56 Westow in City of London, Westminster

I’ll start with positives, the food was really good. We ordered a selection of the small plates and they were all delicious. Unfortunately, great food isn’t the whole picture when running a successful restaurant. Ambience, appropriate pricing and service are of huge importance - if you just wanted tasty food you can do that at home or the many other eateries of SE19. Beginning with ambience, it was a quiet Saturday afternoon with a handful of customers, all of whom had been packed into one corner despite the place being empty. That didn’t feel very premium. With regards to service i’m afraid it was atrocious. When we walked in the manager was sitting at the bar on a laptop. When turning around to ‘greet’ us it was if they were doing us huge, begrudging, favour by condescending to allow us through the doors. Rude doesn’t do the exchange justice. It was surly beyond comprehension. The young staff they had waiting were very sweet, but inexperienced, painfully slow and mostly absent. With regard to cost it was disproportionately expensive for somewhere with zero atmosphere and awful service. As we left I still said a cherry and enthusiastic thank you, which the manager responded to by ignoring and turning their back to us. For the sake of clarity our party of 3 were all super polite, so i’m not sure what we did to incur the manager’s undisguised contempt. As far as cost is concerned it was woefully overpriced given the above. My feeling is that they are trading on the reputation of their predecessor, and expecting to succeed with zero passion or charm. Given Joanna’s couldn’t make it work after 30 years of being a superb, destination restaurant I can’t see it lasting far in to 2025. I know terrible service is pretty much the norm these days, but you have to at least show your customers a little respect.

I had a lovely meal here lastnight with family. We had a delicious cocktail each followed by a selection of small plates for starters then a large plate for main and some desserts to share. All delicious, good sized portions and not overpriced. Lovely friendly waiter too. We’ll be back for sure!

Fabulous meal. Leisurely lunch with my son. Bream, carrots, patatas bravas, choc mousse, cheeseboard. Cant find fault.

It was the first time I have eaten out in Crystal Palace we had family over from the US and it seemed like a convenient place to meet. We were looking for a place to eat after 9pm and came across this place. We were given a table in the Private room as all the other tables were busy, chose about 8 small plates, then a few people had mains. The selection of food is great so we shared everything. Our US family had never had such a diverse selection of food before. I saw gateaux pimet on the menu which reminds me of Mauritius. I will go back again. The service was excellent. Fred served us and extended the dining time because it was quite late. I wonder if the chef is Mauritian.

I live in Crystal Palace and have been planning to come here for a while. I finally booked for Saturday lunch and then read these reviews. I considered cancelling but like to support unique places on the triangle so decided to give it a go anyway. Fortunately I had the complete opposite experience to others who visited. Hopefully they took the feedback on board because the service was excellent and the food exceeded expectations. It is a small menu for large dishes, but I prefer a small, well-executed menu to a menu that offers plenty but is low on quality. We had the patatas bravas, lamb with red wine and merguez sausage. All were excellent. Would definitely recommend and we will be back.

This used to be the old Joanna’s that closed some time ago. We had a lunch appointment 12-30 3 of us Lady who said she was the manager spoke to us for about 15 minutes about the new concept of the restaurant. Then we had menu that was very limited Waited about 15 minutes to order only after I went to see the manager and say we are ready to order We then had our food and waited for her to return to clear our plates and order Coffee Only when I went and found her on the computer did she come to our table After coffee Guess what I had to find her agin on her computer and ask for the bill What a shame this place will never survive in the present form The owner really needs to sort his staff out and produce a larger selection to choose from. We will not be Returning

We went for a client lunch to 56 Westow. Very quiet for a Friday afternoon. Food was small but mostly tasty. Menu very mixed so it was challenging to make a selection that worked together. The style of restaurant is done so much better elsewhere. The service was extremely poor. We had to keep getting up from the table to source someone to help. It was then extremely slow. It felt like they had no desire to make money from our table. Weird. It could be a great little local venue but no one will go regularly to pay their own money for that return.

The service was awful - only one very sweet but highly inexperienced waitress, drinks still weren't with us when food arrived, food arrived wrong and at wrong times, order a bottle of wine - after 2 choices where we were told they didn't have our chosen wine, we were then told that the wine list was totally out of date and many no longer offered! Food was very average. Final straw was the bill was totally wrong and they tried to charge us £ 65 for the bottle of Sancerre that wasn't in stock and we didn't have! Ambiance - decor hasn't changed since it was Joanna's, and it still has drab and out of date brown wooden furniture. This place doesn't know who or what it wants to be! All in all - not to be recommended.

We recently tried 56 Westow for the first time since the menu had looked intriguing when we walked past. We weren’t disappointed! The ‘Iberian’ dishes were different and delicious. My husband also raved about the slow-cooked lamb dish referred to in a previous review and my mackerel dish was beautifully cooked too. Service was great and we will definitely return 😀

Probably the worst meal I have ever had no idea of table service for more than three/four customers no manager on duty just teenage staff sold out of wine only £50/60 bottles left wait 30 minutes before we were served and couldn't even bring meals out same time rating 0/10

Like lots of people, I'm sure, I was petty devastated when Crystal Palace institution, Joanna's closed down and was replaced by 56 Westow. There's a real dearth of smart but reasonably priced restaurants in London and whilst 56 Westow is completely different to Joanna's, it certainly still ticks that box. Normally I find a couple of favourites on a restaurant menu and stick to those but I am steadily working my way through 56 Westow's main courses and haven't had a dud so far. Indeed, it was the deliciousness of last night's lamb with crisp polenta sticks, yoghurt and pomegranate that has prompted this review. Five stars to the chef who cooked that. There's a small team of front-of-house staff who are attentive, polite, interested and clearly enjoying their jobs which always lifts a restaurant at least one grade. It's so good that, although I live in Battersea (not close by), I'm seriously considering a Christmas lunch here.