I wanted to love this place, I really did. - St. JOHN Bread and Wine London - Buy Reservations
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🤢 2/5 - I wanted to love this place, I really did.
By 👻 @JD H., 09/12/2023 3:00 am
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Eating at a St. John establishment has been on my bucket list forever since watching Bourdain do a segment with Fergus Henderson back in the day with bone marrow on toast and black pudding with eggs. I was on business with colleagues and able to score a reservation within walking distance of our billet. It was to be my last (and hopefully best) meal while abroad and I figured I saved the best for last. It is an attractive space nestled next to Spitalfields Market, quite near to some historic Jack the Ripper sights. This means that you are surrounded by a lot of people out to have a good time and spend some money. Walking in, I got the first sense that we might be in for a long night. Initially there was a nice sense of hurriedness in the kitchen and the floor staff were really hustling to get food to the tables. After a few minutes of watching this with no one coming to greet us, it got a little awkward. So we waited and eventually a server told us someone would get to us. It did not appear that there was a dedicated host and I noted about 4 waitstaff, a manager, and a expediter in chef whites all running food out to tables. In between, they often went into the kitchen to try to help put items together and even cleaning dishware at one point. It seemed like they were either people down or the kitchen was really deep in the weeds. I had a great view of the kitchen though and the dedicated cooks seemed to be keeping their cool. It was also very loud. I think it was because it was compact with maybe 50 people dining and the acoustics were terrible. As it got busier, it got so loud every time the servers would come to speak with us, we had to ask them to repeat several times because we simply could not hear them at normal speaking distances and volumes above the background din. I can overlook acoustics since some of that has to do with the old-age design charm of the building. Since it's really about the food, how was it? Good, old-school inventive (meaning it really does use some interesting cuts in a snout to tail kind of way) by dressing things up but salty. My table mates and I love salt and even we thought a few of the items crossed the line. It was great to order some things that one really can't find often such as chicken hearts and pork skin. But some of the fun was removed when the chicken hearts came out on once-crispy toast drowning in jus so it was just a soggy mess. Tasted good but was just a salty, gummy dish. We ate the hearts and left the toast. For my money, the star of the show was the lamb hearts with green sauce and mint. Perfectly seared rare, sliced thin and any gaminess was dealt with by the acidic, herbal sauce. That was a fantastic dish. Here comes the bad part: Our 4 starters and a bottle of wine came out quickly and we polished those off, and then the wait started. About 20 min in, we got 1 of the larger dishes (consider them to be more like mains) and another about 10 min later. About 60 min after that we had not received the other 2 and no one came to even check on us. Food was flying out to other tables and at one point, I did see a billow of smoke come out of an oven and wondered if it was our partridge burning and maybe in need of a do-over. We became so jet-lagged and tired of waiting that at about 75 minutes of waiting with no new food and no one checking on us, I asked them to simply cancel the rest and bring us the bill. The manager came over and told us that the partridge was already being done and would be out shortly and I got the sense that she was pleading with us to stay so we did. I felt bad and did not want them to have to waste a partridge or eat the cost. She asked me if there was anything she could do to make the situation right. I never suggest a discount under these circumstances because I feel bad doing that. I understand they are having a tough night but I wish she would have suggested it or simply just done it. Or done something, anything as a token of compensation. She knew we were not happy and she acknowledged that it was a delay on their end but she did not really make it right. After another 10-15 min, the partridge came out which was ok but forgettable and we canceled the sweetbreads since they had never shown up. They brought our check, charged us full bore, thanked us for coming in and let us leave which was disappointing because I will not make the effort to repeat. There are so many great spots to eat in London and this one seems like it used to be one of them but I'm not so sure any longer and since I don't get to London often, I'm not going to chance it. My disclaimer here is that I don't like to give harsh reviews and I have only been here once. This may have been a very off night for them and judging by most other reviews, that would seem to be the case so I hope this review is simply from the once in a million table that did not enjoy itself here on this particular evening.
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