La Fromagerie

I am a local who was at first was wooed by the delightful selection of produce, brought over from the continent, and excited at spotting the odd TV appearance. However, the staff are miserable and the produce overpriced. With all that is on offer within a 1mile radius why would you bother...

I live in the neighborhood so pass quite often and get tempted to try various delicasies and cheeses. However I do get more and more disappointed by the quality-price ratio. The service is sometimes very nice but sometimes extremely rude, several times I was overcharged (i.e. 10£ for the bread that costs 5£ - no apology when i mentioned) or did not get correct change (to my disadvantage,surprisingly). Some cheeses are very nice there, and they have lots of choice. In particular roquefort is very nice, in my experience. However I am not very happy with the quality of some more ages hard cheeses like gruyere or aged gauda. The same cheese from selfridges or even waitrose has much more flavor, so I wonder if they are buying less aged and cheaper cheeses or is there anything wrong in they way its been kept? I wonder if other customers have similar observation? Couple times I was sold very poor quality items as if they were good (terrine that they somehow managed to put in a cling film as if it holds, but when unwrapped at home it disintegrated immediately, and flavor-wise it was extremely salty!). So, while the shop looks really attractive, its a bit of a tourist trap and I'm not particularly keen to spend my money there. Lots of items one can get cheaper elsewhere, and better quality too.

I came here for my birthday last week and what a disappointment the service was. I had queued up and secured three places in the big table and was waiting for my friends to arrive. Since one of them needed to come with her baby and there was no place there for the pram, we asked to be moved to another table as soon as there were three slots available (my friend suggested going for a short walk with her baby in the meantime). Then the waitress said that it was not possible and that we had to queue up all the way long again, despite having already secured three seats. I did try to convince her but she was so unreasonable and unhelpful. She kept on saying it was not possible. The other waiters seemed equally unhelpful. The food looked appealing, but since we left we did not have the chance to taste it. I have never in my life seen staff as rude as the one working in this place.

Never normally write anything but after such a great time at the Marylebone branch I wanted to thank them again in print! I chose my own cheese plate - and what a fun thing to do that was, and then couldn't decide on a wine or beer or cider, and they let me taste until I chose the Cider - really amazing Normandy dry with a light fizz and chilled too. Fresh mint tea and an incredible baked cheesecake. I'm going back for lunch on Sunday when I visit the Farmer's Market. This is such a unique shop and food destination. Nothing else like it in London.

We've been coming here regularly since this location first opened and I'd suggest that the 5 stars that TimeOut show herein are no longer accurate. The chef who was responsible for the admittedly great menu has left and the offering here now is very ordinary. The food is still 'okay,' the cheese still the best in London, but... such a disappointment to see this go the way it has. Really needs to rejuvenate itself.

I was looking forward to have a memorable breakfast when I took a trip to La Fromagerie. The food is matching reviews and reputation. Unlike the service. The manager received us in a hurried and gelid manner. We asked for 2 small tables that were empty, since the big one was full. She unapologetically explained us that, no she couldn't, because it would have been too much of a hustle for her to move us later on to the bigger table and that we should have waited for that to become free. We had to insist to get the 2 tables - she agreed on the basis that we didn't ask to be moved! Whilst we were still sitting and taking our coats off, told us that we only had a minute to order breakfast and left without giving us the menus. During the meal we ordered additional bread that never arrived to our table and was forgotten. Only one of the two waiters was attentive and prompt, while the other was avoiding to catch frustrated customer's eyes. What a shame.