The Beehive (126 Crawford Street, London, W1U 6BF) Just got back from lunch at the Beehive and what an absolute disappointment. It is up there with my worst five meals of all time. My friend and I didn't fancy the whole “pub grub” fayre and so ordered some starters to share instead. The Grilled Halloumi on bruschetta consisted of a deep friend piece of rubbery cheese plonked on some toasted brown bread, slathered in mayonaise (!) and one slice of dry tomato with some pesto from a jar squiggled around the plate for effect. I'm sorry, but has the chef ever actually eaten bruschetta or even in a restaurant and in what universe does bruschetta consistute a mayonaise sandwich! It was disgusting. The prawns were nice but then again, there's not a lot you can do to a prawn in a shell. However, the “pan fried squid with garlic and chilli” was a whole new low. The squid was obviously cooked (?boiled) separately and served with large chunks of burnt garlic with a bit of chilli. No seasoning could be detected and the dish was enough to make us both feel queasy. Again, I would like to ask whether the chef has ever actually eaten food in any other restaurant in the world as I could not for the life of me understand why anyone who makes a living out of cooking could ever think that what was served as grilled squid could look like this. Shame on you! To be fair the staff did take the squid back after only a little questioning although the manager did try to insinuate that the garlic was bound to be burnt as it was “deep fried”. Yuuucckk. Do not eat here – aovid it if you can!
Link to this reviewJanuary 2011 |