Gilgamesh

On Saturday 24th December 2011, myself and 3 other guests had a reservation in the main restaurant of Gilgamesh.

I was extremely disappointed from start to finish, our experience was appalling. The service you provided was unsatisfactory-to say the least.

Our night was as follows;

We had a reservation for 8.30pm for 4 people. We arrived and your Maître d’ took our coats and advised that as the restaurant wasn't that busy, would we like to have a drink at the bar, we accepted. We ordered 2 cocktails, a glass of wine and a bottle of beer. At 8.50pm your Maître d’ advised us the table was ready, we asked if we could wait until 9pm as our drinks hadn't arrived yet.

We were seated at the table at 9pm right at the back of the restaurant in the corner (where we had to bring our own drinks to the table). We placed our order and we were at this point offered more drinks, we got a bottle of wine. Both servings of edamame arrived, I unfortunately had to send it back as it was over cooked and soggy, we were given a replacement this wasn't any better. I didn't bother to send it back but I did make a point to mention it to our waiter that it was still over cooked. We ordered various sushi rolls which were not up to the usual standard, 2 servings of crispy chili squid, and some other bits. When the squid arrived it was luke warm and like the edamame very soggy, not ‘crispy’ as stated on the menu. I did not complain at this point. I would have loved another drink before 11pm but our waiter failed to notice that 3 out of the 4 glasses were empty for most of the meal and not once were the wine drinkers glasses topped up, we did this ourselves. One would have thought staff are trained to continuously offer drinks whilst guests are still eating and after guest have finished, as the drinks are rather expensive and as we all know this often bumps up the bill!

By 11pm I was extremely disappointed by our experience on Christmas Eve. I bring a lot of my friends and clients to the restaurant/bar and have always had exceptional service and of course the food is always great. I asked for the Manager on duty as I believe it is in their interest to know if neither the service or the food standard are up to their usual standard. I believe the Manager I spoke to was Paul, I explained about our experience. He did apologise and said ‘I will sort this out for you’.

We ordered 1 dessert… What can go wrong with 3 spoons 1 dessert?! Dessert came quickly however, we had started to enjoy the dessert and had taken the biscuit out of the ice cream when another waiter came along with a second dessert, to advise us that he had given us the table behind's dessert in error, to my disgust he took this one away (without the biscuit in the ice cream) and put it already half eaten on the table behinds table!! (Very unhygienic and not what I would expect from a restaurant that is in a lot of the tourist books! )

11.30pm I asked for the bill to find that nothing had been deducted from the bill. I was not complaining for a discount, however I would have thought some sort of compensation would have been offered. Again I spoke to Paul, and said I was very surprised that nothing had been done. To my shock, his response was: “I investigated the Edamame and the Chefs confirmed they were cooked to perfection. I also out of good will didn't charge you for 1 bottle of water, as you were waiting some time for this. I also didn't include service charge on your bill”. I replied with, service charge is OPTIONAL so this was irrelevant as I wouldn't have paid for service as we were not satisfied anyway. To top off our evening, we went to get our coat, where we were greeted by a large que of people as someone's coat had gone missing. Our coat tag was not on the correct hanger therefore we had to find our coats ourselves-unacceptable!

I explained to Louisa on Wednesday 28th December over the phone that I would be writing a letter of complaint. When I asked for an email address I was told, ‘You will find it online’. I don't have time to search around for email addresses, or take time to write written complaints. Louisa should have been able to give me this!

It is a shame as I was a regular customer of Gilgamesh, and after my experiance I am now reluctant to return.

(After having not even an acknowledgement to my 2 emails I sent in – this seems to be the only other option!)

Such a great place to eat! It is a really good atmosphere and it has something for everyone!
I can see why all the stars go there!
Ive been a few times now and have enjoyed a vast array of different dishes that have all been superb. Really really great experience and I can't wait to go back!

Gilgamesh was a great night out! Dinner was excellent, lovely sushi and tempura dishes. The staff were really nice and suggested cocktails to try. I went with quite a large group so got to sample lots of dishes, everything I tried I thoroughly enjoyed.

Went here for a birthday lunch on a Saturday.
Decor and interior are superb.
However, the food is very overpriced. Even though we paid 50% off the set menu price of £55, I expect all they do is reduce the portion sizes, so you will definitely go home hungry. The food was good, there was just very little of it!

If I had spent the full £55 per head I would have definitely felt very ripped off. Even at £27.50 per head, I felt hard done by, but at least at that price there is an argument that you are paying a bit for the ambience.

We had the Xmas set menu which comprised:
Starter – 6 pieces of dim sum each
Main – a small piece of fish, a small bowl of rice, and half a bowl of parsnips (which were over done)
Dessert – half a pear.

Advice – eat before you go or pop downstairs to the market after the meal. I can only assume that Head Chef Ian Pengelley is a waif of a man!

We will not be going here again – rather spend the money at somewhere like the Orrery.

Expect this place to go bust once the novelty of the interior wears off.

Gilgamesh is a real feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. From the grotty, but charming surroundings of Camden Market; you ascend the stairs enter, what I can only describe as, an intricate hand-carved heaven. The interior is beautifully decorated, inspiration comes from the friezes held at The British Museum which instantly makes you feel like you are in a luxury restaurant. Another thing that completes this idea is the service. They are very attentive and very polite. The Bar tenders are very inventive making tasty cocktails that compliment the theme of the restaurant. The food, however, is a over priced and quite rich. I enjoyed the food, don't get me wrong it was delicious and imaginative, but I did leave feeling very stuffed although the portions weren't too big. I had the set menu which had a great selection of food, the best part of the dinner that stood out the most was the Prawn and crab spring rolls with nouc cham dressing and the pudding which was Milk Chocolate Fondant. Gorgeous! Being a sushi junkie I tried the sushi there which was very good, but I have had better elsewhere and had it cheaper.

For me the big reason to go to Gilgamesh is to be in the presence of the awe-inspiring interior and the great service. The food is great however the main course was overshadowed by the starters, pudding and scrumptious cocktails – Apple & Fig Martini is my favourite. In fact the food they serve at the bar is better than the restaurant, they served Crispy Squid, Duck Spring Roll and Scallop Sui Mai are my favourite but again you can get that elsewhere cheaper and just as good.

Farce pan asian food, stupid ambience, foolish service, unhygenic food, mannerless staff etc etc are the words used to describe the experience at gilgamesh in camden. The food which is grossly overpriced does not live upto half of the expectation, the food was served cold and especially the springrolls which they serve are frozen and not fresh, we ordered for prawn springrolls which was served in a martini glass and it was not even fried properly because we were served semifrozen rolls which tasted absurd. When complained about it, the managers were unapolegetic and told us that we would be served another dish at no cost(perhaps that too frozen). Next comes the green thai chicken gravy which does not taste anywhere like a thai dish. The dimsums that you buy at a road side stall would taste a lot better than what we had here. The waiters are really sick (i am not a person who wants to be treated like a king), at least they should have the basic courtesy to treat the customer in a decent manner which they failed to. I had read many articles praising the decor, but any normal human would consider it as a run down warehouse that has been converted in to a hotel with gaudy interiors without sufficient light. To top it all, i had a chance to have a sneek peek into the kitchen and blimey, the chef was tasting the dishes with his bare left hand Yuck!! And the way to toilets were creeping with cockroaches…really it was a nightmare for me and my friends. It gives a glimpse of how awful a restaurant can be. I wonder how people visit this place…its the best place for customers to pay for the ill treatment that they get . I request the health officials to visit this creepy crawly warehouse and check it throughly.

I write for a blog on Food and Health and enjoyed the pleasure of dining at Gilgamesh for an article. The interior is unbeatably stunning and we found it really easy to choose tasty, satisfying lighter menu items such as Salmon Tartare ( £10.10), 46 kcals. For a calorie count of what we ate and the full blog review you can visit foodhealthblog . com

I would really recommend Gilgamesh as I had a lovely birthday meal there on a Friday evening. We started with cocktails that were beautifully presented and very unusual. We were taken to our table by a very cheerful Maitre 'd. Our waiter throughout the evening was diligent and helpful in answering our questions. We ordered quite a few of the gorgeous Pan-Asian dishes and they each tasted delicious, cooked to perfection. I was very impressed with the restaurant as a whole and would very much recommend it.

If you are looking to go to this restaurant for a celebration or anything remotely important, then don't make that trip to Gilgamesh as you will be thoroughly disappointed. Our reason for visiting was a family gathering in what we thought to be a reputable and trendy restaurant. Once we arrived we were seated at the bar while our table was made ready, which we eventually got to half an hour after our booking time. As we made our way to it we realised we were entering the bar, where for the sake of cramming in a few more covers, booths had been turned to dining tables. This doesn't work for two reasons: 1) as the night progresses the bar not only gets loud with music and chatter but with people literally brushing past the edge of your table. 2) The waiting staff don't really venture in this area except to serve you tasteless and grocely overpriced food without a smile or an ounce of politeness. In all we waited between two-three hours for our three courses and when they arrived, they were either wrong, completely cold or without cutlery but you could't tell them that because they had disappeared again , leaving us with more waiting and a sorbet dish that had become juice on my plate. As someone with a slightly short fuse when it comes to ridiculously bad service I had decided enough was enough and took this pathetic farce of an experience to the manager who tried his best to please us with free desserts and drinks. Not one to be easily fooled I persevered. In the end (the end being four hours with one hour taken up in arguing the toss with a complete baffoon called the manager) we left the restuarant having only paid for starters and drinks- the only edible items on our table. In essence the only people who call this place 'superb' are either paid to say it, z-lister celebs after free meals, or those without a penchant for good food and service. Oh and if you are unfortunate to sit in the bar again, expect to have a sore throat the next day from shouting to be heard!

It’s a local for me and I think we all have a duty to support our local restaurants. I have been many times, both for eating at the bar as well as formal dining. The staff are utterly useless and often rude – I don’t appreciate being told when I arrive for a 6.30pm booking, with practically no-one in the place, that the restaurant ‘will need the table back at 8.30pm’. I am old fashioned and prefer a ‘Good evening, how nice to see you (again), how are you/was your day’. Apparently that would be asking too much. Staff appear to have been recruited on the basis of how they look, which I’m sure plays well with the young crowd that occupy the bar (drinking a lot and eating very little). The food is very good, if a little flash. The atmosphere and decor divide opinion right down the middle: if you like your restaurants understated then this isn't for you. The size and scale of the place is enormous and commercially I can't see how it all works.