Smokey Bubbles Cafe in Kingston upon Thames

Decent chicken at a decent price. Well-intentioned service.

Wife’s birthday lunch totally ruined!! We were a Party of 8 from all parts of the UK and, the only people in the restaurant, you would think they couldn’t mess it up. Wrong!! Food was all ordered together but came out at very irregular intervals. The waiter couldn’t understand a word that we were saying and we had to ask him about 4-5 times where every dish we ordered was, dish by dish. Not what you want when you are dining out and spending good money for a special occasion. The Mixed grill was rubbery at best, the buffalo chicken wings were RED RAW and we had to send them back. Nice!! An independent delivery driver who overheard our disgust actually told us that he had to bring a delivery of chicken back because it so raw that the people who ordered it, refused the delivery and sent it back!! The steaks arrived with none of the accompanying sauces, chips or seasonal vegetables. The chips for the steaks came 20 mins after the steak was served and the steak sauces came 25 mins after the steak was served!! When the steak sauces arrived the peppercorn sauce looked like curdled milk. It was at this point that we stopped eating and demanded to speak to the Manager. The waiter who could actually speak English was very apologetic but “I’m sorry” simply isn’t good enough when you have gone to the trouble of organising a surprise birthday dinner when family members have travelled nationwide to be present. The manager who was not in was phoned and we spoke to him over the phone. He said that they were short staffed and they had no head chef. Not good enough! If that’s the case, don’t open up shop, especially when you have incompetent kitchen staff that are serving raw food. We told the manager that the meal had been ruined and that we wouldn’t be paying for the 3 steaks. The waiter then brought us the bill and we had been charged for duplicate items! We then had to explain these item by item and delete these from the bill ourselves!! In conclusion this place needs a complete overhaul, including a visit from Gordon Ramsay to shake things up. A very embarrassing experience on my part and a ruined birthday celebration for my wife. As we were leaving, the waiter told us that the place is changing to an Indian Restaurant under the same management. If you dare visit I would advise you to check your chicken tikka masala to ensure it’s not RED RAW and check you are not overcharged for items you did not order!! Good Luck!!

Half the menu was not available. Messed up what we did order. Not interested in offering service of any kind. Food was tolerable.