice says that the food is not prepared properly: waiting staff are somewhat o-t-l.
all shop front rather than real food… nice enviroment sadly without food relevance…

it was like going to a performance of the red lantern without drinks , food and a plot. …kinda like a set after all the actors have left for the holidays! or to get some food,,,,,,,,,

The first place I have eaten that actually serves real Szechuan food!
if you like authentic Chinese food, try here, if you prefer the ‘sweet and sour’ Cantonese type place you find in any high street, go elsewhere

Service was not great, but the food made up for it!

I wish I had read some of these reviews before visiting Bar Shu.

We went on a Friday evening – table was booked for 1930
(with strict instruction we had to be out of the door by 2100) – probably to accommodate for the theatre crowd.

As some of the previous posters mentioned the service is not so hot.
Upon arriving we waited in a dark corner for 30 minutes before the menu was given to us. No amount of frantic waving could stop the waiters in their set routine.

Our order comprised of two starters (one beef in “one chilli” rated sauce – now known as magma)
and one chicken wrap stuffed with vegetables (actually quite nice).

Two mains – king prawns with cashew nuts, and “fragrant beef”
Again the prawns were pretty good. Note that what you think is a water chestnut is actually a lump of garlic.

However the fragrant beef dish seemed to have been cooked in the same generic “magma” sauce we experienced for startes (and for a few hours).

Two drinks – one small bottle of beer and a non alcoholic green tea cocktail.

Total price = £75 …

i would have questioned the bill except

• it was (as someone else just noted) – just a lot of squiggles with increasingly large numbers on the paper
• we were getting so close to our 9pm time limit the waiters were finally hovering around!
  

In short.

• The food can be hot and tasty, if you are prepared to wait.
• Be sure that service is NOT included as they still give you the card swipe with “add tip?” – I fell for that one.
• Note that their menu on the webpage doesnt seem to have prices.
• There is a “scoops” icecream restaurant nearby if you find the pain lingering.
  

There are so many other choices in and around the area. I won't be going back.

We went for early dinner last night, chinese new years day. Early sitting at 6pm to avoid the rush. We were a little hesitant after some reviews on here, and in general we experienced the same thing – poor service, nice food (not spicy enough though) and expensive bill which cannot be checked.

One thing that really annoyed us (and is ridiculously easy to solve) is that after ordering an overly expensive flower tea for 2 people, they refused to refill the pot with hot water – this is standard in ALL Chinese restaurants. We weren't prepared to pay another £7 for a second small cup. Ad this was at the start of the meal which just left a bitter feeling for the rest of the meal.

We ordered mapu tofu, spicy aubergine, shredded pork and lamb cutlets. All very tasty and well cooked, but not very spicy. So 4dishes, 2 tsingdao beers, and tea for two came to £82. Expensive for what it was.

And yes, we were ‘processed’ out the door (bill brought without asking) within 40 minutes of arriving, despite the restaurant not being full. Overall might give it another try at some point, but not in any rush – I would suggest people try the Hunan cuisine at Golden Day nearby if you want better value & service (and real hot spice!)

On saturday night, we went to Bar Shu for dinner for the second time. The first time, my husband and I really loved the food, so on Saturday we took our parents and sister along for a meal. It was, quite simply, awful.

We were put in the private dining room area (that's fine, but it was like a tomb, no atmosphere at all) which is sealed off from the rest of the restaurant so you can't flag down a passing waiter.

Service was so-so. We asked for tap water (that didn't go down well) and were given two small glasses. We couldn't flag down the waitress for top-ups so we asked her to leave the jug of water and she declined. My mum had the chinese tea, which she usually loves but she couldn't drink what she was given as it was very bitter, not at all what you would expect.

The food was the absolute opposite of what we loved so much the last time. It was spicy, sure, but that wasn't the issue. There was some odd, almost aniseed-like taste permeating everything. We had some of the same dishes previously and they didn't have that taste, so I was completely bemused. It was just awful. The spare ribs were cold (we asked about this but the waitress said that that was how they were supposed to be – yeah right!), the main dishes were permeated with that horrible aniseed flavour and the whole experience just left us feeling sick and flat.

I really think that Bar Shu needs to up its game. Service, food, atmosphere, everything needs a kick up the bum. Currently not value for money.

TL;DR: Average food, Good service, Ridiculous prices.

We tried a number of dishes – ma po tofu, gong bao chicken, twice cooked pork, ants climbing a tree noodles, dry fried green beans, dandan noodles. The dishes were executed at a level one would expect from a competent cook but neither spectacular nor exceptional, and nothing you could not make at home. I was disappointed by the lack of chilli heat and sichuan peppercorn zing. I am pretty sure that was turned down to make it more palatable to “everyman”. The service was good however.

Our bill came to £25 per head which is not acceptable for this level of cookery. Furthermore there was no itemised bill. It looked approximately OK so we didn't make a fuss, but it did rankle. I suspect they are trying to feel more upscale by implying you paid for some kind of service-package-dining-experience.

I would not return here for the eating experience but it would be OK socially, to take rich people to, to experience chinese food that isn't Lemon Chicken and Dim Sum. The atmosphere and service is good so it feels like an upscale restaurant. Just make sure that you aren't paying as the cooking isn't upscale. Also, bring a bottle of chili oil and a duster of sichuan peppercorns.

Finally, there was also a sticker on the restaurant window saying “Michelin guide 2010 recommended”. I thought this was slightly misleading and it did annoy me. The restaurant has no food award in the 2010 GB and NI guide. It has 1 “couvert” for comfort/atmosphere.

Insipid and outrageously expensive.

When it opened (the first time) this was a great restaurant, it was expensive, but worth every penny.
Today Bar Shu (and it's sister restaurant across the street) are just shades of what they pretend to be.

Even the spiciest dishes are medium in heat and do-not do justice to Sichuan cuisine.
The numbing heat, caused by the unique peppercorns, is absent and the rich oily heat of the broths and oils are now absent. Even if you beg, the food will be toned-down to cater for what the restaurant perceives is English ‘taste’; odd as each dish is prepared individually.

Go if you are on an expense account, but if you know Sichuan cuisine, be prepared to be, onbce again, disappointed.

Check you bill.

Went with a friend after hearing this was a good restaurant. The food was tasty, although pretty salty and quite a bit overpriced. The place feels nice and quite fancy, but the service isn't nice or fancy. Both courses were taken away while I was still chewing.

When the bill came we were overcharged by £16. This was hard to establish as there is no proper breakdown in Bar Shu, just a set of numbers scribbled down on pieces of paper and stapled together. For a restaurant whose staff wear microphone headsets this low-fi approach to billing seems a bit out of place.

After questioning the charge, another piece of paper was brought for £10 less, but we received no explanation. The waiter simply brought it and walked off. After a very difficult conversation trying to establish why there was still £6 too much, we managed to extract from him that it surprisingly included a service charge! Getting the figure without the service charge meant another long wait, after which the waiter became impatient and rude: the card reader was snatched out of my hand after I'd entered the pin, and he wandered off with the reader and my card in it, while we waited. My card and final receipt were handed over to another waiter to bring to me.

Nobody explained why we were overcharged and nobody apologised.

I have just got home from a VERY VERY disappointing visit to Bar Shu. I had made a number of previous visits and thought it was a good restaurant so this time decided it was the venue of a special outing. I have never been so rushed – if we hadn’t lingered we would have been in and out in 45 mins – I wouldn’t mind if I was grabbing a bite and paying Wong Kei prices, but this was meant to be a special occasion. All our dishes arrived at the same time 5 mins after ordering – and the bill arrived without asking – I feel as though we were pushed out the door. I know the Chinese restaurants are not renowned for their friendly service – but there should be some understanding that if you are charging high prices and marketing yourself as a top resto, then you do have some responsibility to offer a decent level of service and make the customer feel special and not a mug – as I know feel. I hope Bar Shu pulls up its socks and treats customers with respect – because the food was nice – until then I strongly suggest patrons take their business to the other Sichuan restaurants in London instead.

Far and away the best of the recent crop of Szechuan restaurants in London. Terrific food that has a subtlety some Szechuan joints can lack, but bear in mind that the ground-floor dining room you can see from the street is a much more attractive space than the rather gloomy upstairs dining room. Service was a little careless – the waitress sloshed water all over the table without noticing – and food arrived all in one go rather than as starters and mains, which always feels like a way to please the kitchen rather than the customer.