Max F.'s Reviews

It looked so promising: a new upmarket Italian (which are seldom done well), lovely room, excellent first reviews… and yet a bitterly disappointing evening – made worse by the fact we were entertaining exacting friends from NY. The welcome slightly indifferent, the Mojito bland, the inability to seat 5 people so one wasn't on a table of their own talking to no-one, patchy service – veering from overbearing to absent, the menu divided by fish, meat and veg rather than by course a non-starter, flavourless amuse bouche, minute starter portions, steak and lamb served out of a deep-ish bowl that's nigh impossible to cut and eat out of, not inexpensive mains at £25+ per dish… by the end we couldn't wait to leave – it was an all-round let-down. Yes, maybe they're new and teething, but would we go back? I don't think so.

Disappointing all round. Haughty service the likes of which good London restaurants have long since dispensed with, naff decor, erratic attention to the needs of the table and a meal that was hit and miss – lovely mussels and squid but very ordinary plaice, an overly rich fish pie and forgettable desserts. Its stellar reputation clearly does it no favours when the experience is such a let down. Wouldn't recommend it.

Very disappointing Sunday brunch with friends from New York who had heard about and were interested to experience what Dean St was all about. Having spent a couple of atmospheric evenings there for dinner previously, we were confident of an enjoyable time. But it let us down on a number of fronts: awful bank table right next to the kitchen – with crashing and banging of plates and glasses the whole meal, indifferent service from what seemed to be 3 or 4 different servers, an unusually long wait between courses, and most unfortunately – decidedly off form food. Portions were mean – anchovies on toast a joke really and decidedly empty-looking chicken pies once the crust was broken though. Roast chicken which is usually very good was not cooked fully through, and beetroot salad that looked like they had to stretch the ingredients so as not to run out before dinner. The bread, however was excellent – warm, fresh and plentiful – but not enough to make up for a poor meal. It seems perhaps Dean St is becoming a victim of its success – and the attention to detail that a place like this simply has to deliver sitting after sitting has slipped well below a level we've come to expect. We may go back once more, but if things haven't improved considerably from today's experience it will be our last.

Saturday night dinner with 4 friends. Lovely space, very warm welcome. Downstairs for a drink in the very nicely done bar/lounge first, but already full and nowhere to sit so returned upstairs to our table. Interesting cocktail list, but drinks took inexcusably long time to arrive, and three requests, one eventually to a manager which worked. But the meal was superb – starters, mains, desserts – all first rate for all of us. Service during the meal however was a big let down – clumsy serving staff practically shoving plates in front of us, always having to ask for more wine and water, a noticeable passage of time between bread, starters, mains desserts. It's a great little spot in the vein of other cool Soho newcomers Bocca di Lupo and Polpo that deserves to succeed but they need to slicken up the service to Wolseley/Scott's levels for it to be a well rounded experience. We will go back to see how it's doing.