Ten in City of London, Westminster

Found the owner rather distant and not particularly friendly. The food is decent enough, but the portions are ludicrously small and over-priced . I would also suggest widening the choice. Opening for teas and coffees in the morning is a good idea, but how it honestly call itself a restaurant if it never opens in the evening??!!

Over the last years this plot has had it's trials. When we first moved to the area the Vietnamese place was excellent but just couldn't get enough custom to survive. The short lived Mediterranean (read Turkish) restaurant was poorly thought out given the competition on Green Lanes. So now we have Ten a modern british restaurant that seems to be pitching itself just that notch above your local gastro pubs. We've been a bit slow in going to visit but had our first try this Saturday. To start the place has been set up beautifully with exposed brickwork, nice artwork and great contemporary jazz playing on the night we went. Oddly we found it virtually empty and therefore experienced very personal service which was professional and friendly - we definitely felt welcome. The wine list is short but excellent and we had a great Sauvignon Blanc by the glass with our starter and a superlative Malbec with the main. So why very good and not excellent - simply put the food is almost there but it is only almost. The restaurant advertises inside strongly about the provenance of their products so they need to live up to it. The starters of heritage tomatoes and a modern take on prawn cocktail were really tasty and beautifully presented. Our mains of a ribeye steak and house burger were great although the steak was slightly under the medium rare I ordered this is never really a problem for me - better that than over. The burger was excellently meaty and very well cooked. Sides are where things weren't quite right - the salad was great and well dressed but the nicely envisaged crispy onion rings with paprika should be a great dish but unfortunately there was so much paprika it just tasted dusty - ease up on the paprika and it will be great. The big let down was the chips - these were your cheapest bought in a bag variety and simply not up to the standard of everything else - how hard is it in today's restaurant world to buy potatoes and make your own? They simply didn't go with the rest of the venue and really lets them down. Finally if you will offer sauces then provide them at the quality of the rest of the restaurant - again these were clearly of your budget variety. All in all we had a nice experience and we really hope they can get enough custom to survive - so would strongly recommend that they stick to what they're offering and keep the quality up and they should make it.

I'd noticed this place as its round the corner from where I live, so I wanted an excuse to go, and my mum was in town so we went there for dinner. It was a Tuesday night but it was rapidly filling up when we arrived. The waiter (there was only one - apparently his colleague wasn't well) was extremely busy but was consistently polite and friendly. I had soup and fish and the cheese board for dessert. The food and wine were good quality - not absolutely astounding but you could tell a lot of care had gone into them, and they were very proud of where they'd sourced the ingredients. Unfortunately, they didn't have any dessert wine or port to go with the very nice cheese board, but the waiter recommended a glass of red wine which turned out to be just right. It's a small place, about 30 covers maybe, and it may be that they're trying to be all things to all people - they apparently open in the morning for breakfast and as a cafe, and I don't know how well that would work. Probably fine, I just don't know so I can't comment. Other than that, it's a pleasant, comfortable, unassuming local restaurant that does good food and doesn't charge too much for it. I'll be going back.