Great Queen Street

This place used to be great, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone anymore. The food is very mixed, but by far the worst thing about it is the service. The Aussie manager seems to think that treating diners like he's doing them a favour is the best way to keep customers coming back. I've never written a bad review of a place in my life, but then I've never experienced service as bad as I have at Great Queen Street before. Unfortunately, the manager (I went on a Sunday) seemed to set the tone for the rest of the staff – too cool to be bothered to serve customers and then incredibly indignant if asked to do anything. Not sure if the manager is new, but this place used to be worth a visit – avoid at all costs.

The food was extremely uneven. The starters were a mix of quite good and very very average (the pomegranite and fennel salad). One of us had steak which was inedible and was taken back and off the bill. The mince pie was fine. Deserts had nice concepts that were, in the case of the Queen of Puddings, badly executed. It had been made in advance and lacked the crisp meringue finish it should have had.

What really disappointed, though, was the staff and the way we were handled. When we arrived no-one told us, nor did they when we booked, that the table was needed back in two hours. Certainly the pace of our service did not suggest urgency. The first person we dealt with was quite remote and hard to interact with. The waiter was extremely knowledgeable but what was weird was that the restaurant was unable to offer any flexibility. We asked for some additional chips or some mash on the side, and were told chips were only served with the steak and mash was not available. I asked for ketchup, because the chips were as dry as dust on the inside, I was told “we don't do ketchup”. When the waiter cleared, he noted we hadn't eaten the chips and suggested the restaurant was right in not allowing us to order a… More

Oh dear. Visited on a Saturday lunchtime and everyone looked very depressed, the customers (many eating alone for some reason) and the staff. Dissapointed to find that in what looked like a gastropub there was no draft lager and the drinks (including Wine) were served in childrens tumblers. Next was a bowl of unshelled raw peas ? and some rather good bread. The food was average but overpriced, menu wasa bit limited and service a bit dreary. Perhaps everyone had hangovers and it was just a bad day.. Time will tell..

Great Queen Street is very cool right now, especially with all of us opening our SquareMeal Restaurants & Bars 2008 guide and seeing the great review. It's also great that it isn't a usual chain. The chocolate dessert was special.

However, the staff were a major let down. One of the waiting staff makes absolutely no eye contact with customers. A "thank you" or a smile from a customer is unreturned. Another stood by when we were leaving after the meal and didn't even give us an acknowledgement, a 'thank you' or a 'goodbye.' A very cold experience combined with good, strong dishes.