Amy's Reviews

We had booked the 50% off a la carte offer, which is extremely good value across the board. The service from our waitress was warm and friendly, it's a nice atmosphere and a lovely environment. It started will with the appetisers, although the scallop risotto was finished with cream, which seemed to be overkill, but when it came the main courses it all fell apart.

Initally my food – duck breast in armagnac sauce and mashed squash was cold, so I had to send it back. I did get a fresh plate that was warmer, but would still only rate Tepid on the temperature scale. My friend ordered the venison medallions, the larger of which was inedible as it was ALL gristle. This also had to be sent back. The waitress was very accomodating, however, when the bill came, there was no voluntary concession, so we spoke to the manager.

It seemed as we had already had 50% off, they felt no further need to compensate. He only move was to take the service off, which we then left money on the table for the waitress as she had handled everything well.

It was such as shame as it's a lovely restaurant, but nothing was above average and it still was £60 for two with the discount.

I discovered Kai at the Taste London festival in the summer and the food was far and away the best at the festival. We subsequently booked for dinner with great anticipation. No question that the restaurant is beautifully done out, in keeping with the area it's located in, but it has an odd layout and makes for a cold and slight awkward atmosphere. That aside the service is impeccable and welcoming, but the food was a bit of a disappointment. The food is brilliantly excuted, well presented and very tasty, but there was no wow factor about it. In Square Meal's own review it comments on the “jaw-droppingly steep prices” and for this you would expect to be blown away. We had only one glass of wine between 3 of us (we were drinking tea, not sharing) and the bill was still over £300.

There was a definite consensus that we had all had a lovely meal, but there was no desire to come back and would much rather spend the money in Zuma.

There is nothing to knock Kai for, it's just missing that je ne sais quoi…

This used to be my favourite hidey hole in its previous guise as Aperitivo, so naturally I was looking forward to its successor, that promised to deliver a similar experience.

I have to say that the food was delicious and our particular waiter phenomenal, especially as the other waiters/ bar staff couldn't seem to organise the proverbial in a brewery. We arrived for an early dinner at 1830 and it was already chocker, which is always a good sign and managed to grab the last table. Unfortunately at 1900, the music was switched on and turned to such an incredible level that all patrons then began to shout, at each other, to compete with it.

We asked if it could be turned down a bit, only to warrant a visit from the owner, he then proceeded to be unbelievably conceited and rude. He addressed only my companion (who admittedly is in her mid 50s, but I was the one that requested the volume change), explaining to her that the place was supposed to be “urban”, “punchy” and “edgy” with a target demographic of 25 – 35 (verbatim). Sadly for him his media clever jargon, washed straight over us as we are both in advertising and wanted to slap him. I sit bang in the middle of that demo, so when I pointed that out, he kind of dismissed it and basically told me, if I don't like it, don't come back. Don't worry, I won't.

It's a real shame as the food was great and I could easily have become a twice a month customer, instead the 43 year old owner, would rather have first time cash than happy regulars.