The Luxe
109 Commerical Street
E1 6BG
Date of Last Visit: Friday, November 13th, 2009
The Victims: Feathers, Jen, Niculie
The Damage: £25 each
The Background: I don't often get out of the office for lunch. But somehow, the other Friday, the stars aligned and I managed to convince a few of my colleagues to escape their inboxes and their Blackberries for a while. I wanted to try out The Luxe. Mainly because I'd read about the chairs. Somewhere. I can't remember where. And I'm a sucker for chairs. (Screw the food. Just show me the chairs! Hey, maybe I should start a new blog. A restaurant chair blog. Or I could do somewhat akin to the lovely but seemingly short-lived Silver Spoon blog, which ended each restaurant review with a photo of the cutlery. Clever.)
The Entrance: But I digress, as always. We enter The Luxe. And we give our name and are shown our table. (While we're waiting to check in, we're behind the party of 10 who showed up at The Luxe at 1 p.m. on a FRIDAY without a booking. Really people, what were you thinking???)
I like the look of The Luxe. We spend some time massaging the wallpaper, flocked with birds that appear to have been sewn onto the paper. I spend some time massaging the chairs. And then it's down to business.
The Starters: Jerusalem artichoke soup for me. Feathers and Jen love it. I think it's just okay. It's too creamy. It's dull. It looks nice though. I'm struck, once again, by the thought…maybe if I just didn't eat out so much, I'd really like this.
The Main: For me, it's the risotto, and I really have to stop doing this to myself. It's mushroom risotto and firstly, you know I don't like mushrooms. And secondly, you know I think risotto is monotonous. So I kinda don't enjoy this. (Surprise.) Although I would say that the risotto is pretty perfectly prepared. It's still just that right amount creamy. Ah, and there are some generous shavings of parmesean sprinkled all over. I liked those.
The Service: Started out strong, but then our mains took ages and ages to arrive–I had to ask, "Um, when?" (Initially, we were in synch with the table next to us…they ordered right before us, and we got our starters immediately after them. But then they got our mains and were nearly finished before we got ours. They were four. We were four.) And then when we asked for the bill, the first time, it said £120. That was incorrect. The second time, it said £110. That was incorrect too. And the third time, it said £100. Bingo. But come on…Feathers practically had to write out the bill FOR our server. Not good.
The Verdict: Go for the chairs. And the wallpaper. Not the food. Or the service.
11 comments
Ha – go for the chairs? I’ve dropped by for drinks but not the food. Given the place’s proximity to where I work, I’ll eventually eat there, but now I’ve been duly warned. [I was around the corner that day, meeting friends at Rosa’s Thai, which is a fantastic place for lunch, by the way.]
I ate at Rosa's once. I think I told you what happened afterwards, right? It took me FOUR DAYS to recover, forcing me to miss a dinner at York & Albany, which I was really looking forward to. I had never had true puking-your-guts-out food poisoning before this year. And I ended up with it twice. (Once from lunch at Lena's. Second being Rosa's.) Rosa's were very sweet though and offered to send me flowers to make me feel better. And to be fair, the food was good. But what happened afterwards was very very bad. Although I did lose 4.5 lbs.
I’m terribly sorry but why slate a place when you have clearly ordered badly. If you knowingly don’t like mushrooms and think that risotto is monotonous – then why order it? Order something you might like maybe? And save the restaurant from some misguided blogging critique that bears has no real basis as you’ve ordered something you knew you wouldn’t like…. go back, try something new and see if you are surprised…
“maybe if I just didn’t eat out so much, I’d really like this” – amen.
Quite pricey for quite simple food. Unless you had loads of drinks you didn’t mention?
I know. I am cruel, aren't I? Here's the thing–the risotto was the only thing on the mains that appealed to me that day. So I ordered it. Putting the main aside, I was not thrilled with my soup. And the service was CRAZY. I can be patient…but come on…three tries to get the bill right? (Also, I left out the bit about trying to confirm my booking that morning because it was such a long and boring story. But confirming a reservation should not be as hard as it was!) Anyhow, for £25 pp–with only water to drink–I expect more.
Nope, just water! Which is actually something I forgot to mention…they do their own still and sparkling. I like that! So no big water charges.
The other mains we had were very good and far surpassed the risotto. It is worth a mention. Also, shocked Krista didn’t cry hooray for the cheap bottled water. They made their own fizzy water and it was .50! Is Krista over her “tap water is ok” mission?
The bill was such a disaster it was funny. She was so sweet and polite but she didn’t have a clue. 3 of us ordered set meals and 1 didn’t and it threw her into a tailspin.
Still the food was nice but a bit pricey.
p.s. I could give a crap about chairs. I will never understand uncomfortable Scandinavian design obsession.
Ah, that does ring a bell. For what it’s worth, I eat there at least once a week now (for lunch). Sometimes twice a week. And with no ill effects. So if you give it another try (and I could understand why you wouldn’t), I would be surprised if you were sick again.
I never really rated John Torode and based on my experiences at Smiths of Smithfields and the bad reviews of Luxe, I doubt I’ll be coming here. I’m just waiting for the day when a Masterchef contestant turns around and tells Torode to do one and tell him to his face that his restaurants are a bit crap.
The risotto looks better than it seems to have tasted. See – beauty is more than skin deep…
Food is cold every time, overpriced for the quality and the staff absolutely unapologetic verging on aggressive. I used to eat here weekly but they have really gone downhill.
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