We visited using a Red Balloon voucher for a tasting menu so realise we may not have got a ‘full’ experience, and would say the food and wine was nice but not outstanding.
Our main issue was with the service. All the staff were friendly and helpful, however, few seemed to much idea of the subtleties of providing good service at a restaurant that pitches itself as premium. Possibly an impact of ongoing staff shortages in hospitality.
At the time of booking I noted my partner was gluten intolerant but this seemingly didn’t actually flow through anywhere because the staff didn’t seem to know until I mentioned when ordering a drink to start. Following that, our waiter returned to the table at least four separate times before any food had come out to advise compromises or entire replacements required to four out of the five courses, after talking to the kitchen. I feel it’s reasonable to expect staff assigned to the table pay attention to notes like that on the reservation and be better prepared. While this was designed as a shared plate experience, I also feel greater accommodation could also have been made to serve the regular and gluten free alternatives on separate plates for the relevant courses. On one occasion the waiter also asked to clear plates while a course was obviously still being eaten – I literally had cutlery with food on it in my hand at the time.
So overall what could have been an opportunity to convince people who’d never been to the restaurant to return in the future, or to recommend it to friends, fell flat and missed the mark so we won’t be back.