Never one to write negative reviews on sites like this. Especially for a restaurant I was so looking forward to. Honestly, I take no pride in it. I'm just disappointed in our evening at Clos Maggiore.
After giving a birthday treat at the ROH, I was keen to wrap the evening up in the attractive interior of Clos Maggiore. I had booked well in advance, had explained the significance of the booking and had asked for a table in said ‘court yard’ area at both booking and on confirmation of the reservation. Our table was at 6pm so there shouldn't have been a problem. On arrival, we were herded up to a small and soulless room upstairs. I was particularly upset as when I took a peak into the restaurant proper before we left, there were a number of empty tables. It was clear that my mother's 70th wasn't up to the ‘inner circle’ of the main restaurant.
The food was exquisite, of that there was no doubt. The wine list was over 90 pages, with most wines north of £100 (many well up at the £400-£500 mark). Some may like this, I found it intimidating and a little pretentious. The wine was kept else where when we ate so much of the meal was left waiting for a top up (requesting the wine was left on the table was politely declined by the staff).
So, yes, for what was a very expensive (and good) meal, was left feeling a little too far down the pecking order by the restaurant which I felt compelled to pass on.