Talking Drum in Southwark

My first experience of West African cuisine. All the food we had was delicious. I highly recommend the stuffed fish! Great atmosphere. Service was very friendly, perhaps a little slower than you might expect, but it was a very busy evening!

Talking Drum has been on my list of places to go for a while and I'm glad I finally got the opportunity. Everything was impeccable from the service to the food and the cocktails as well. I don't like to share food but even I relented mainly because i wanted to taste everything my partner ordered it was all delicious and well seasoned. Will definitely be back to try everything else on the menu.

Visited on a Sunday evening - really impressed. Wasn’t being rushed out the door come closing time like in most other restaurants. The food was as beautiful as the interior, presentation is clearly important to this place. A relaxing vibe, with dim lighting and a decadent feel. I had the lamb with a side of jollof rice - not too spicy and very flavoursome. Friendly staff and omg the desserts!!!!! Chocolate mousse or toffee pudding with Guinness ice cream - either choice you won’t be disappointed. Thanks again

Firstly I called before arrive, I was told I could come and by 8:30 kitchen closes and by 9:15 I can’t order alcohol and 9:30 I can’t order soft drinks. This was on the phone. I made that phone call because I was pregnant and confirmed with the staff if I could come without booking a table. To my amazement when I arrived it was empty. I was then approached by one of your staff who told me I couldn’t come in as the kitchen was closed. This was at 8:14. So I said to her but kitchen closes at 8:30 she claimed it was was 8:30. So I showed her my phone. She offered to give us a seat. What annoys me is we could have been coming in for drinks. She didn’t know however she was prepared to kick us out of the restaurant. She then offers us a seat, whilst walking to our chair, she starts talking out loud that YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE 2 ITEMS ON THE MENU. So the group of people on the table heard it. Quite embarrassing. She then told ya we could only choose 2 items on the menu so we did. The food that came wasn’t enough as it was a starter and dessert so our whole outing was pointless We were really disappointed with how staff treated us. I was shocked because you don’t know what customers you’re dealing with. I may not be a celebrity; however, I’m qualified enough to know that this isn’t how staff should treat customers in restaurants and a further investigation can continue. I just think as a company , they should pause and train their staff, review their policies and cone back because staff like that will push customers away. I made a complaint to the company and they said they will make it up to me and someone will contact. Of course since 10th November, no one has contacted.

Eché un vistazo a las críticas antes de ir. Y, si no hubiera asistido a un menú de degustación del jefe de cocina, no lo habría visitado. NO me decepcionó. Fui ayer, lo he contado con entusiasmo a todos mis contactos y me alegro de haber encontrado una excusa para volver hoy. Todo lo que ha cambiado recientemente ha cambiado realmente bien. Grita a nuestro camarero Sammy. Excelente excelente camarero No esperamos mucho para nuestra comida y estaba muy bien presentada, pero lo más importante sabía tan bien. Creo que teníamos la mitad de todo en el menú y no nos decepcionó. Por lo tanto, si fue anteriormente y se sintió decepcionado, intente nuevamente.

Party of 3 on a Saturday evening. The interior and space was lovely. With a sign telling you that the "service charge is mandatory" we expected the food to be on par with the beautiful interior. Alas, it wasn't. Other than the Suya which was nice and soft with the right amount of 'Yaji'👍🏾, the rest of the food was simply standard. None of the flavours stood out; too salty for our pallets and the chef was a tad too generous with the 🌶🌶. The tomato stew (a staple soup/sauce in any Nigerian kitchen/home) was not fresh #oldstew. 😮 None of us finished our meal. 👎🏽Credit to the young lady who served us, she was attentive. I won't be returning until they replace the current chef.

This place is only nice for the ambience Food was cold , never had hard rock pounded yam in my life . Everything just felt rushed like they wanted us out. Starter was still on the table when the brought out main . Fish was salty . Won’t go back

Came here with my partner last week, the service was absolutely lovely. Had the fried rice with chicken which was very tender and tasty. Would definitely recommend as the staff made us feel so welcome :)

Talking Drum is a firm favourite when I want to eat Nigerian food. Not only is the food delicious but the decor is to die for! It's elegant, sexy - yet cozy thanks to beautiful fireplace! It's rare to have good food, decor, cocktails and service in one place - but Talking Drum scores 10s across the board. If you're ever near Old Kent Road - I highly recommend going there to eat.

Looking at the other reviews its seems like bad days if I'm honest. I've been here several times with different groups of friends, large and small - and every time my experience has been fantastic. The food is delicious - I'd recommend the Grilled Fish, suya wings, Efo,Jolly rice and Fried rice. There is a cookie ice cream dessert that's amazing and apparently so is the apple pie (recommended by my mates). The staff and friendly and attentive & the decor is Lush.

I attended this restaurant for valentines day and was pleasantly delighted with food and service. It was a great choice for such a special day. Besides the delicious authentic Nigerian food, this restaurant looks amazing. They are definitely in a league of their own.

I had such high hopes for this restaurant. My friends and I had been planning this dinner date for weeks. So much excitement leading up to our visit, it's such a shame I have to write this. I arrived first out of 9 people, fair enough I was quite a bit early so the table wasn't completely ready. However, I was seated at what would become our table. I decided to order drink whilst I waited,(they had 2 for 1 offer going, happy days), that was around 8:20pm. 20 minutes later I was still parched as my drink had not come yet. I felt like I was front row at a fashion show watching staff walk up and down ignoring me. Finally, I managed to catch the attention of the waitress who served me, who reassured me my drink would be coming. My drink came...now, I'm not a Margherita connoisseur but I've had enough in my lifetime to know when it's wrong. It wasn't good. I definitely sent it back. Moving forward, my friends started to arrive and they also ordered drinks and yes, they also took 20mins to come :) One of my friends was declined the 2 for 1 offer for no reason? But after having a word with one of the managers, this was shortly cleared up. So it's well after 9pm (the actual time of our booking was 9pm), and we tell staff that we're ready for our food. Please bare in my mind as we are a large group, we had to pre-order our food. Surely, that should mean our food shouldn't take long as they're aware of our arrival right? Wrong. 5 mins to closing and not one peanut had been placed on our table! Five minutes! The staff were so unhelpful and rude, and half the time had no clue on what was going on. Even the manager started giving us attitude and was acting like everything was our fault. Hungry and frustrated, we left and found somewhere else to dine. Never again will I attend this place. It was deffo a waste of an outfit. PS the DJ or whoever was in control of the aux, was pants.

The decor from the entrance to the ladies room is stunning. This is a beautifully decorated restaurant but that’s where the compliments for my visit stops. WE DID NOT EAT A SINGLE THING. Being a larger group, we had to pre-order our meals about a week in advance - no problem. Our waitress checked off our names on what seemed like a classroom register with our orders - weird but again, no problem. The food never came out. Our reservation was for 9pm, majority of the party arrived much earlier than this. Just before 11pm is when they said our food will be with use shortly after persistent questions from us. We said that we were ready for our food from about 9:20-9:30. Other tables were getting their food after 2-3 hour waits on orders which I assume were pre-ordered also. Shocking. Another diner even said that the food was “meh” so we decided it wasn’t even worth the wait and left. The food wasn’t even the only problem. The drinks would come out 20-40 minutes after ordering per person almost. Some coming out tasting weirdly also. 2 of my friends had to send their drinks back to be amended. Customer service was tragic also. The waitress we had was rude and telling individuals different things, even going to say that one of my friends wasn’t allowed to get the drink offer. The manager was ridiculous, using my friend’s frustration as a means to deflect from the fact that he is incapable of running a restaurant. A joke. The only pleasant member of staff was the man on the door. We didn’t pay a thing and I don’t even think that was enough, we basically should have been paid for the time wasted there. Never returning and I wouldn’t advise large groups to either. Maybe if you cook the food yourself will you receive it at a decent time. If you do decide to take the risk and visit Talking Drum, good luck.