Bishopsgate Kitchen

SHORT VERSION:  Well, this place is awful and I would recommend you walk right on by.

Service: 1
The great host that greeted me and took order, a guy that was friendly and fast, seemed to disappear and leave two amateurs on the floor. He left two women who walked around and chatted to the two guys who were hitting on them while ignoring everyone else.
After a half hour of trying to use their butter knife to cut the overlooked steak, one of the servers finally brought me a steak knife.
After ignoring me for the hour I was eating, a different server, the one that was chatting it up with the likely married but ringless diner, came over to ask me if I wanted anything else. Get this: the kitchen was closed by then so if I wanted either of the hot desserts I was plum out of luck. First of all, the fact that the restaurant's posted closing hour is 10pm and they close the kitchen at exactly 10pm is pretty pathetic. That basically means they should stop accepting patrons at 930 pm latest. Second, if chatty Cathy had actually come over during my meal perhaps she could have gathered my dessert order BEFORE the kitchen closed.

Food: 1
My meal consisted of quite possibly the worst steak I've had in a year. I've had better steaks at Disney World and strip mall food courts.  Absolutely no flavor and if this is medium, well done must resemble a charcoal briquette. Incredibly bland food. Even the bread was just ok. 

Decor: 2
A nice space except whereas I typically enjoy seeing the kitchen, seeing the cook open a container of uncooked food and smell it was less than appealing. One of the cooks approached what looked like a more senior guy and appeared to suspect something was off. The other guy smelled it, looked at it, and smelled again. I was sick wondering if he concluded it was "acceptable". 

Value: 2
Really bad food at moderately expensive prices. Fail.

Overall: 1
I suspect this is the type of place that gets clientele who don't feel like walking farther than across the street RBS. There are WAY too many restaurants in London to waste time or money on a place like this. In Chicago, this would be one of those places I would predict would be out of business soon. Not sure if here in London a crappy restaurant can survive due simply to convenience of location. Maybe so!

I was looking for my first failure of a restaurant in London and, alas, I've found it. Not only do I not recommend this place, I urge you to go out of your way (which really is only about 4 blocks toward Spitalfields) to find a decent meal. Do not go to Bishopsgate Kitchen. It should be closed.

Note: while waiting for my bill, I overheard another guest tell the server he ordered lamb and got tuna. She laughed and he laughed. Interesting. I wouldn't actually find that funny.

AVOID THIS PLACE.

My wife and i had a late lunch yesterday at Bishopsgate Kitchen and were really dissapointed with the experience. The service was mediocre to start and the brunch menu options to choose from were not spectacular. I had the chorizo hash and my wife had the salmon sweet potato fishcake. My chorizo was a plate of new potatoes boiled and slightly grilled with chunks of chorizo around, and grated marchego cheese over the poached duck egg (which was over cooked). The way that i understood the dish is that the hash was going to be the potatoes??? The dish was awful and i left 80% of the potatoes. My wife did not enjoy her salmon cakes either. I think your chef needs to rethink - salmon and sweet potatoes do not go! It was way too sweet and way too much sweet potatoe to salmon in the cakes - she had to search for the salmon chunks. As for service after we got our dishes, neither of the two girls came by to ask us how the food was or if we needed anything else. A mute girl came over when we were finished to take the still half eating plates away and then came back to bring the desert menus? We declined having suffered enough pain and requested the bill. Which included a 10% gartuity - what cheek! After we paid, we walked past the two servers and neither of them said "good-bye", "thank you", "go to hell", nothing? We did not expect 5 star dining treatment, but an acknowledgement of helping to pay their salary would not go a miss, especially since i did not dispute the 10% surcharge. Do you just take it for granted that this should be included? I am writing because i have not been this dissapointed in so long...in London most restaurants do not care if they get negative comments, because the overwelming demand. But the owners should know that the staff they are highering cannot cook or treat customers.

Lovely place to eat, staff friendy, good honest food.