The Modern Pantry

Cant quite believe what I read. The Modern Pantry has made me brunches (this is their forte) on 4 or 5 occassions and each time it has been brilliant with service to match... I'm inclined to let the knockers knock the place so I can always get a table!!!

Very disappointing experience overall. Service and wine were great I have to say. The house champagne, a Deveaux, was surprisingly cheap and tasted great. Service was also attentive throughout, but the food let the whole experience down.
First of all, my starter of salmon sashimi was drenched in vinegar, completely overpowering the fish. On top of that, the salmon pieces looked butchered rather than finely sliced.
The main, I had the seabass, came in a completely bland and tasteless sauce and to top it off, i found several fishbones in the fillets.
I was not impressed to say the least. They did offer complimentary coffee and tea, but at this level such mistakes on every dish are inexcusable.
Not recommended

Great quality food for Brunch, not huge serves, but tip top quality. Nicish coffee, very good crab pancake, good smoothie. Recommended.

Wow, what negative reviews! My partner and I had a fantastic lunch there just a few months ago and loved the entire experience. We thought that the food scored very highly both on flavour and appearance. It was reasonably pricey but not outrageously so. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we have booked up to go back there again in December. I shall report back.

Having been to the Pantry restaurant on a few occasions, I can understand many of the comments left below. The 'cakeage' charge fiasco described by one visitor is incredible and reviewers are right in suggesting that the portions aren't large enough, particularly where the breakfasts are concerned. But this is a Tale of Two Pantries because round the side of the building is a little room where you can get takeaway lunches and coffee. This is a real gem. The coffee is the best I've had in London - it leaves Monmouth Coffee in the dust - and although the Pantry gets its beans from nearby Caravan, the coffee at the latter is not as good for some reason. Furthermore, the cakes are delicious and always inventive, from beetroot muffins to pastries topped with mojito icing. The staff who man this part of the operation are really lovely too.

My girlfriend and I ate here the other evening and were very unsatisfied by our dining experience. All of our dishes where either bland or overpowered with one ingredient. This restaurants lacks congruity and most importantly flavor.

The negative reviews are a bit surprising. We turned up for a very late lunch this Sunday and had a great meal (around £20 each for 2 dishes including service). My main course of rabbit was excellent, my partner's vegetarian stack was also very good. An inexpensive wheat beer rounded off the experience nicely. Followed up by a great coffee at St Ali around the corner.

Service on arrival was bizarre...arrived around 9pm on a Friday night without a reservation and given a "well-this-is-pain-for-me" look from the maitre'd ...shuffling of papers, looking at computer screen, tapping buttons...then led to a room upstairs with a room full of empty tables...do they need to think this hard about whether they want our money? Then the food...truly weird concoction of flavours that simply did not work. Salmon sashimi drenched in some juice which totally masked the salmon, a completely tasteless whiting with salsa verde, rabbit enveloped in more spices than necessary. After that we desperately wanted something ordinary...at least the Eton mess tasted like it should. Total price for the meal (with a bottle of wine) was within range for this area, but the reputation of this restaurant in no way matches the food. The table service was excellent....Life is too short for wasted meals like this, donate your money to a charity or go elsewhere.

i was given pointless warning that my omlette would be quite wet i..e soft/runny in the middle, that was my hope however it was overcooked and very disappointing. The crab salad lacked enough crab and the flavours all clashed rendering the pea shoots totally unable to be tasted. The cooked breakfasts look great but really i was expecting more; i don't imagine the proprietor was cooking on that day...

Tried Modern Pantry a couple of times because Time Out give it such a good rating. But overall it's dreadful. Food is lacklustre and the service even worse. I ordered poached eggs once and only one egg arrives. I asked what happened to my other egg and the waiter didn't seen to understand. He eventually asked me if I wanted another egg, then went and got one, bought it back on a plate and slapped it on the table. I asked him if the eggs normally come as a duo and he said yes, he thought so.

Three of us went here last night and were nothing but disappointed. The only thing going for the place is that they have a fantastic menu writer - everything on the menu sounded amazing, but what actually arrived on the plate was either as bland as a bowl of weet-a-bix or just plain wrong (in fact one of the diners went as far as to say "disgusting!" Not really the desired outcome at 20 quid a dish).

The chef is obviously more concerned with ensuring that the menu appears to have Pacific/NZ flavours in it than actually tasting good, or being edible.

Have read plenty of good reviews about this place, but most are dated 2009. It must have let its standards slip a loooong way.

To be fair - interiors are nice as were our cocktails and wine. Service and bathrooms, matched the food.

I recently attended a birthday lunch at Modern Pantry on 6th March. We were a party of 15 and booked at extremely short notice.

The restaurant was very accommodating and attentive to all the guests including my 17 month son. But sadly, the entire occasion was marred with the addition of a "cakeage" fee.

The birthday girl's sister had made two large cakes for the lunch and we asked if we could serve these desserts. We were told that this was no problem for a "cakeage" fee.

None of the guests had ever heard of the charge but presumed that it would be akin to a small corkage - so we were happy to pay. It was only when we received the bill that we found out that this amounted to £30 per cake!

To say we were astounded is to be polite.

When we enquired why this charge was so high we were told that it was on the arrogant assumption that all diners would spend money on dessert. So not satisfied with patrons paying almost £50 per head the establishment felt they had to levy this farcical charge as well.

I have never been to a restaurant which applies this fee (and at such a level). Furthermore, not one person at the table had ever experienced the fee either. Nor is there any mention of the charge on the Modern Pantry website

Perhaps all 15 guests were unseasoned and raw gastronauts? And this was an usual feature at London venues. But googling the words "cakeage london restaurant" brings scant results - maybe one or two places.

It is not often that I find myself angry enough to complain but I decided to make an exception in this case. I would hope that Time Out will publicise this outrageous arrangement.

We visited the cafe for a late lunch on a Saturday and left very disappointed about the entire experience. The waiter looked hangover and in bad need to shower her hair; when taking our orders, she forgot the coffee and my husband main course arrived without the meat on the plate! My eggs were seriously over cooked but decided not to say anything as we just wanted to have our lunch and leave. Shame they could not leave up to your review!

Went on Saturday night with four friends and left feeling disappointed. The portions were small - my husband was hungry afterwards despite three courses and sides, and the food was tasty but cold. Mozzarella balls were cold and unpleasant, onglet steak was lukewarm on arrival and cold halfway through. Ginger cake was just out of the fridge cold. Service was pleasant. Dining room pretty. But won't be going back.

We went on a saturday night just as they were opening, absolutely fantastic, food was wonderful as was the service. What a find I want to go back and try the whole menu.

Went on recommendation from general web surfing and was very happy to have made this choice. We went for lunch and the food was fresh and deliciously combined with great service to boot. Left feeling sated but not uncomfortably full and will be going back to try the dinner menu.

Went to a brunch there yesterday. And it was actually the best brunch I had in London! I ate honey coated oats with seeds and yoghurt and my boyfriend had ricotta pancakes. The food was exquisite, and the service - perfect. For food, 2 cappuccinos, 2 freshly squeezed juices and a croissant we paid 30 pounds (service included). It was worth every penny and :)

The Modern Pantry is great for take-away - fresh produce, tasty and well-priced meals. But it is a pity they haven't bothered to source take-away packaging that is either bio-degradable or recycable. A 15 minute lunch shouldn't stick around for 1000s of years. It's not that hard - many standard Asian takeaways have managed it, of if you want more chi-chi, talk to Moro, their stall at Exmouth market serves up in a bio-degradable paper carton.

Went this weekend and was severly underwhelmed. The food was really over-priced - my friend's omelette was over £7, was tiny and was literally just an omelette on its own, not even any garnish. We had to ask three times for a jug of water. And the worst thing was the speed of service - it took over an hour for our food to arrive! Will not be going back.

I went for dinner last Saturday, eating upstairs in the dining room, and agree with Time Out comments on service and atmosphere. The menu looked amazing, really well thought out, light yet indulgently complex and so I was really looking forward to my dinner. Unfortuately, what came out was nowhere near as good as it should have been. Both fish mains were a bit greasy, quite messy and pretty lacklustre - not horrible but very average. I booked a table for 7pm which was perhaps a bit early, my guess is that our food was made by an understudy as execution was severly lacking.