Sylvia's Reviews

One of the best restaurants in London!

Being a Londoner, I find myself very spoiled with the choices of restaurants in this city. We really do have a great selection. That said, Pollen Street Social really stood out by far.

My boyfriend and I went there last Friday night on a recommendation from a colleague. We go out for dinner a lot and therefore not that easily wowed. This time we were. The whole experience was just very impressive. The staff were very friendly and knowledgable and not in the least bit pretentious as they are in some other fine dining restaurants. We decided to skip the bottle of wine and went on the sommelier's recommendations to match the wine with each item of food we ordered from the menu. My boyfriend had the English Breakfast as a starter and he said it was just incredible. I had the cauliflower and squid and that was amazing as well. For the mains he went with the duck and I had the cod. The explosions of taste in the mouth was such a great experience. Don't get discouraged by the small portion sizes. The food is very rich and by the end you are full. We both had desert but chose to eat our deserts at the desert bar. I would highly recommend this. You get to talk to the pastry chefs and watch them in action. It's such an interesting experience. They really take the time to explain everything and answer all questions. You can tell just how passionate they are about food.

The restaurant is loud and buzzing. You can see the chefs in action as there is a glass door which leads to the open kitchen. Each dish is made indiviually to order so no mass production takes place. The decor is very cool. Very bright but it suits the buzz of the place.

This is the first solo venure of John Atherton, the head chef who used to work for Gordan Ramsey. He's really managed to get his first solo project completely right. To create a restaurant were everything is impressive, from friendliness and knowledgeability of the staff to the amazing food is very imperssive… More

My boyfriend and I went to Le Pont de la Tour last night for dinner and were extremely disappointed. We ate in the main restaurant which has a three course set menu for £44.50. As it was a bit late, we decided to only each have a main course which we were told we were allowed to do and would be charge £26 each. We were fine with it. We each had a glass of wine which was lovely. The service on the other hand could use improvement. For the prices they charge you would think they could hire a bit more staff. At the end of the meal we decided to order a small cheese platter to share. It took a very long time to get the attention of the staff and when we finally managed to put in our order, it took even longer for the cheese to arrive. When it finally did I wish I could say it was worth the wait but it definitely was not. One of the worse cheese platter presentations I have ever seen. We ordered a selection of cheeses but the portions were very tiny and the presentation was disappointing. A few small pieces of cheese, 6 grapes, 5 crackers and that's it. To make it worse, when the bill came we were charged £20.50 for this cheese platter. So in the end our bill came to be over £120. We go out for dinner a lot but even for us that seemed a bit extortionate considering how little we ate and drank. Our main courses were nice but still don't think it justifies the price. I would definitely not recommend this restaurant to anyone and will not be going back.