Dawn's Reviews

Went on a Saturday afternoon for a late lunch with a friend, midst-shopping trip. It's great that there's somewhere calm, polished and relaxing this close to the vortex that is Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon. It was late (post-lunchtime rush, I imagine) but we got a table and it wasn't uncomfortably packed or loud.

The decor is a bit uniform-gastro-pub-chain but it's done well and it's light, airy and comfortable.

The food is decent gastro-pub fare. The chilli squid starter was crispy and well-flavoured and enough to share between two of us. The steak and red wine pie and the house burger were tasty, filling and well-cooked. There is a good wine list with unusual bottles and lots for those drinking by the glass.

Where it failed – maybe just a bad day (I hope so) is in the service. Despite not being busy, it was difficult to get the attention of the generous number of staff on duty. Irritating but not a disaster initially. Then my friend asked for her coffee to be remade as she'd asked for a short macciato and was given an enormous milky thing in a glass…at which point, it all went a little bit awry. The waiter decided to argue with her about it and told her he thought she should try it before sending it back, ignoring the fact that it wasn't the choice she'd ordered. When we asked for the bill, it took forever and then we could not raise anyone's attention to come take our payment. Three members of staff were standing nearby, chatting and I tried flagging their attention by a louder-than-I'd-have-liked ‘excuse me, can we pay?’, at which point the waitress raised her hand to stop me so that she could finish her conversation with her colleagues. Which she did BEFORE she came over to take our money.

We felt that the bill at just under 80 pounds for 2 mains, 1 shared starter, 2 coffees and a bottle of mid-priced wine wasn't terribly good value. I usually give restaurants a 2nd chance and I will do so for The Grazing Goat but I really hope they sort out the unpleasant… More