E&O

My fiancée and I went to E&O for dinner on a Sunday night. We both love our cocktails and wine so decided to go an hour early so we could try out the bar which seemed to get some great reviews. The bar area itself is very small and cramped which meant we had to stand with our drinks in our hands for a short while. Some staff were having food in the restaurant at the time, which was before it officially opened so we asked if we could have our drinks in the restaurant also. Unfortunately they said no but we managed to get a spot to sit down in the bar shortly afterwards. We had two cocktails each which were nice (5.5/10) but far too expensive for what they were. The quality of the cocktail certainly didn't represent the price, £7.50-£9. We ordered some fried chilli squid while we were having our drinks and waiting for the restaurant to open, (we were pretty hungry). The squid was very well cooked and tender.

Eventually the restaurant was opened, our coats taken, and we were escorted to our table. We ordered still water and a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. We ordered our food and went outside for a cigarette. After 4 minutes of being outside the waitress informed us that our food was on the table. (This is the first time I have seen a restaurant serve food to an empty table, so I certainly wasn't impressed with this). Luckily the starters were nice, particularly the warm duck salad and my mixed sashimi . Onto mains next, marinated beef steak for me and honey pork with coriander for my fiancée. Steak was good, pork was fair. I'm not a fan of coriander and this dish had coriander everywhere, in the salad and all over the pork. This amount was certainly not necessary.

I finished off with profiteroles and a double espresso which were good. The final bill came to £142,

VERDICT: Nice to try once but not good value for money. You can get much better cocktails for the same money elsewhere.
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Stephen Garvey - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Went to E&O for an early dinner with 2 friends. We had all been before, as it's near where we live and it was an easy option for a Monday night . While the ambience and food is OK, the prices are steep for the small portions, but this is sort of expected in Notting Hill.

What really got to me this time and for this reason I won't be going back - we felt incredibly hurried from the start to finish. Firstly, the waitress was urging us to order the starters even before I had had a chance to open the menu! Then as our meal progressed, we actually got interrupted EVERY SINGLE TIME when the waitress felt she needed to ask us something. We were not even allowed to finish laughing about a joke when we were asked to order the puddings. And come 8:40pm we were very swiftly removed from the table as there were people waiting at the bar to start their dinner. The waitress was a sweet girl however we could really feel at all times that she was constantly being aware of the requirement to make us to move on.

When booking for dinner they do give you a time slot and tell you that you'd need to be finished by 8.30pm, however, the way this policy is implemented made me vow not to come here again. If we had wanted to eat up our food really fast and without talking to each other, we would have gone to a canteen.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, October 24, 2008

Many of the best "foodie" restaurants in London have excellent food, service and value for money but fall down on the interior design and/or overall atmosphere. E&O is the exact opposite. It has a very nice interior design and a good buzzing atmosphere. However, the food is not up to standard and some or our dishes were left unfinished. I would say the quality is slightly lower than Ping Pong but for over double the price. Expect to spend at least £50 per head for food and drinks. The service was passable - I felt the staff were wondering why people were fussing over such average food.

E&O does have a high reputation and I just can't see why. Not recommended.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Saturday, October 18, 2008

E&O is really going downhill - what's happening! I USED to be a big fan of E&O and it's been my favourite restaurant in London now for several years - until this weekend. A group of us went for lunch on Saturday and it was incredibly disappointing. To start with, the normally deliciously divine chilli salt squid came out cold and tough. Tasted worse than something you'd get from the local chippie. Then our mains were TERRIBLE! Whenever I've gone to E&O in the past I've always ordered the vegetarian pad thai and it's been fantastic. However, on Saturday it was awful and I couldn't even finish it. It was oversalted, over sauced and tasted like it had been sitting under the hot lamp for far too long. My husband's meal was the same. When we very nicely told the waiter the food was inedible his reaction was 'Oh' and he picked up our unfinished meals and walked off. He then presented us with the full bill and when we told him we weren't paying for poor quality food that we couldn't eat he became extremely rude. Come on E&O, lift your game! You might still be riding on a 'celebrity haunt' reputation but even that can't go on forever. If you continue to serve up less than ordinary food with arrogant service people will soon start to talk about you for the wrong reasons. After many years of loyal custom, we certainly won't be going back.
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Emily Louise
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Sunday, August 03, 2008

A friend and I went to E&O last Friday, and were both pretty disappointed. The food was actually good, however the service was pushy and rude.

As soon as we sat down at our table the waitress was already asking what we drinks we wanted and if we wanted starters - I mean we had literally had JUST sat down, and already she was on our case to order!! Admittedly my friend and I chatted for a few minutes as we hadnt seen each other for awhile, only to have the waitress keep pushing us to order and went on to remind us numerous times throughout the meal that we needed to be out by 8.30pm.

Another thing that really annoyed me is that whilst I was still eating one of my dishes, the waitress came along and removed the sauce that I was still using along with my unfinished cocktail! I just dont understand that? I found the service overall rude and in no way relaxed nor did I feel that they really had the time for us, if anything I got the feeling that we should hurry up and leave!

Its a shame as I had pretty high expectations of the restaurant, but unfortunately I felt very disappointed and will not return again.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Great Restaurant. Very tasty food. Good vibe. Great service.

Took my wife back there for her birthday. We love the Pad Thai! Also the Chicken and snow pea Gyoza. The service was great. The people from the table next to us left a bag, so our waiter chased them down the street to give it back to them.

The prices are OK for the quality of food. The only small complaint was that our table was above the kitchen, and the fan/exhaust system made the floor vibrate quite alot.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Friday, June 27, 2008

Fantastic - I took a good friend of mine to E&O for the first time for dinner and cocktails on Friday night, having heard about this place from radio and TV.

The champagne cocktails at the trendy bar before dinner were incredible and very reasonably priced, the decor and atmosphere were great, and the service was fantastic.

As for the food, everything was mouth-wateringly delicious. I can highly recommend the wok-fried tiger prawns in white pepper, chilli siu beef in lettuce wraps and the famous shitake chicken.

The bill came to a shade over £50.00 for two of us including drinks and service - very reasonably indeed, considering that the food was delicious, great portions (perfect to share) and suberb, efficient service considering they were packed!

We will definitely be going back to E&O,as soon as possible if I can arrange it.

Highly recommended.
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Dan
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

This restaurant has gone down hill.

Used to be one of my favourites. I went on a Sunday, the service was slow and lazy. I asked for a glass of wine that didn't materialise - I wouldn't mind but they weren't exactly busy. The staff seemed to think it was their day off rather than mine. The food was not as good as it once was - my god daughter's noodles tasted only of lemon and nothing else. When I complained the waiter was very blase. I asked him to call the Manager who was equally as blase. Was very disappointed and will not be returning.
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Maria
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Saturday, January 12, 2008

My husband and to London for 5 days from new york. A friend had recommended this restaurant. We walked all the way from Oxford street to this restaurant in Notting hill!!!! 2.3 hours it took us but great fun. the food is outstanding!!!!! The chilli prawns with curry leaves are delicious and the red curry is great! the service was brilliant. The manager was so kind and accommodating with our food. We will send ALL our friends here!!!!!
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Rachna Randev
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Fantastic place. All the dishes were on the mark. Best chilli salt squid I've had since I got back from Oz, and the duck, watermelon and cashew salad was worth going back for on its own. The tempura prawns were enormous and the batter perfect, very good.

Only black spot was that we went for the 7 p.m. sitting on a Friday and the closer it got to 9 p.m. the ruder the waitress was, even at one point interrupting our conversation even though we were done in plenty of time. It looked really buzzy at 9 p.m. so maybe do the later session when you won't have to rush as much.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, October 31, 2007