Tom Aikens (43 Elystan Street, London, London, SW3 3NT) Pleasant greeting on arrival. Plenty staff, courteous and helpful. Warm spacious dining room with positive ambiance and attractive decoration. Feeling of space and tables set very reasonablly apart. During the course of the evening the staff became more aloof and there were no pleantries, no smiles, little, if any, engagement. Felt there was some confusion as to who had ordered what, with one waiter leaning across in front of diners whilst they were talking to each other rather than laying knives and forks from the correct side. Food was slow to arrive between courses and the inevitable medium to well done lamb cutlet (one third the size of a computer mouse) arrived rare. The contrast of tastes on the plate were too severe for my taste. This I believe is a trademark of his cooking. Of the six dining in our group five did not like the food and openly commented on it after we left. One is a hotelier and felt the suckling pig was neither cooked long enough nor presented well on the plate being a large slab of meat with the skin only browned. Too easy to be disparaging but I doubt any of our group will return. A pity as this restaurant has the potential to go far but it benefits from having a wealthy clientel who shelter the management from reality and who frankly, if they were paying out of their own pocket, would not do so. On balance the restaurant was overpriced, aloof to the needs and wants of diners, lacked charm with indifferent overrated food. A sadly disappointing experience. Give me Ramsay any day.
Link to this reviewJanuary 2010 |