Shaka Zulu

I feel guilty for taking my friends here, I feel bad for not reading the reviews beforehand. Average food, terrible terrible terrible terrible service. Idiotic manager who think may have been let out of the asylum on day release.

The owner should go and eat there in disguise - its bloody terrible. I am so annoyed that they charged me so much for such average food.nwemt to le colombier the following day which was so incredible and cheaper that I felt even more stupid.

The front of house staff are a bunch of ghetto rude girls/boys. They look stupid, sound stupid, are stupid and rude. Come on Shaka just interview your staff for the love of god.

Don't go..

They should take the moral high road and go into liquidation and the pay everyone back

Come on sort it out - WORST PLACE IN LONDON

Absolutely rubbish - poor quality and preparation of food, poor service and high prices...
Definitely wouldn't recommend this restaurant and definitely won't be going again!

Beautiful, almost magical, decor. Thats where it stops. Food took an hour and 15 minutes to arrive, very expensive and quality did NOT match the insanely expensive prices....a total rip off! Rude and unexperienced staff, apart from one waiter. Apart from that, will NOT bee going back anytime soon...unless I marry a footballer or win the lottery because the place is stunning. A shame the food and experience didn't match :(

visited restaurant for celebrating my boyfriends birthday, deco is very impresive and thats about all i can say. Food is very overpriced, definitelly not worth the money, service was very slow, it took us over 4 hours to finish 3 course meal. What a shame, its a lovely restaurant, was dissapointed and wouldnt go again!

I had a great time at Shaka Zulu the food was really delicious and unusual...I love trying new things. The staff were very friendly and helpful when explaining the menu and the atmosphere was great. I will definitely be going back and bringing my friends!

what an appalling place, food was of poor quality, customer services poor, and the headliners (Bruno Mars) didn't event turn up intime for the event. If you are stupid enough to bring it to the managements attention, you're simply told that, that's the way it is, it's not for everyone! It's not a place I'd return to for the food, or for the entertainment. One last thing, the Loo stank to high heaven, An awful place!

What can I say that would sum up our experience of Shaka Zulu ? POOR, POOR, POOR. What a disappointing experience not to be repeated. It started off with the confused message my nephew got when booking (should have rung alarm bells). He was told when first booking that Bruno Mars was performing and our table was situated near the band would that be a problem. Must admit I thought this was a bonus until the second phone call that advised us that we would have to pay £17.50 to see Bruno Mars. As this was a family birthday celebration with age ranging from 18 to nearly 80 we didn't feel that this was something we wanted to do as we were unsure how long we would stay. By the third call my nephew was told that if we didn't pay we would be asked to leave the restaurant by 9:30pm. As our booking was for 7:45 I didn't feel this gave us enough time and not forgetting they took our booking to start with. I decided to call the restaurant as it was turning into a bitter expirance for my nephew. I finally got through to one of the managers and explained my disappointment. He apologise and said that he would talk to the staff and we would not be asked to leave at 9:30 instead we could stay until 10pm - how generous when there voice message and web site say they are open until 2am. He said we could call and ask for him if there were any other issues or inquires (shame they didn't answer their phone on the day). Once at the restaurant things didn't improve. It took them a long time to seat us which was an issue as we were on a restricted time scale. This was followed by a bouncer being very roud to my nephew and poor quality food (the saving grace was a really nice waiter).  
I asked to speak to the manager I spoke to on the phone which surprise, surprise was once again disappointing. Although he listened to my concerns his response when I said the food was below average he side " it not for everyone" - what is that  meant to mean? Odd, arrogant response. They served our deserts with the bill (which we hadn't asked for) and were very keen we left. My other concern was the amount of people they were packing into a very small area to see Bruno Mars - due to the amount of people you couldn't get off the escalators, causing a bit of a pile up - luckily there wasn't a emergency. In my opinion, as the manager said "it's not for everyone" , I think Shaka Zulu is all hype and no substance - what a shame.   

Went there last Tuesday supposedly, as advertised, to an event hosted by Bruno Mars it turned out to be an absolute fiasco. We ended up waiting around for four & a half hours to see him, drinking over priced drinks and eating what at best could be called cold mediocre food whilst being repeatedly lied too the whole time by the staff & bouncers that he would be 'performing' shortly. He finally turned up at gone 12 promptly ignored everyone there whilst he sat with his mates drinking & then left after about 20 mins. The worst part is that Shaka Zulu are now treating everyone who has complained about the evening terribly. Awful place with rude aggressive staff, definitely not recommended.

Went there last Tuesday supposedly, as advertised, to an event hosted by Bruno Mars it turned out to be an absolute fiasco. We ended up waiting around for four & a half hours to see him, drinking over priced drinks whilst being lied to the whole time by the staff & bouncers that he would be 'performing' shortly. He finally turned up at gone 12 promptly ignored everyone there whilst he sat with his mates drinking & then left after about 20 mins. Shaka Zulu are now treating everyone who has complained about the evening terribly. Awful place with rude aggressive staff, definitely not recommended

Terrible place. Rude staff. Extortionate prices. Very very bad customer service if you have the audacity to complain. We attended this venue to see Bruno Mars on Tuesday 8th November. We stood for hours in this venue drinking expensive drinks, and Bruno Mars didn't perform. He turned up very late, drank champagne with his friends (who shone torches at anyone attempting to take a photograph), then left. The venue are refusing to refund the money for our tickets and are instead insisting on sending people a voucher, to be spent at Shaka Zulu instead! We never want to go there again, this voucher has no value and we just want our money back. If you really enjoy being treated badly by rude staff, and ripped off, that's fine. If you prefer to be treated well, and get value for your money, avoid this place like the plague.

I also attended the Bruno Mars event on Tuesday 8th November at Shaka Zulu and it was absolutely appalling. If it is possible to give this venue a minus score, I would give it minus 100. Since attending this event (at which Bruno was supposed to perform), I have complained and requested a refund. The venue is only offering a voucher (to be spent there of course!) and is simply not listening to the complaints of the hundreds of people who attended and spent vast amounts of money on the night. The staff were rude, one female guest was physically assaulted by one of the bouncers, and it was clear the management had no clue how to handle the situation (then or now in fact). I have reported this venue to Advertising Standards for misleading and false representation of this event, and have also written to Camden District Trading Standards. Do not visit this venue, your pocket will suffer, and you will leave with a bitter taste in your mouth (whether or not you eat and drink there). I have complained on the Facebook site for this venue and my complaints have been removed. This company is appalling.

I attended a Music Box night at Shaka Zulu where they advertised that Bruno Mars would be hosting.

We were treated abominably by Shaka Zulu. The event was supposed to start at 9pm.

Everyone was crowded around the escalators at eight-thirty because we were told we weren't allowed downstairs, where the stage was. The servers and customers had a hard time getting through and we were uncomfortably packed together - security did nothing to organise the situation.

After that, while we were all packed behind the VIP area from nine o'clock onwards, security personnel and performers on stage kept reassuring us every half an hour that Bruno Mars would be on stage soon. If anyone at Shaka Zulu had made an effort to keep us correctly informed (that Bruno Mars would not arrive until after twelve a.m., that he would not be going on stage and was simply going to have his own table inside the VIP area) then we would have left early enough not to have to be standing there for three hours straight, unable to move from our spots, get a drink or a bite to eat, dance, or go home at a decent time.

However, the case was that we stood there from 9pm to 12.30 am. Bruno Mars arrived at 12 and headed straight for his table and only sat there drinking as the crowd of 100+ people looked on. There was no live performance from him as they stated on their Facebook page ("Shaka Zulu: This is his last and ONLY performance in the UK before flying back to the US on Wednesday evening!")

The way that Shaka Zulu dealt with the negative feedback the day after this was horrendous as well. After deleting evidence of their having stated Bruno Mars would be singing and performance and only reinstating the original posts after criticism about their ignoring the situation, they sent out a mass email to dissatisfied customers (and there were a LOT, just look at their Facebook page to see the complaints!) offering a voucher as a 'gesture of goodwill', as well as repeatedly emphasising that Bruno Mars was only 'hosting', and that he did 'host' at his table. I replied and said that they stated he would be singing on their Facebook page, and that I would like a refund of my tickets, as I would not have attended if they hadn't falsely advertised that Bruno Mars would be performing on stage. All I got as a reply was that my comment would be passed on and no acknowledgement of my complaints.

False advertising and misrepresentation, as well as unprofessional customer service and way of handling a situation that resulted from their irresponsible advertising and actions. All they are after is a quick way to make money, with no regards for integrity or customer satisfaction.

This is the most Awful place I have ever been too.
The staff (if they are not rude) are either extremely stupid or one sandwich short of a picnic. Unhelpful and they have NO idea what is going on.
A group of us wasted £20 to watch Bruno Mars host and by 12:00 he had still not arrived, we heard one bouncer saying to the other that they assumed he "might" be there at 2 (the place closes then anyway)
How is it possible that they are allowing people to spend money on tickets and drinks when they knew Bruno Mars might not even pitch up (which is exactly what ended up happening) This place is Absurd and I am embarrased to call myself a South African if this is who is representing our culture.
PATHETIC is all I can say. WASTE of my time and money and energy

An extreme disappointment. The food was mediocre and bland with a lack of the characteristic spices in most African food. For the price, I was expecting something extrordinary and delicious. It's been over a month since I visited, had written a complaint to the restaurant as well as via Groupon where I'd purchased a voucher for one of our meals. Regardless of the voucher, we still spent over £70 with one drink and one meal. Ridiculous. Avoid it.

Just visited Shaka Zulu for the first time. It was the one year anniversary with my boyfriend and we wanted to celebrate by doing something special. The food was great and the staff made us feel very special when we told them the occasion! THe wood carvings everywhere made us feel like we actually went on a mini-vacation or something. It's definitely worth the visit. We'll be back again soon.

We went there for my husband's birthday dinner. Got a deal out of lastminute.com for £25 for 3 course meal per person. It was an amazing romantic experience. The staff were ok, just doing their jobs well and the food was great. I don't know why many people don't have good comments on the food but basically the food is full of flavours, exotic spices... and I guess some people can find it different and not seem to understand much about the cuisine. However, the only problem I would say is a problem was that the food gets cold quite quickly. I guess the tables are made of marble and the food is not served on heated plates, so the heat disperse rather quickly. I am a slow eater and my mains which was the ostrich fillet gone cold half way thru. The ambience was great, the decor was great and the food was great.. Would definetly go there again and perhaps with a group of friends this time.

Lovely decor. Poor service. Awful food.. Great DJ. Horrid crowd.

I visited Shaka Zulu for the first time, last Saturday (6 August). I must admit that I was put off by the price but thought that we should give it a go as a friend recommended it. I had a passion fruit martini - it was lovely. Our food was delicious (I had a red mullet to start with followed by an ostich fillet) and desserts were lovely (I had a passion fruit creme brulee and I tried my boyfriend's dessert - a chocolate trifle I think).
The only thing that put me off was the fact they asked for the table at 11pm (I didn't make the booking so I didn't even look at the time / was aware they needed it back by 11 - we booked a table from 9pm) but we stayed until around 11 20 and nobody said anything afterwards.

I was so looking forward to taking my Canadian friend to Shaka Zulu restaurant to experience South African cuisine. We went on a Sunday evening in August 2011, quite early. I was asked by a Hungarian at reception if we had booked. We had not and he said we had a half hour wait and whisked us through to a very empty bar for a drink. The decor was fantastic! We tried to get a south african beer but the closest we got was a west african beer and the other two choices were from Germany. I went to the toilet which was a walk past the restaurant area downstairs. It was practically empty. When I went back up stairs I asked the waitress why we were waiting for half an hour when it was empty. She said that was their policy and it was so that we could enjoy the "experience". She was Polish. We asked to see the menu while we waited. A chicken Bunny Chow, which is chicken curry in bread, was priced at £32.50!! I had been warned by reviews and friends but I thought that they were exaggerating. We then asked if we could look at the bar menu. The prices seemed a little more reasonable until we went to order. The waitress said, "oh so you have decided to settle for a snack then?" We hesitated and asked what size the portions were. She gestured the size, indicating very small. We got up and left. I travel the world for a living and am accustomed to paying for a reasonable meal and service but this place has to be the most over priced restaurant, with the rudest staff I have ever come across. They rely wholly on the fantastic decor. I guess that they do not have much repeat business and that customers are passing tourists who do not know any better. Considering I visited in August, the busiest month of the year for tourism in London, I now understand why the restaurant was so quiet. I hope that they have a change in management and employ more south african staff with cheerful dispositions. This place has great potential as an event venue but is currently so lacking in true african spirit. I will look out for reviews to see if it improves before I choose to cross its threshold again. Sorely disappointed of Blackheath

Being a South African, I am ashamed that this restaurant associates itself with my country. I initially went to the restaurant around when it opened and was not thoroughly impressed, however this I thought could have been attributed to the fact it had just opened and gave it a chance. I recently decided to go back with a group of friends to give it another chance. Its gotten worse. The staff had a serious attitude about them and were generally unwilling to help, besides our waitress who was actually very pleasant. The salmon starter was decent, but the meat (something which South Africa prides itself on) was atrocious. All of the meat was completely over cooked and had little flavour. Incorrect drinks were brought to us (Hunters confused for Windhoek, phonetically not similar at all...) and we waited about 40 minutes for our dessert! Our waitress came to apologise a few times for the delay saying that 'she was fighting with the kitchen'. Funny thing is, we were about 1 of a few tables dining on a Sunday afternoon... We all opted for the set menu, at £42. I wouldn't even pay half of that for this place, it was that bad. My feeling is that if the proprietors had spent more time, money and effort on the food instead of on the decor (which is fantastic, I have to give it that) then this all could have been avoided. Something needs to be done to turn this around in a hurry, otherwise this 'restaurant' isn't going to be around for much longer.

i was at shaka zulu on a sat night. the ambience is nice and relaxed, the crowd a bit mixed but cool.
the food was average. we ordered a sharing game of african meat but were told that zebra was not available. asked for drinks 4 times before we got them. ordered a wine on the list and were told it was not in stock. bad service with no specific waiter assigned to the table. the staff was apologetic after we said we would not pay for a 12.5% service charge. at least they recognize the need for improvment! i'd recommed it for drinks after dining somewhere else.

Went there last week for a friend’s birthday. The décor is AMAZING….worth visiting for this alone. The crowd was good and music was great. Loved the guy walking a round playing the bongo’s!!! Only negative thing was it was very difficult to get a drink. The queue for the bar was crazy….ended up getting a table which was a little bit better but still had to wait a while for drinks. Overall, had a fantastic night and would definitely go back again.

We went to Shaka last weekend and the décor was AMAZING! The details in the carvings and lighting added to a beautiful atmosphere. I’ve never seen such a beautiful South African venue or heard of another place serving Zebra or Ostrich. They def went all out on creating a very memorable experience. Although the food was expensive, we used a groupon voucher and found it was quite affordable. After dinner we stayed for drinks to experience the night club. We enjoyed the diversity in music and I got my girlfriend to actually dance with me. (a rare event I must say) Def worth experiencing and had a great time! A must see!

amazing food, amazing service, extremely kind and willing staff, and it looks absolutely spectacular!
I would recommend this to anyone, the whole experience is one to remember!

My daughter took me there yesterday as it was my birthday. Given menu.Not familiar with names of food. Asked waiter to explain the food. He left saying he wil be back. Returned stating "are you ready to order". We were no wiser on the food ordered but it sound nice. Placed our order. Prawns very cold, crab very cold, aubergene,chips disgustingly cold, rest of food totally unpalatable. Ate some of the chips and the very thin tasteless hard bread as we were starving. Left rest of food. Requested to see manager. Explain our issues. Manager stated that South African food is served chill. Why doesn't it say so on the menu so we then have a choice? Who wants to eat chill/cold food at 16.45hrs? Requested our candle be lit but there were no candles so we sat with an empty candle holder. Absolutely poor service and poor quality food. Should sea food be served chilled/cold? Requested the bill. Nerve to include service charge. Where was the service? Will never return or recommend to anyone. Don't waste your hard earn money.

Oh god. Even looking past the waitress getting our order wrong, spilling water all over my leg, asking us how we would like out steak to be but being told we could only have it medium and lastly forgetting to bring the sauce I asked for. THE FOOD WAS PATHETIC. A child could have made chicken and egg is a tomato sauce with some curry powder. The steak and chips were mediocre and the dessert looked like a poodle had left a nasty suprise. Even if we had paid a tenner for the meal, I would have been unimpressed but the fact the bill came to over a hundred makes this place utterly ridiculous. DO NOT EAT THERE.

Went last night with the groupon deal and found the service to be very, very poor. Drinks took a long time we could barely get the attention of the staff and when we did they seemed like they would rather be somewhere else.
Food was good but drinks expensive.
Decor and restaurant was really good just massively let down by the slow, sloppy service. I wanted to complain at the end but couldn't get anyone to talk to me so I could!!

nice view,bad food..go there to feed your ego ...worse dinning ever .go there if your shallow...this place serves no purpose,superficial cr_p..

Astonishes me that I had a similar experience in Shaka Zulu's to most other ppl despite mine being nearly a year after others.

Anyway.... food was overpriced for what was served, Staff are completely clueless and to make it worse, we had 8 different waiters serve us!!

Will defo not revisit this "south African" wannabe themed restaurant

The venue is amazing and definitely worth a visit. The food on the other hand is definitely overpriced for what in our opinion, is mediocre fare.

Worst place in the WORLD - DO NOT GO THERE all very rude - stay away i mean that i wasted over £400 there go upstairs to GILGAMESH so much better

I had an amazing experience at this restaurant on a Sunday early dinner - it was the first time I have been and was really blown away with the most fantastic service and great tasting food . . .I kept having to remind myself that when I leave Shaka Zulu im not going to walk out into the warm South African weather and sea breeze because the decor and music really make you believe are are in S.A. - i highly recommend this restaurant to everyone! :-) I have yet to try it on a Saturday when the club opens up.

UK restaurants do not have a great reputation for service at the best of times, but for a restaurant that has clearly invested so much in the premises, the lack of attention to the staff was astonishing.

On arrival, there was lots of promise: a separate floor for drinks, a well-staffed bar, table service, and the perfect level of background music. Great. The lack of service in the first 10 minutes was a let-down, much as realising there was a cloakroom but with no-one staffing it (perhaps due to the freezing wind coming out of it?). The lack of anyone to take us to our table when our booking time came up was irritating, more so when we asked the maître d, and still no-one came. But if the drinks floor was disappointing, the dining floor was actively awful.

The music was turned up, making conversation difficult to hear, and the soft-spoken waiter who brought our food didn’t stand a chance assigning the right plate to the right person. Although the wine list was great, nearly as great as the restaurant’s inability to produce the wine on it. Starters arrived, were eaten and cleared away before the wine even arrived, and then one of them was not had been ordered. The limited table booking options (“we’re very busy”) were inexplicable when so many tables around us were empty. Our waitress disappeared after the main courses were served, leaving us to order dessert from another equally clueless member of staff, who was also nowhere to be found when it came to order the bill. Whilst other members of staff drifted around, none had much interest in acknowledging our request for the bill, and still less in producing the bill. The loose / ripped jeans the staff were wearing also grated, given the £200+ bill for 4 people, as did the waitress’s excuses for the mistakes (the half-empty restaurant was very busy that night, it seemed, although not too busy for the staff to entertain waiting customers by flirting with each other). Despite complaining, none of the four floor managers had any interest in coming over to apologise. Perhaps they were too busy as well.

Shaka Zulu is a fine idea, and I’d love to have food from there again - if only they did takeaway.

Roger Payne, who spent a reported 5m on this place should be ashamed of himself. The decor is fantastic, it doesnt even feel like you are slap bang in the middle of London, but I am embarressed to be South African and associated with the kind of place that is an empty shell because of the staff that have running it. They are exceptionally rude, so much so that when you complain they stand and laugh in a huddle, led by the manager I might add!! Prices are abhorrent for the level of service they provide.

AVOID AVOID AVOID! You have been warned.

An absolutely gorgeous restaurant, with really really mediocre food. I was quite taken aback. Perhaps as a South African, I am being overly critical, but for the prices, (granted it was 50% off) I really hoped for outstanding food, which it really wasnt sadly. I was with a friend from Thailand and she was truly put off South African cuisine after that experience. The chefs need a bit more help with getting the south african flavour right, especially with the chakalaka which tasted of cabbage and peas boiled in cayenne pepper. Tasteless fish, salty butternut, cold chips and overly pushy service. Am sorry guys but I wont be back again and I recommend it to NOONE.

I was really looking forward to trying South African food for the first time and from the pictures and the review already posted, it looked like a fun place with interesting interiors.

After being a bit tricky to find, our party were in a bit of a rush to get to a show at the Roundhouse and the staff made a note of this and made sure we had speedy service. I had the Ostrich which was delicious along with peri peri chips.

I left the restaurant fairly satisfied with my supper. However, I realised 10 mins after leaving the restaurant that I'd left my iphone in the booth that I was sitting. I called the reception and was told that they were going to have a look for it but couldn't leave the desk to look now or ask someone else to do so. when I returned over an hour later, no one had looked for it, the receptionist hadn't left a note to her colleagues about my lost property and my iphone was gone! I was really angry, to say the least that the staff had not taken the responsibility to look for my phone when I'd called just after I'd left and probably was still in with a chance of finding it.

What is more, I left a contact number with the restaurant manager so that he may call me first thing in the morning after asking the staff and checking cc tv but he didn't call and I've not hear anything from the restaurant since! Orange, my network provider were very understanding and sent me a replacement iphone within 24 hrs - now that's what I call customer service!

All in all, I was hugely disappointed. I enjoyed my food, it's a shame that the staff were a let down - I will never go back there.

Went to SZ last night. I wonder who thought spending £5.5 million spent on a 27,000 sq foot basement South African restaurant in grungy Camden Town was a good idea.

The place has about as much authenticity of Saffer food and Zulu culture as The Paris hotel in Las Vegas has to the capital city of France. Transport the whole gin palace to Vegas and it MIGHT fool enough Americans to do OK.

It's no good dropping £5.5 million on the decorations if your first contact is with a bolshie East European front-of-house prima donna who clearly learned her customer-interface skills from the Camden traffic warden who threatened to ticket me as I was counting out change by the parking ticket machine over the road. We nick-named her 'Rosa Klebb".

Down the escalators (escalators?) to our table jammed next to a birthday party of 20 boisterous diners. Their shouting blended beautifully with the background music that seemed to be an amplified version of the leakage form the headphones of the iPod user who sits next to you on the bus.

We sussed the voucher scam fairly quickly. You pay £20 and get the £48 taster special for £19. Except the taster special's real price should be £15.

I've lived in South Africa. Trust me, the food is to South African cuisine as fish and ships is to Japanese food.

Memo to Shaka Zulu: biltong should be served in fresh-dried hunks - not as freeze-dried slivers. Here's another tip: salmon is an oily fish. You don't need to serve it drizzled with oil. No-one I know in South Africa eats shiny smoke salmon.

The lamb was dry and tasteless. The chicken curry had as much kick as my kitten's back foot. The wine prices are a poor joke with no punch line.

Here's another tip to the waiting staff. Don't refer to ladies as "my dear". It's patronising, condescending, and shows you have little understanding of how to engage with your customers.

The experience was rounded of by being presented with the bill showing the price of the £19 voucher ADDED on instead of being SUBTRACTED. A mistake? Hmmm.

We were lucky enough to take the Shaka Zulu experience home with us. About three hours after leaving the restaurant both of us had to make a sudden rush to the loo (not at the same time). Clearly our internal organs had reached the same conclusion as our taste buds.

If this joint hasn't closed down in a year I'll eat my hat (it will have a markedly better taste and texture than the biltong and lamb).

Nice venue and decor but shame about the service. We arrived early to have a drink in the bar before our dinner only to be shown to a table and forgotten about. No one came to take our drinks order and then they forgot to come and get us to take us to our table. When i asked where the bathroom was they directed me to what could have only been the staff toilets which were out a fire exit door. We were put on a table upstairs in the bar area away from the restaurant and the other diners downstairs so we asked to be moved. The food was very nice but a bit on the pricey side. We asked for some bread to go with our starter and told it would take some time - for some bread! I won't be going back in hurry and won't be recommending it to my friends.

Delicious food. Ostrich highly recommended!
Nice coctails, good service and beautifull deco.
Prices are not that expensive- beside that you can always check on the website to know what to expect...
Will go back for sure.

massively over the top but absolutely beautiful!! We loved it! Good food and amazing cocktails. Will definitely be going back!

I had my reservations about going to Shaka Zulu in Camden after reading the comments below, but it turned out just fantastic. The service from beginning to end was spot on.They were attentive, on time and helpful. Maybe they read some of the reviews too and thought to do something about it? Also the restaurant was full, and its a big place to fill. Our food was served really fast, from an open kitchen. The food was sublime - we had the Springbok, peri-peri chips and sosaties. The wine was great and the decorations/ambiance was to die for!!! A real treat. I will recommend it to everyone, and I'll definitely go again.

i went to shaka zulu sat 25th sept. if i could sum it up in one word, that word would be DISAPPOINTING. the decor is amazing, it looks great but the food is overpriced and the quality isn't that good. I would not recommend shaka zuku to anyone. if you do go DO NOT GO THERE HUNGRY cos you will not come away satisfied. they should forget the restraurant, turn it into a club only and save themselves the embarrasment.

Where do you start? I went to this restaurant last Sat after hearing about it from friends so I thought I would take my cousin there to celebrate her 40 th Birthday. Our booking was for 1/2 past 9 but seeing that the rest of the party was going to be late I changed it to 10. We were shown a table to have some drinks and snacks. At half past 9 the 4 remaining guests arrived! They were happy for awhile to sit and take in the beautiful restaurant and have some drinks. 10 o'clock and we were told by one girl that our table would be ready in a few minutes. 10 minutes later another girl came and said it would be ready in a few minutes. Quarter to 11 and we are still waiting, so I went to the reception and asked them what was happening only to find the 2 girls happily sitting there and chatting away. As they could see my annoyance they quickly jumped around and got us our table. I had booked the groupon voucher,and being the first time I had used groupon I did not know that the voucher had to be taken to the restaurant and every single diner had to have a voucher. When it came to ordering we were given the menus for the special and asked for our voucher.I told the waiter I had it on my email but was unable to access it from my phone as there was no network therefore I went to the receptionist with my husband to ask them if we could send it to their email and print it off. We were talking to someone entirely new and the girl who had just come to show us our table was standing there and minding her business despite just showing us our table and seeing to us the whole evening. The lady we were talking to was so utterly rude and telling us "don't have a go at me" as we were trying to explain our predicament.
After all that fuss and getting very flustered we decided to leave the voucher as we were getting no where...That meant ordering from the main menu. Oh dear, if you want really good service and something reasonable then DO NOT go to this restaurant. The reception staff do no justice for such an amazingly decorated restaurant. Being the front of house faces, they are rude and so impersonal. The waiters were really helpful and doing their jobs well. Quarter past 11 no one really had a appetite to eat but all the same we all ordered a dish each.Food was fine, nothing to write home about but WOW the price was something -£260 for 6 people.....Felt very embarrassing to have the other people chip in for a bill at a restaurant that was highly disappointing. Its a must to see amazing deco and that is about all!!!

Wow. This must be the biggest White Elephant in London! Apparently it cost millions, but I am sure that it will never be full of people, so what a waste of money.
Although it seems impressive when you first get in the restaurant, in reality it is utterly tasteless. The carvings are so over the top ... I can see why people think it looks like a theme park. Imagine Alton Towers in a dark basement with rubbish food and very expensive drink - yep ..... Shakazulu!!!
The food isn't worth mentioning, other than to say its terrible.
I took a client (business dinner), but was embarrassed. I don't think I'll be going back

Shaka Zulu its Marmite love or hate it, I love it, its fabulous, food, service, experience!

Finally a true South African restaurant in London!
Well, not quite! The interior is spectacular, service okay but the food...
I can honestly say I have never had a more disappointing meal in all my years of eating out in London.
It is clearly not South African owned because if it was I would never have been served a minute steak that was over cooked and madly overpriced.
The term "Braai" is SA for BBQ, the way the steak was cooked looked more like it was pan fried than barbecued!

We even waited a few weeks before going to allow for any teething problems.

The reported spend was £5 million pounds on the fit out of the restaurant, all I can say is what a waste of money.

Focussing on the food rather than the decor would have been a better idea!

What a shame, was really hoping it would be good!

A truly memorable experience at Shakazulu. Fantastic decor and friendly staff. No doubt a few teething troubles but a must visit restaurant.

Food good and excellent wine list. Quite overwhelmed by the size of the place.

Make up your own mind.

The Time Out review is spot on. The experience myself and nine friends had was almost identical: poor service, mediocre food and over-priced. Overall, possible one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. Avoid.

Shaka Zulu is simply beautiful