Restaurants

What a huge disappointment

I wouldn't bother with this place, i booked a table here for 11am on valentines day and when ringing up to check (as i booked it online) they informed me that they'd need it back by 12 at the latest. I'm a human not a production line. I'll be changing my booking to somewhere else.

Such is the overwhelming influence of Time Out that my friend and I, willful lovers of the brunch from way, way back, made the trek to the posher side of town to partake in what is apparently the best brunch in London, 2008. As connoisseurs of the brunch, we have established a number of pillars to that delicious mid morning forage. Firstly, there has to be your egg based dishes and your pastry baked dishes – crudely, sweets and and savouries. Secondly, there has to be remarkably cheerful service and none of that bluff and pretension we pay for come evening time. Finally, there has to be coffee, amazing thick lattes so dense and expertly fluffed that a spoon could stand in your latte unaided and a range of other healthy beverages to satiate the parched just-woke-up mouth.
At Tom’s the food was good. Not remarkable, or newfangled, but just good. Everything you want in a brunch really, nobody wants foie gras weetabix when you’ve crawled out of bed half an hour earlier. The eggs were poached with expertise and the muffin, not too bready or holey, but a fabulous, stand alone muffin. The brioche arrived – a majesty of wheat and butter, served by fluttering, nervy waiters, perhaps still stinging from the telling-off they got after the last Time Out reviewer. The bacon was pronounced both salty and crispy and from our lustful stares at the dinner plates of well heeled around us, other menu items also made the brunch grade.
But food alone does not a brunch make. Note to staff: fresh orange juice means oranges that have been put into a juicer shortly after an order is made. It does not mean, bought that morning in a plastic carton from the local Costcutters. To charge £3 for 125 mls of the sugared, preservative filled stuff is highway robbery. But it does not in any way compare to the cardinal sin of serving watery, sad coffee. Tom's coffee is hands down the worst I have ever tasted in London and for a nation of tea-lovers, really, that is saying a lot. To serve bad coffee badly at a brunch of all places goes beyond poor or distasteful and wanders deep into the territory of sacrilege, pure and simple. Tom: Fire your barista as he patently hasn’t a clue and for Christ’s sake, put as much effort into your drinks list as you evidently do your food. And Time Out: This is the second time now. My faith in you is waning.

We took my parents in law (from overseas) here for a meal, as they had asked us to go somewhere relatively casual.
We booked 4 weeks in advance (for a Friday night). One therefore wonders why, on arrival, we were offered a choice of either a table with a charming view of the cash register and the staff's station, or a shared table at the back of the restaurant.
Service was OK without being exceptional.
Entrees showed some promise: chilled pea soup was pronounced "lovely." Gazpacho was pleasant but a little oily. Foie gras and bacon was too greasy by far.
For mains, the Old Gloucestershire Spot pork chop was succulent but the accompanying bean casserole on the chewy side. The men both opted for steak - one medium, and the other medium-well done. The one ordered medium came almost medium. The medium-well done one had to be tied to the plate to stop it lowing.
Desserts were satisfactory without being spectacular.
With wine and service it cost us more than four times what we spent on the previous night's pub meal, and the pub meal was better quality (their steaks were tender and cooked as we asked). We won't be back.