[Food] Restaurant 2018

Goldstone1976 said:

A Wong, Wilton Street, Pimlico. 1*.

The hardest review I’ve had to give. The food and experience, other than one thing, rates a 9.5 - easily in the top 20 restaurants I’ve eaten in; especially as it was a birthday celebration for my partner.

The one thing? Well, we were sat at the chef’s table, seating only two, directly overlooking the kitchen. Immediately in front of us was the deep fry chef. Four of the other chefs, including Andrew Wong himself, were relentless in giving him grief throughout the evening. It really was bullying.

I know that pro kitchens can be tough, macho work environments, but this was beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

If the chef(s) aren’t good enough:

1 STFU and deal with it privately, or
2 train them to be good enough, accepting their faults in the meantime, or
3 don’t have a chef’s table, exposing your bullying and/or acceptance of bullying to joe public, or
4 fire him/her.

Given the above: food and service 9.5; treatment of staff 0.5. We won’t go back.

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Bry Nylon said:

He sounds like A Wong'un.

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Birdie Boy said:

I'm not sure I would have said anything but why didn't you?
Funnily enough, I may have done, I was in a French ski resort once and there was only 2 restaurants in town. I picked one the first night and the fish was so over done I couldn't keep my mouth shut. The chef came out and I left with two days to go and only one restaurant left. Next day was a Sunday and same restaurant open but the other closed!!! Spent half an hour walking around and finally in a back street found a small and I mean small restaurant. Went in and asked for a table for two. Owner, English, said we have one but this is the last time you speak English tonight! What a wonderful evening we had, superb. Last night we went to the third one which was ok. Point is, tell these pretentious chefs they can't cook or are bullies. Especially if they are French![emoji3]

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Goldstone1976 said:

I did.

My partner didn’t want me to - to avoid a “scene”. So, we left - I needed “a wee”, and went back and told the chef what I thought.

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Bozza said:

And what did he say (just intrigued before I point him to your post on twitter)?

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Goldstone1976 said:

I did.

My partner didn’t want me to - to avoid a “scene”. So, we left - I needed “a wee”, and went back and told the chef what I thought.

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Goldstone1976 said:

He said that it “wasn’t serious”; it was “meant in the nicest possible way”.

Effectively - it was just bantz.

Edit : wait for my tripadvisor review...

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Weststander said:

So predictable, it's funny ..... the modern day excuse used by school bullies.

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Goldstone1976 said:

He said that it “wasn’t serious”; it was “meant in the nicest possible way”.

Effectively - it was just bantz.

Edit : wait for my tripadvisor review...

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Bozza said:

Unleash hell on the *****.

I say that not because of your experience, but when I went to their website to view the menu, they made me download a Word document. A ****ing Word document. In 2018. **** off.

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Goldstone1976 said:

Edit: I’d forgotten; I’m not allowed to smile at jokes against SE Asians any more, am I ?

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Goldstone1976 said:

Ha! Tosser.

Never have I been so conflicted. Well, about a restaurant, I mean. Food, wine, service, price = brilliant. Making a sous chef feel 1” tall, 3 feet away from paying punters = unforgiveable.

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Guinness Boy said:

I really thought we were past this way of treating people in the kitchen. Marco and Gordon throwing boiling water over each other and then having a jolly good laugh about it in an all night bar, junior chefs bullied out of the kitchen on their first day, etc etc. All seems a bit 1990s.

The one thing I've noticed in 64 Degrees and The Set where I've sat near the chefs or on the pass seats is how well the brigade get on. The fact that the 64 Degress guys managed to serve up decent grub while my Mrs wittered on endlessly to them should have earned them a medal.

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Munkfish said:

Heading to Coal Shed tomorrow evening.

Any recomendations?

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Goldstone1976 said:

I did.

My partner didn’t want me to - to avoid a “scene”. So, we left - I needed “a wee”, and went back and told the chef what I thought.

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Herr Tubthumper said:

It seems to the season of ding-dongs in restaurants. I went to my local cafe this morning, https://m.facebook.com/19grams.Chaussee, for brunch and a table of early twenty somethings next to me asked to change the potato cake in one dish for toast. The waitress said they didn’t do this upon which the seemingly self-appointed spokesman for the group offered her a “Im a regular here and I know the owners” . She then explained they’d actually had a staff meeting about this very item and for various reasons stick to the dishes on the menu. The poor girl was then told to go and talk to whoever was in charge. She came back and told the guy if he wanted toast with his dish he can also order two-poached eggs on toast, as they don’t sell toast on its own....and wouldn’t budge.

Now, whatever your views on the menu are, this guy was quite arrogant, smarmy and very quick to play his card and undermine the girl. I’m glad they stuck to their guns. As it happens Im fine with their policy. They operate a great place, the food and coffee and atmosphere is wonderful and if they need to run their cooking and menu a certain way to keep standards and efficiency then that’s up to them. I had sardines on toast with chipotle mayo and pesto....as I have done for the past few months; I never tire of sardines.

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