Coya Mayfair

We dined at COYA last week and had a truly wonderful experience. The place was full of energy, the staff were friendly and attentive and the food was just to die for. We had some ceviche, and some of the skewers but the star dish was the sea bass with rice - just wow!

Please find below comments made by Coya's Events manager when I wanted to booked a group dinner party for 22 guests. It was requested I needed to spend £150 per head. I agreed - also I did want the premium fixed menu. Though I requested a start time for 7pm from 6.30pm. The events manager came back and wanted to charge me an extra £1100.00 for a 30 mins in time. Events manager also said the charge is based on "loss of income" and customers after 7pm spend a lot more than £200 per head at such prime times.....really ??? "Having conferred with the team it is a possibility to move the booking to 7pm however this will increase the cost to £200 per person. Please note 7pm is already considered prime time and guests minimum spend at this time is generally higher,, therefore we need to compensate for the loss of income." stated by Coya Events manager. It felt like I was trying to enter a nightclub requesting a VIP table in Las Vegas but I was not - it is a restaurant. A restaurant where family and friends dine and should be made to feel welcome. but not to be made to feel unwelcome and simply the restaurant from the onset trying to grab as much money as possible. There is a time to sell to diners... during the meal, when things are going great..."Sir can I recommend this bootle of wine?".... there you go! Well to conclude the "loss of income" for Coya now has happened. If one does the maths a dinner bill for 22 guests at £150 per head PLUS... was simply not enough for the booking. Coya wanted to grab as much money from the onset. So no way did I continue to book. a real shame. Hope the owner gets to hear about this and will train their staff to welcome guests and not simply grab their money first. Business must be bad. Oh by the way, remember the scene in pretty woman..."big mistake!"

Very nice buzy, busy place with nice atmosphere and efficient service (which, however, needs to be more attentive). Very good food but prices are much too high compared to other similar restaurants.

Amongst the many 'dining out challenges' in our capital late dinners be they post-opera or theatre or post-long-work-day-with-severely-jet-lagged-business-people, the challenge is the same: where to eat at 22.30. At Coya this is possible, or so they say. There are a few bastions in this area of the market, the Atelier of Joël Robuchon, J Sheekey, the Ivy and more recently and if you can stomach the stress, the Sushi Samba & Duck & Whaffle combo on top of the Heron Tower. However, Coya seems both like an intersting option both from geographically and culinary poits of view. The trouble is the maintanence of the space with the interior showing wear and tear and the fact that you have to wrestle through Coya Bar clients to get to the dining room at any time after 22.00. Then, once all this done, the good factors come alive. The serivce is excellent and food very nice and well presented. It is very noisy but in a fun buzzy way. A recent comment about the slighly run-down decor fell on deaf ears, the management simply 'likes it like this'. Lets hope the same wont happen to the other restaurants in the stable...

I have eaten at Coya twice. On the first occasion it was a pleasant lunch on a quiet Sunday, joining a few family members eating at a very early hour. I was sufficiently encouraged to choose it as the venue for a dinner for 10 friends, taking the time to reserve a specific table at 8.30pm, some 3 months in advance of the date. You might assume that would be fairly straightforward for a restaurant, especially one aiming to impress with its billing as much as its food. Fast forward to the big night and it started with the restaurant challenging the original table time, the challenge being delivered to me by the same person, in person, that I made the booking with months before. I was told it couldn't have been booked for that time (except that it was), and the table I'd specifically reserved was no longer available to us, and would we like to have drinks while we wait at the bar...? Do we have a choice? No. A lot of time passed, with two or three further complaints being ignored by the complacent and chaotic team on the desk, before we were finally seated at 10.45pm. Yes, that's 10.45pm...well over two hours after the time booked, finally leading us like refugees to a cramped table situated by the kitchen, by that point so furious that the food couldn't possibly live up to the amazing pricing, nor could the cocktails numb the general disappointment that flavoured the evening. If you want to get drunk on cocktails surrounded by a loud, raucous and highly aspirational crowd, in conditions too packed for anyone to spot your Manolos, then this is your ideal destination eating house. All the same, it's not recommended for anyone that values a restaurant for its ambience, professional service, and flair for food.

Buzzy atmosphere, ladies wear your most fashionable shoes, sexy bar scene . Excellent food - the beef is to die for. Service is rushed, furthermore the rice arrived after we finished dinner.

Excellent service, buzzing atmosphere, great food and drinks! The ceviches, the salads, sea bass and wagyu beef were all fabulous. Would I go again? Absolutely! Very good value for money…

Lovely food lovely drinks and great atmosphere Coya is a must!!

This is in my opinion an excellent mix between beautiful Peruvian food (very good food!) and a buzzy atmosphere! The service as to suffer given the size of the place but I'm overall a fan! The ceviche dishes, while simple are truly special flavours and the Peruvian rices are more than worth a try. It's definitely one to come back to.

We were recently at Coya for dinner. We arrived on time for a 20:30 dinner reservation. Were told the table was not yet ready and were asked to wait in the bar. We were collected and seated just before 21:00 and were told while being seated that, as we were late (!!!), we only had 1.5 hours to finish our meal and therefore had to be very quick. We were rushed through dinner. We were told at 22:00 that we had no time to order more food. We reminded them that we had been allocated a two-hour time slot, which meant we had an hour left. They reluctantly allowed us to order more food. They came with the food just a few minutes later, practically throwing it onto our table along with the bill. Pre-22:30 various staff started to stand at our table, glaring, and others came tell us to hurry and leave. We have never ever experienced anything like it. We followed up with a letter, to which we received a reply that basically told us that we were at fault as we wanted to remain in the bar for a half hour of our allocated table time (huh?), that they did the best they could and that we were basically awful customers who ruined things for the table after us because we insisted on staying for the two hours we were promised when booking. If you have a spare few hundred pounds and a great sense of humour, Coya is worth it just to experience service and attitude that no other restaurant in this price category would have the nerve to provide.