Gmbklm's Reviews

We have eaten here three times over the last 6 months. We were very pleased to find another Nordic kitchen (very much enjoying Texture), but a bit closer to home.

We've had a mixed experience with our meals. Presentation has been consistently excellent, and we've eaten some wonderfully cooked / tasty duck, veal tartar and sweetbreads. However, the house style is to be a bit different, sometimes using strong and unusual flavours (eg liquorice, burnt hay). Hence, some dishes will generate a “marmite effect” – you'll either love or hate them. We've had some fantastic quality venison, beautifully cooked, but completely over powered by the taste of burnt hay. A great idea, but I wanted to taste the venison. We have also been served very good quality, but close to raw sushi style, squid and scallops, which will not suit everyone.

Its really great to have somewhere exploring new ideas and flavours, but to be honest we've found that their less adventurous dishes hit the mark far better than the more original ones. Eg the in-house made butter simply seemed unecessary – just give me some echire.

Service was good, professional and friendly, and has clearly settled down since the Nov opening (given comments in some older reviews).

We liked the comfortable and modern interior design. Not at all Nordic stark / ultilitarian.

North Rd is very good value given the quality of ingredients and originality – having paid average £64 for 2, inc service, ex all drinks – especially when they get it right. However, I think they need to improve their hit vs miss ratio, perhaps by toning down some of the flavours.

I would definitely recommend giving North Rd a try, but remember the “marmite effect”.

We've eaten here 3-4 times since Oct 10, most recently late Jan 11. The menu is relatively short and simple. The food is French brasserie / bistro style comfort food – some very conventional (eg cassoulet), others with an English twist (eg Hereford snail & bacon pie). Nothing to get too excited about, but decent reliable stuff. Aimed at a very different market to Wild Honey.

We normally pay £30-£33 pp for 2 courses, inc service, exc drinks, which is reasonable value. The wine list is sufficient, and includes some reasonable less expensive bottles in the £30 range.

Like any good informal brasserie / bistro, the dining room has a very pleasant and relaxed, with a buzzy atmosphere. Always busy, even on a Tues night. The building, interior furnishing and décor are perfectly suited to such a brasserie.

We've always found service to be efficient and friendly. However, we recently noticed another table complaining about wait times, so they're perhaps pushing the covers vs kitchen capacity to the edge ? Its certainly a busy place.

Overall, a good addition in a surprisingly poorly served area (as Terroir discovered). Particularly convenient for pre and post theatre, given its proximity to St Martins Lane and The Strand.

A nicely decorated and furnished room, with a good buzz and warm atmosphere. A better feeling than the previous Zetter, which always seemed cold. Tables are quite close – Bistro style – so its not the place for a new or illicit relationship ! Front of house and waiting staff were all very efficient , professional and charming.

The menu is very much traditional French. We tried the Hare Royale, which was really very good, with great flavours, but a little too rich for my taste. The quail was also very tasty – earthy, subtle and rich. Perhaps best to describe the food as traditional very rich French; but with a twist. Not a place for a low calorie light snack ! I also liked the wine list choice.

Overall, a very good restaurant, serving high quality French cuisine. We paid circa £65 for 2 courses for 2, including service, ex all drinks. Very good value for the quality of the dishes.

Our March 2010 Sunday lunch was our first visit for 9-12 months. We came away with the same good impression we've always had in the past.

Some people may not like the elongated shape of the room, but we feel that it adds to privacy. Since the restaurant is on the second floor, with large windows and a conservatory style roof, the room is wonderfully light and airy. A perfect location for a long relaxing lunch. The décor is stylish and muted, with a slightly luxurious feel helped by the long banquette along the back wall.

For Sunday lunch, the menu had a good choice. Both our starters and mains were extremely good – very tasty pigeon, followed by equally tasty and tender lamb. All our courses were cooked and presented to a very high standard. The highlight for many is the fabulous cheeseboard, which must be one of the best in London. Circa 30-40 choices served by knowledgeable and interested staff, which is very unusual these days and a big plus. we also like the bread trolley and its choices. As is usual, there is a supplementary charge for the cheese.

The Sunday special menu really cannot be faulted at £30 plus service for 3 courses. Superb value that is difficult to beat (ie 10 / 10). Evenings, the bill will be a bit stiffer. With supplements, service and drinks, it won't be a cheap meal, but it will be good. Roughly £100 for 2 for 2 courses inc service ex drinks (my overall 8 for value)

The wine list is extensive, especially for France, but the choices are a bit limited sub-£50. We tend to end up spending £60-£90.

Front of house and waiting staff were all very charming, efficient and professional. Plus, they actually seemed interested in the food they were serving ! Could not be faulted.

Overall, still a very good restaurant, with great staff, serving very high quality dishes. We shall be back soon.
Must be the best of the rather mixed D&D bunch ?

Our first visit for a couple of years, and we were quickly reminded why we hadn’t rushed back. On arriving, the front desk had lost our reservation, and weren’t exactly over apologetic; ie it was clearly our fault. However, it was relatively quickly resolved by someone with a little more experience and tact, and a table found.

The Cinnamon Club attracts a mixed but slightly odd London crowd of Eurotrash, “special night outers”, politicos and associated PR / hangers on. Despite this, the atmosphere was quite pleasant, and certainly very buzzy, which we liked. They clearly do a roaring trade.

Some clearly don’t like it, but we thought that the ex-library décor and furnishing was very warm and pleasant, and a bit clubby but in a very nice way. However, we weren’t so keen on the modern bar downstairs. We really liked the upstairs bar, although service could have been better.

The food is PR’d and priced as very sophisticated, refined high end Indian. We felt that most of our dishes were quite mediocre, and lacked either real quality or excitement. The baby squid starter was fine, although a bit cold when delivered, and the Rabbit was simply uninteresting (@£12 pp). The mixed meat main course of 3 meats was perfectly fine, but really nothing special in either taste or quality of the meats. The squab was probably the best of the 3, but overall really not worth £37 pp.

We’ve always found front of house and service to be very mixed: At best professional, but I would never use the words charming and attentive. On previous visits, although not this time, service has been very slow. None of this matches the pricing.

The wine list is quite extensive, but with a bias to the more expensive end. You’ll probably need to spend at least £40-£50. Many wines are much more, presumably targeting our friendly MP and lobbyist expense accounts.

We spent £110 for 2 for 2 courses, ex drinks, ex service. Expensive and not worth it. Each to their own, but overall I really don’t understand the… More

We stayed early 2009, pre recent ownership change.

We know the restaurant is very well regarded, but for our taste, although good, we thought the food was often very over complicated and over powering without good reason, sometimes completely masking the taste of the underlying meat or fish – also, a bit too much each evening after several nights in the hotel.

The restaurant atmospghere was very formal, which I guess is inevitable with a high end Michelin stars place in the provinces, with lots of older and “special occasion diners”. At least it made the restaurant quiet, with few children with families. However, I'm not so keen on the formality when away from work. I like to walk, relax, chill etc – but still get really good food and service – without the need for a jacket or tie, which I wear every other day.

Gidleigh has three dining rooms next to each other – two very nice, one very bland. Over several nights, we noticed that restaurant service and seating seemed to be “managed” according to whether you were some sort of regular or perhaps a local “celeb” – recognising the Z list has never been a strength. Other guests were allocated the 3rd dining room, an oddly shaped and very bland room compared to the other 2. If you ask, they’ll move you – so you must ask / insist. However, this is not an ideal impression when staying in such an expensive hotel. At circa £800 / night inclusive, everyone should feel like a celeb or returning regular !?

Overall, probably the best country hotel restaurants we’ve eaten in outside London, and certainly the best we've come across in the south west; but at a price. However, you may not be that keen on the formality, or the very well executed but (in my view) over complex Michael Caines food.

In theory only 90mins from London, so very convenient as a weekend destination. We are regular returning guests, over many years. Most recently in Dec 09. Its not perfect, but its always enjoyable and very restful.

In an attractive village in a very quiet coastal estuary setting.

Service is generally very good, with the staff being very helpful and charming.

We have always found the restaurant to be consistently good, and definitely a strong point of the hotel. It is anyway more like a restaurant with rooms, with no segregated lounge for hotel guests.

We like the relatively simple dishes, often using very good quality fresh local produce (had some great fish on our last visit). We’re not so keen on the decor and furnishings of the modernised bar area, which is not particularly “warm” or congenial, and more of a waiting room for the restaurant. The restaurant area decor seems to work much better and is warm and pleasant.

In summary. we’ve always had very enjoyable stays and meals, and we will be back again in 2010.

We liked the clubby décor and autumnal / winter colour scheme. Very cosy on cold days. Front of house was very welcoming. On this Saturday evening visit, the restaurant was full and staff very busy.

We liked the traditional British menu, with a strong presence of game. Interesting dishes, without being too lead by current fashion.

After a 45 mins wait, our starters were very good: Fresh and tasty oysters, and very tasty duck liver. The pork cheeks and pheasant main courses were good and also very tasty, but significantly let down by being delivered luke warm. After a 1 1/2hrs wait, and getting very hungry, we weren’t going to send them back.

Service was generally professional and competent, but not particularly attentive or charming. We sometimes had to make quite a lot of effort to gain attention from the waiters.

If the food had been delivered hot and more quickly, I would regard the pricing as being very fair for the quality. If the problems can be ironed out, it could be a really great restaurant. I expect more for £120 for 2 courses inc service ex wine / drinks. As others have commented, the sommelier was very helpful, which is needed given the few choices sub £50-60.

Overall, a good new venue for traditional British food. However, it is not really up to the standard one would expect given its plaudits and the 2009 BMW award. We had the impression that they were just trying to fit in too many covers for their organising ability, with insufficient waiting staff or kitchen capacity for their busy Saturday night sitting. A previous mid-week lunch in a much quieter restaurant had been considerably more enjoyable, with much better service and better executed properly hot food. We will try again at some point in the future, but it will be outside a “peak period”. I would not recommend a busy evening booking.