Canteen
Royal Festival Hall
Belvedere Rd
London SE1 8XX
Date of Last Visit: 24 November 2008
The Victims: Ben, Robyn
The Damage: Two tickets to Ferran Adria at Royal Festival Hall
The Background: I have two extra tickets to see Jay Rayner interview Ferran Adria at Royal Festival Hall. I check in with Ben and he is game; his colleague Robyn comes along.
We make plans to meet at Canteen at 6:15. Now let me tell the folks that work at Canteen…it's all in the delivery. I walk in a little after 6. I ask for table for three, there is no one behind me and no one in front of me, and the dude that meets me at the door is just SOO very rude. He explains–rudely, not politely–that I can't sit down until the rest of my party is there (Totally fine! I understand!) and that I can't wait up front (Um, okay), I have to go to the bar, and no I can't book a table (even though they do take reservations). I jokingly suggest that I'll walk outside and give them a call and he is so NOT laughing.
The Food: Ben and Robyn arrive and we do get a table but our host abrubptly informs us that he needs the table back by 8:30. Um, it's like 6:40 p.m. Fine.
So we sit. We order. And we wait. And wait. And wait. Honestly, I think it was about 25 minutes in between ordering and food.
Chicken curry pie for me. It's good. But I ate it so fast, that I barely remember what it tasted like.
The Verdict: I don't know. Maybe you should go. But don't be in a rush or anything.
10 comments
I went here a while ago and had the most disappointing fish and chips I think I have ever eaten but my boyfriend’s pie seemed more successful. Anyway I won’t be in a rush to go for dinner again.
I’ve been to both Canteens and I’ve definitely found that the service at the RFH branch is insanely bad. Never had a problem at the other one though.
Gotta love such an hones review. How can a host be rude? Isn’t it their job to be nice? I don’t get it…How was the Jay Rayner interview?
I really dislike it when people tell me they need the table back in however many hours, it makes me feel rushed and uncomfortable, like I should be constantly checking my watch!
I have found Canteen rude, rushed and the food was never amazing. I really don’t know people love it so much!
LOL. That sounds like an awful experience, and I’m not surprised based on my mildly-less rude experience last Sunday evening. When I went to the RFH location on Sunday, the place was empty, and the host also insisted that we wait by the bar while he found us a table (note that over the course of the evening, the other tables around us didn’t fill up). At first, we hovered near the host stand to chat with our two friends, and he really seemed angry at us for not moving to the bar (where there wasn’t anybody behind the bar to serve us anything anyway).
In any case, I agree with Su-Lin . . . I like both the food and service at the Spitalfields location much more than at RFH. Maybe it’s hard for RFH to avoid crankiness given all the tourist traffic they must get? In any event, while it might be an explanation, it’s no excuse for rudeness by the host.
I went last weekend and it was pretty bad. My coeliac friend sent back his spinach and poached egg salad because it arrived with croutons, despite no mention on the menu. It was returned to my friend minus most of the croutons, although some still remained amongst the spinach leaves. They claimed they had made a new salad from scratch. For his main he ordered roast chicken and it was miserably insipid, with flabby skin. A truly rubbish experience and evidence of a kitchen that can’t cope with a busy restaurant. On the plus side, my devilled kidneys were beautiful.
It might be worth trying Canteen in Spitalfields Market instead; though they share the rudeness when it comes to actually seating you, the food is often fairly prompt and really tasty.
I agree though, for the price they charge is it really worth having an unpleasant experience…
Perhaps you should try the original Canteen in Spitalfields -it was voted The Good Food Guide Readers’ London Restaurant of the Year in 2007 (this year the accolade went to Pied a Terre).
There’s also a new branch of Canteen on Baker Street (on the site of the old M&S head office) and I hear they’re going to be opening up in Canary Wharf too.
I’ve had a good time at Canteen in Shoreditch but the last time I went to this place the service was painfully slow, the portions were very small (£14 for a tiny piece of chicken and some leaves), our side of roast potatoes were rubbish but worst of all our waiter was rude and ignored us for the entire time. He seemed to always be visibly doing nothing but walking around looking important and NOT serving us, which was even more frustrating, busy waiters I understand, lazy waiters I do not.
We had to ask for water 4 times, would have easily had wine and pudding had there been anyone asking us if we wanted to order any at any point. It’s not often I completely with hold a tip, but i did this time and left wishing I’d done more than just that.
I’m actually a very tolerant diner but this is the worst experience I have ever had and I do not intend to return.
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