Pret a Diner, 50 St. James’ Street, London
01/06/2012
She
said…Having somehow got onto the appropriate mailing list, he was sent an
e-shot invitation to this ‘pop-up’ restaurant posing as an uber-cool, exclusive
dining experience in the heart of Mayfair . Yes it may be £75 for
said experience but the promise of something completely different that
tantalises the various senses with Michelen starred cooking seemed absolutely
worth it. Unfortunately, the reality proved absolutely not. If I had to pick
one word to sum up Pret a Diner it is GREEDY. Yes the capitals are to emphasise
me screaming loud and clear for the avoidance of doubt. The initial impression was very positive;
a chirpy chap greeted us warmly at the door, he gave us a tour of the first
floor dining space – a contemporary, buzzing room transformed from a former
private members’ club in a beautiful neoclassical building of the many that
exist in Mayfair – which the capitalist entrepreneurs of Pret a Diner had seized
on during its dormant period. We were informed we would be eating in the
‘celebrity’ dining room – a side room to the main one but nevertheless a trendy
yet romantic space; but almost immediately the hopeful anticipation was
squashed like a big rotten tomato. A young girl put some ‘amuse bouche’ down
and muttered something; we asked her to repeat what it was but quickly realised
she just wanted to get the whole waitering experience out of the way. She
graced us a few times during the meal with equal eloquence. We were presented
with the set menu of various meat dishes; we had checked beforehand that fish
or vegetarian options would be available and this was confirmed but it took a
series of pass the parcel like experiences from one waiter to another before
anyone would admit to actually knowing how to obtain any knowledge of what the
possibilities were. Finally a waiter said he could tell us but needed someone
else to listen to him telling us because he was new. For £75 we would be
getting: a salad of lettuce and tomato – which bore a strong resemblance to the
instant salad in a bag you can get from Tesco; followed by pene pasta with
overcooked vegetables in a bland tomato sauce; followed by another pasta dish –
this time chunks of lasagne sheets with unidentifiable overcooked vegetables in
a bland cream sauce. If we wanted desert
we had to pay extra. For drinks – I asked if there were cocktails and was told
if I wanted one I had to go downstairs to the bar to order it, which foolishly
I did. The bar staff were indifferent, took £15 from me for a tiny glass of
fizz with honey which I had the pleasure of then having to carry back up the
stairs to my table (they did still charge me service for the drink). At the end
of the meal when one of the several changes of waiters we had asked how our
meal was and we said disappointing – explaining that pasta followed by pasta
was not very creative he responded ‘I like pasta so I would have been happy’.
Now there’s customer service. In a competitive world of dining I love seeing
entrepreneurs combine their love of food with creativity to offer something
different but Pret a Diner is a complete farce – greedy people offering sloppy
food and useless service with absolute delusions of grandeur. Greedy, greedy,
greedy. This is a pop up that should just pop off.
He said... This was a swish pop-up with pedigree which you can't even go to anymore, so I'm going to be as lazy as the organisers and give it a one word review: disappointing. Big time.
No comments:
Post a Comment