Quaglino's

I visited Quaglinos with my 10yr old daughter and her friend after a theatre visit. Each of us chose completely different food from different menus and we were all very pleased. The service was great, and the food couldn't be faulted. Thank you Quaglinos.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Went there for the first time in over 10 years with my girlfriend. They had an offer on for a locally French menu which was very well priced. Food was great and flower decoration in the middle was stunning. Only minor let down was that the waiting staff had their minds elsewhere when they were needed. This modern system of serving the food and then coming back five minutes later to ask if everything is OK is not enough. Much prefer if they just looked around the room to see if they were needed rather than disturbing us in the middle of our meal.
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John H
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, July 10, 2008

I had been to Quaglino's a long time ago but couldn't remember why I didn't like it so I thought I'd give it another chance. We were early for our reservations so decided to have drinks in the bar first. I asked for a lemonade with a splash of strawberry liqueur, not a problem. When I asked for the same in the restaurant the waitress insisted on bringing it seperately so I ended up paying £9 for a lemonade with a bit of colour! The food was not that great, needless to say I won't bother again.
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Tessa Williams
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 07, 2008

Went here for anniversary dinner and quite simply had an amazing time. The restaurant is beautiful, service great and we had the sefood platter with lobster and it was truly decadent. I have never seen so much seafood - so much we couldn't finish it. The reviews do seem to be rather split but don't let that put you off. I would throughly recommend this place and would love to go again. The only note I would add is that we were originally seated to the side which for us was rather dark so asked to be moved to the middle and this requested was handled very nicely. The restaurant, food and service - Grand.
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Selina Brown
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Monday, June 23, 2008

Conran what are you doing? The once famous Quaglino's has gone down big time, very bad service, people dont know what they are doing here. Dont let yourself down Conran.
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lola
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Sunday, June 15, 2008

I went to Quaglino's as part of a group of six last week. After reading the reviews on this site I was a little apprehensive, but we had a great night.

We were going to be a bit late for our table, so we phoned ahead and they said it was no problem. On arrival we were shown directly to our table. It was a Thursday night and about half full - over the course of the night it filled up completely, but it didn't feel claustrophobic as other reviewers have suggested. The waiters were pleasant and attentive, but not intrusive. All our dishes arrived together, were well cooked and tasted wonderful.

Two courses, with wine, water and side dishes came to about £45 per person. Overall, a really nice evening, and I'd recommend the restaurant.
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Kate
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

All too often a restaurant falls foul of "living off it's name" and unfortunately, Quaglino's is no exception. Once it was a place you could go to knowing that the food would be good, service polite and efficient and even if it wasn't all that inspiring it would be a decent 7 out of 10....

As you walk into the cavenous emptiness, alarm bells should start ringing as to why at 9pm on a Friday evening it is so empty and that our party of 17 were able to get a table so easily in the heart of London on a Friday evening!

The bar was soulless and the wine list, well if you can call 2 wines a "list", was limited! Once seated it took 40 minutes for anyone to take our wine order and then a further 40 to tell us the wine we'd chosen (and our second choice) was not in stock.... The Chateaubriand was tough and overdone and most of the food was poorly cooked and presented. The service was extremely slow and the only saving grace was that they took the chateaubriand off the bill....

The experience would convince me not to return to Quaglinos for a very long time!
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Alex Green
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

I recently took the opportunity to try Quaglino's as part of London Restaurant Week and I must say it was a complete disappointment.

My main of carpaccio of beef was wonderful, but that's about where it ended. The duck was passable, the side dishes mixed up and my chocolate fondant was completely overcooked. All in all the food was below average for a local diner.

The service was, for a five star restaurant, way below standard. Water spilt on table, re-ordering drinks difficult and the wine waiter refilling half empty glasses with newly-ordered wine.

This is a place trading on reputation. And you can't do that for very long.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I understand that when dining on a set menu the food may not be the most exciting dishes the kitchen can offer. However, such food should be representative of the quality of the kitchen; after all, the popularity of set menus mean that many diners will judge restaurants on what they get from meal deals.

If that is true, I can only assume that the cuisine of Quaglino's - which previously had a very good reputation - has declined woefully. My first course of black pudding, chorizo, bacon and poached egg salad was far, far too salty. The egg was absolutely necessary to make it even edible.This was served on a paltry, tasteless, dried-out bit of lettuce.

This was followed by herb-crusted halibut on a bed of spinach. The herbs were bitter, and overpowered the bland fish - which was already weakened by its watery spinach base. The simple butter dressing with it was ineffectual - I gave up on this dish two-thirds of the way through.

My husband was uninspired by his carrot and ginger soup starter, leaving about half of it. Things improved a bit with his main course of a potato and chive pancake with (another) poached egg. This was also served with spinach and a butter dressing - I expect that these ingredients are particularly cheap and therefore seen as appropriate for the set menu.

We both had a pancake with chocolate sauce for pudding, which was the best course of all - a surprise to both of us, given that neither of us are pudding people, preferring the savoury options. At least we both finished that course!

I had wanted to dine at Quaglino's for a long time, but was sorely disappointed. We were offered no side plates nor butter knives with our bread before our first course - yes, it may be the French way, but it feels impolite to me to mess crumbs all over the dining table. Also, the residual butter on my knife didn't improve my awful salad starter in any way!

The venue is large and impressive - and packed with tables - with a magnificent staircase and high ceilings. Quaglino's was virtually empty when we dined early on a Sunday evening, which was something of a mercy - I imagine the acoustics would be awful when the place is full.

Service is generally good - although this was no stretch, given the lack of other diners. We found those who waited on our table to be pleasant and attentive, regularly refilling our glasses with a decent white Rioja (although not too often, as that would be irritating). Alas, we had to wait for a few minutes at the cloakroom while the relevant member of staff was in the back room - that made the service seem a little less polished.

A great shame - there seems little point in returning to Quaglino's.
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dawnage - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, April 02, 2008

A faultless Saturday lunch combined with an excellent value offer of two tickets to the Russian Exhibition at the RA.

Food standard was high and the floor manager seemed to have eyes in the back of his head.

In view of the previous reviews I can only assume that all the staff were replced overnight!
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MartinC - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, April 01, 2008