Gargotte in Camden

Un caffè francese, nel cuore di Londra…A due passi dal British Museum. Un apparente paradosso ma che in realtà è perfettamente integrato nel contesto e offre l’occasione di una pausa pranzo o di una merenda davvero gradevole, in un ambiente delizioso.

Very underwhelming experience. We have dined in several Michelin star restaurants around the world and love a good experience. This restaurant was a great disappointment. We had the evening menu, which appears to be dishes from the menu but to share and therefore double the price, other tables had ordered regular meals and they appeared to be the same size as the one we had to share. Secondly the food was just not great. Very normal, nothing extraordinary or special in any kind of way, rather boring and bland. Also the service was unable to speak proper English therefore the communication was difficult. The wine had to be self-served, the bottle was left at the table, no-one checked on us to refill our glasses. When we spoke up regarding missing fish cutlery, we got a rude answer from the waiter that he can cut it perfectly fine and would do it for us if we struggled 😳. No explanation on the dishes was given, just placed in front of us. Also the restaurants atmosphere is not great, it is very busy as the kitchen is on the upper floor and you can see and hear the waiters running up and down the hallway. The bar in the upper floor is operated in a loudly manner. When we asked to waive the service charge, our waitress was not able to understand the ask herself and called the manager who discussed the situation, so a bad meal with bad service was followed by a socially awkward conversation. We would have expected a price reduction at the very least. Would not recommend, genuinely don’t understand how they managed to get a Michelin Star.

Lovely macaroons! I love the variety of the flavors and the quality of the cookies.

I was really looking forward to visit the place after seeing the menu online, but sadly when I arrived to the restaurant there was at least 5 different dishes, if the menu was the same of the one online I would have gone for the 10 courses menu but opted for the 8 instead, which felt like a gimmick anyways because they count the canapés, pre dessert and petit fours as a course, and the cheese course being a shortcut to avoid cooking an extra dish, so in the end I really got 5 courses and paid for 8, I think they do this with everyone. The canapés and the 3 savoury courses were great, but the pre dessert and dessert were really disappointing, not really creative and the dessert left me only with a taste of basil even after the petit fours and a bit of wine that I had left. The service was friendly but sloppy, the tablecloth was dirty and I noticed even before seating but didn’t want to make a fuss out of it. Then I’ve been asked for water twice and got even the wrong one 🤦🏻‍♂️ To order food was way quicker than ordering wine which took like 15 mins and they literally had 5 tables in the room, also the waiting between the courses was way too long, which means that either the front of house or the chefs are very slow. The wine list is embarrassing and as a sommelier myself seems like a set up to rip you off, there’s not a single bottle of wine under £90, also the wines by the glass they have a gap from like £25 to £40 to £125 which is insane, no half bottles either, and for my firsrt glass of wine they didn’t even offer me to taste it before, despite the wines I ordered were both a good value and the guy who served it was decent and had some knowledge. In all this I think it was the owner sitting next to my table with some friends and drinking wine instead of worrying about the mediocre service they give which is not worth of a Michelin star, probably they are just retaining it because they have it for long time and know the people of the guide. 190£ for just myself for that menu and 2 glasses of wine is absolutely not worth it and I won’t recommend anyone that has eye for details to go there. The room itself looks so old that saying that the place feel like is stuck in the 80’s is generous. Feels bad to leave a review like this, in first place because I work in the industry and I never like to talk bad about other places, and because the staff were friendly and offered me also a glass of white wine to go with my cheeses, but after what I spent I feel like it was absolutely outrageous for the food and wines and the only taste that stays in your mouth is bitter. Also for some very weird reasons after the review the owner tries to follow me from his private instagram account probably trying to write me something. He never moved from the table as he stated in the answer and he had about 2 bottles of wine while on duty. Manager apparently that doesn’t know what a salsa verde is made of, letting guests order anything and then go and amend the order which is very annoying, another lady nearly placed my water bottle on the butter plate and so on I can go ahead for 4 pages. This place is completely pitiful and the owner is the most embarrassing and unprofessional I ever seen in my life, drinking while working and also trying to contact people. Avoid at all cost, mediocrity masked for class, which they won’t have even if they will but.

It was a while since we had been to Mon Plaisir and we were pleased that we had returned. The staff seemed less French but the food was decidedly so and both aspects were very good, albeit we waited a little longer than expected for our main courses. We selected from the main menu and seasonal specials rather than the good value set menu, so it was quite an expensive lunch, especially with the very good house champagne at £17 a glass and glasses of wine at 13 or 14. Our mains ranged from 28 to 36. Overall, very good but quite pricey.