I'm amazed that this place gets the critics star. The food was very disappointing, the service slow depite the fact that we were one of only two occupied tables on a saturday evening. The dim sum platter was standard frozen fare, the hot and sour soup a uniform brown glue tasting of HP sauce. We has 3 main dishes, all of which contained what seemed to be an entire green pepper and an entire barely cooked onion, the central componenent making only the occasional appearence on the plate. The fourth of our main dishes failed to arrive and we felt thankful for that. We definitely will not be going back.
We had 4 different waiter/esses, one knew nothing at all about the food, but things went pretty smoothly all the same. Without drinks, it's good value for money. Sake pushed the bill towards the stratosphere, as all the cheaper choices were unavailable. Next time we'll stick to beer.
Beware of the strict time-slots. Your order will not have priority over take-out orders and you could be left hungry. On my third enthusiatic visit, we sat at the bar, surrounded by empty tables. We watched in anguish as the chefs prepared box after box of take out orders. Finally our food arrived 15 minutes before the strictly enforced departure time, with no time to appreciate it or order our intended second round.
Tiago and I went on an early saturday evening, anticipating some predinner snacks and drinks. The draft Superbock was great but the wine list had a choice of exactly 2 reds and 4 white, none of which were particularly exciting. The red Monte Velho, although normally a safe choice, had to go back and was replaced fairly ungraciously with the white which was a lot better. The food experience started badly, with a basket of stale bread. We liked the pastel de bacalhau which was light and smooth, the chicken empada and prawn rissol were tasty but a bit soggy. Cod and chickpea salad was freezing cold but alheria (game sausage) wrapped in cabbage with a quail's egg was inventive and not too oily as can sometime be the case. Although the waitress who bought our bill was sweet and cheerful, the attitude of the wait staff in general didn't encourage a return trip. If you're thinking of going for the food, you would be better off in Vauxhall.
maybe it's early days, but there were so many things that were off the menu by 8.30pm that we found choosing from some sections difficult and although we enjoyed our £8 cocktails, that was where we stopped with the alcohol to avoid having to resort to home-cooked lentils for the next month. GD's comment about this being the place for people happy out of their comfort zone is spot on. The dishes we ate were excellent, apart from the Tsukuri section, sashimi was unremarkable.
Recently I had one of the best dinners for a long time at St J B&W. Everything was perfectly prepared, with excellent attention to detail from the kitchen. What a shame the same couldn't be said for the dining room service, absent-mindedly negligent at best, haughty and rude at worst.
I really don't understand why this place is so highly rated. It took us half and hour to place our order and when it arrived the sausages were overcooked, burnt on the outside and smothered in some generic goopy gravy that tasted little different to Bisto. Alfredo would have swooned. Won't be going back.
We had tried to go here in the winter but the place was packed and we didn't feel like waiting (they don't take reservations for just 2 people). This time we were more successful and we had a table in the patio garden, a hidden gem and a contrast from basic dining area inside. Excellent chipirones, cordero and artichokes. Patatas bravas were a little odd, basically home fries reheated and overwhelmed with a good but too copious home made sauce but everything else was to a high standard and good value, including the white Rioja.
