RA Grand Cafe in City of London, Westminster

Great food. Lovely service. Good staff. On time for the meals. Nice restaurant. Nice drinks and a nice place to take your friends to for a quick lunch

La cioccolata era acqua calda con un milligrammo di cioccolato... 4 sterline cadauna e non c'è servizio, devi prenderti anche i cucchiaini.

Encantador café grande y grandioso, dentro de la RA. Genial para el almuerzo y el café. El personal fue amable, los precios razonables y un buen espacio para la reflexión, después de casi 3 horas de Picasso serio. . .

A must visit whether you’re going to the Royal academy or not. Super food and coffee and a marvellous ambience.

Some friends had travelled from Sweden, Ukraine and much nearer to home, from Kenilworth to join me for a pre-Christmas get together and, amongst other things, a visit to the Anthony Gormley exhibition. My friends from Sweden, Ukraine and I travelled to the RA together while our friend from Warwickshire, who was held up on his journey, arrived a little later. I queued for some time at the counter to get us some tea while my friends cleaned the table we were to sit at as all the empty tables were covered in used cups, saucers, plates cutlery and abandoned food and napkins. There seemed only to be one young man clearing tables and he didn’t appear to be in much of a hurry. We sat to the left of the main door and my Ukrainian friend went to put her handbag on the shelf behind the seat but drew back when she saw the dust and the dirt on the ledge where the tiny lamps are. Meanwhile after queuing for seven minutes, it was my turn to be served and I ordered three teas. The tea pots and cups were put on the tray but, alas, no saucers. When I queried this I was told there were no clean ones available so I suggested that, as I’d just paid an eye watering £19.80 for three teas, that she go and get some. Needless to say, this took several minutes. When I eventually got the saucers I moved further down the counter for spoons ... there were none. I would, at this point, remind you that a pot of tea for one, brought to my table by a waiter with China cup, matching saucer and teaspoon at Fortnum & Mason, across the road costs £5.75. Perhaps a nicer environment where we seldom, in fact never, have had to clear a table or worry about the cleanliness of the environment rather than queuing for sometime with a grubby tray to then have to demand better service from a young lady who couldn’t care less and pay another 85p per head for the privilege of having to carry the tray back to my table in your café. Our friend from Warwickshire arrived shortly afterwards and, as we had more than enough tea for four people we suggested he went for a cup and saucer and shared ours. When he did this he was given a paper cup as there now, ten minutes after I had come back from the counter, were no cups, saucers or spoons. Having caught up with our friends we went to buy our tickets for the Gormley and chiefly because it was raining, decided to return to the café for lunch. It took us some time to find a table as several were occupied by people using laptops who didn’t appear to be customers and occupied tables for well over an hour with a glass of water in front of them while paying customers were searching for tables having purchased food which was getting cold. Two of us set about clearing the table as there was still only the one young man who’s job this appeared to be and he didn’t appear to be bothered by the few empty, dirty tables and was taking his time. This time we had to get napkins from the counter as there had been some spills on the table and clean them off while our friends went to buy their food. One of the friends returned 10 minutes later, there was quite a queue, while the other waited by the counter for knives and forks to be brought out of the kitchen, this took a further four minutes so by the time she returned to the table her soup and food were tepid at best, very poor for food costing over £30.00. My friends had also bought wine but there were only 3 glasses as the kitchen was experiencing yet another hiatus. Sadly it got no better when the last of us went to the counter as the wine we selected wasn’t available. The young man on the till said there was more in the kitchen but didn’t appear very willing to go and get some but when I suggested he did just that he disappeared for several minutes and returned with a case. I took the glass we were missing and moved down to join the now familiar queue for cutlery which took another five minutes to arrive. We had all chosen chicken and vegetables which we all found to be dry or becoming dry and barely warm, the salad leaves were starting to wilt and the vegetables were well past their best. Having spent in the region of £100 on barely edible food and warm white wine, continually queuing and waiting for saucers, glasses, cutlery, cleaning tables and being faced with less than helpful staff, we asked to speak to a manager. Almost an hour later the supervisor/manager appeared but made no attempt to talk to us as the queues were still long and customers still waiting patiently for service. When I spoke to one of the staff he said this was what happened every day and that while they asked the manager for help nothing ever happened to improve the situation. Having waited well over an hour we looked at the Peyton and Byrne website where we read: “THE RA GRAND CAFE BLENDS EXQUISITE FOOD WITH BREATHTAKING INTERIOR DESIGN TO CREATE A SPECTACULAR ADDITION TO THE MAYFAIR DINING SCENE” which, given the poor quality of the food we had been served, made us laugh. However, back to the Café. Not having been able to speak to a manager we phoned the “contact us” number and explained what had happened to a VERY HELPFUL young lady who promised to contact the General Manager, Matthew, and get him to come and talk to us which was wonderful. Sadly it never happened and after waiting some time we called again. This time got a result and Vincenzo arrived from Keepers House apologising that Matthew was unable to talk to us as he was in a meeting. Vincenzo listened, apologised and refunded the costs of our lunches while apologising again. While this was appropriate given the poor quality of the food and the extremely poor quality of service in the Grand Café it should not have been necessary. Vincenzo said they had tried to get staff from an agency but no one had turned up. Given that this was the case and that the RA, an internationally famous gallery, is in the closing weeks of one of the biggest exhibitions of the year, guaranteed to attract a lot of people on a daily basis why did Matthew prioritise a meeting over rolling up his sleeves, washing some cutlery, clearing some tables and making sure that the Peyton and Byrne customers paying premium prices for average food and dreadful service have their dining experience somewhat improved. My foreign visitors were appalled that such an internationally renowned institution should have its reputation tarnished by such poor food and sloppy service. Perhaps it is time that the RA followed the lead set by The Brighton Pavilion, Kew Gardens and The British Library by drawing a line under the contract with Peyton and Byrne and sourcing their catering services to a company more able to reflect the quality and standards that it has set.