To ask what’s the most overrated restaurant you’ve eaten at?

[Hairbrush123]

I think for me, it’s a restaurant called “Tattu”. They’re dotted all around the UK and was so excited to try it but the food was so average yet they charge £100+ for two people based on a starter and main . Everyone who I know has been there absolutely loved it so maybe it’s just DP & I!

What’s the most overrated restaurant you’ve been to?

@speakout

Is it ever possible to get a decent meal in a chain restaurant?

Not as good as they used to be, of course, but Hawksmoor perhaps?

Tried Five Guys twice, just don’t get it! Wimpy is nicer than Five Guys. Beef burgers are overcooked for my liking and they don’t do chicken burgers. I definitely wouldn’t go again.

I'd say that some of the higher priced chain restaurants are always a let down.. pizza express, bella italia, las iguanas, botanist... as a family of four we could easily spend the best part of £100 eating there for dinner and the food is no better than something we could cook ourselves. Wagamama is always quite good though

The Langham

Nobu, the original one about 20 years ago - meh.

Maze has closed now but was v disappointing.

Had one good meal at Chiltern Street Firehouse & then one which was shocking.

The box tree, Ilkley, when it still had it's Michelin star. Most expensive meal of my life so far in stuffy (literally heated to nanna's front room temp), airless, snooty and whispery surroundings. Can't even remember the food particularly. Service was condescending.
Compare it to some wonderful restaurants which were not as expensive, the Black Swan at Oldstead, the Seahorse, Dartmouth where the food transports you and the service is relaxed but on the ball and it's a wonder it still remains today. I think it must live on it's name only.

@speakout

Is it ever possible to get a decent meal in a chain restaurant?

Yes! The best cooked, tastiest steak I have ever eaten was at a Harvester near the NEC. They may have got it absolutely spot on by accident but I still relish the memory of that meal.

@Flumpaphone

Smokestak in Shoreditch, God it was so loud and absolutely rammed with rude, impatient service. They have a 'small plates' thing going on which would have been fine if you could hear yourself think and to speak to the rest of the table to decide what plates you were ordering to share. The food was Ok but nothing to rave about

Oh snap. We went in the very early days and were sat on high, backless stools. They were extremely sniffy about my request to hang my coat (where was I supposed to put it?).

The stools were so close together that, sitting beside two normal sized business men, we had to take turns to lean forward to eat as there wasn’t room for all of us to do that at once. Acoustics were horrendous.

Food was ok, but tiny portions and £££££.

@andynarwhal. Lived near Ilkley for 20 years but never went to The Box Tree. However dd went with her dp as they were given a voucher, they seemed to enjoy it although they still had to add a hefty amount of their own money to pay the bill.
This was about 8 years ago.
Had a shocking meal at the Best Western in Ilkley though.
Dh picked it for his birthday.
It took an hour to seat us, we had booked, they obviously had a kitchen problem as they weren’t busy.
The food was ok but nothing special and we had to pick dd up at 10 pm and ended up rushing because of delay.
We should have walked out after 30 mins tbh and gone for a curry.

Jamie's Italian (now defunct) was a poor imitation of Italian food - might have just been the Nottingham branch but poor service, overcooked pasta and sauces lacked any complexity of flavour, they simply were overwhelmingly chilli, not what you expect from a top chefs franchise

@gogohm no, they were all like that! At least the ones in Oxford and Norwich were.

@Floogal las iguanas is a chain, the Leicester branch is very nice and portions are too big for me to finish!

Quite like The Real Greek as a chain- £8.50 lunch menu has been good when I’ve had it.

Cote in West Bridgford. Snooty staff! Went to Cote in Bristol which was meh but staff friendly

The Ivy branches and Jamie’s Italian are/were always rubbish.

I used to love Wagamamas, been going for years but went last month and it was disgusting.

@Longdistance

Ellen’s Stardust Diner in NY. Everyone raved about going there. They made us wait over an hour and let couples in. Dumped us upstairs, weren’t attentive, completely false to us, ordered food that was overcooked and dry. Yes, the entertainment was good, but that was it. I could’ve bought tickets to a Broadway show instead. Sorry to everyone that’s had a great experience, but for us it was hideous 🤷🏼‍♀️

Loved Ellen's for the experience and the music etc but the food was shit. and the place was a dump.

Betty’s - awful. I don’t get why people rave about it at all. Overpriced, poor quality. And the famously “friendly northern folk”?, don’t make me laugh! It’s just a gimmick. Far better places near me in the south east at half the price and with excellent service.

Nando’s is a pile of crap - why would anyone expect more from it?

@VitalsStable

The Ivy. Any of them.

Agree with this - food was just average although tbf wasn't ridiculously expensive. Just expected more given the reputation.

@ClaudiaWankleman

Jamie's Italian. For the sake of food I was glad it went out of business.

Ah yes and this, my food was burnt. Seemed like Frankie and bennys or something just in nicer surroundings

TGIF might just be our local but every time I've gone, with different groups - wrong orders and cold food.
Had a dish once. It was cold, they took it away, gave it back. I knew they'd heated it in a microwave because the coleslaw that was on there came back warm. Grim !

I don’t know who doesn’t microwave things anymore! Bills are definitely guilty of this now- I’ve had better meals in Wetherspoons. It’s cheap and you know what you’re getting at least. £14 or so for a lacklustre microwaved Bill’s meal is jarring.

@ichundich

The German Gymnasium in London Kings Cross, very pricey for average food. The food isn't even German, it's Bavarian.

I went there twice within the space of a few weeks. Once for brunch - was nice but overpriced (I wasn’t paying so didn’t care), I could get the same food locally at a bigger portion!! Standard eggs n avo etc. The second time was for dinner - I had ‘GG’ fish n chips and it was greasy AF. The chips and dessert were good though and the service is excellent. I wouldn’t book to go myself (I was taken for brunch and dinner wasn’t booked by me!). Maybe if you eat meat it’s better…

The Ivy, it's basically Brown's rebounded makes ne cringe when people post pictures outside like they're about to tuck into a 2 Michelin starred restauratant meal and then you'll see a pic of steak and frittes 🤣.

Ours was Jamie's Italian what an appalling insult to Italian food!

Is anywhere good these days? I find it very hard to get a good meal out - all 2/3 courses. There is always a dud (usually the main course).
Did Ivy recently and again, wasn’t as good as two years ago. Dh wasn’t impressed (he had fish n chips which never good outside a chippy these days imho).
Indian restaurants are generally ok but I don’t always fancy curry!!

Bills