Originally Posted by
JOUY31
I had dinner with a Greek friend at the Canary Wharf property. She was enthusiastic, I was underwhelmed to the utmost degree: service overhyped and actually lackadaisical, food nothing special, wine subpar. Is it too much to ask to have a basic Chianti Classico and not just a Chianti? As I was staying in Canary Wharf for a few days, I had dinner at the Italian restaurant at the Four Seasons the following evening; it was less than twice as expensive and much, much better. I haven't tried the Italian restaurant at the Four Seasons Hyde Park corner yet, though
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I think you are missing the point rather. It's not supposed to be the Four Seasons or Le Gavroche.
Around the country the typical high street dining scene consists of:
Nandos - well-executed but basically low-grade ingredients
Pizza Express - well past its sell-by date
(at least one more subpar Italian chain - Ask, or similar)
several Indian restaurants, independent or part of a local group
Wagamamas - slightly tired noodle concept
Yo Sushi - dreadful stale sushi
several Thai restaurants
sometimes a mediocre tapas place
Giraffe - not sure what the point of this place is
one of a number of variants on 'posh burger'
If you go out of town, things get even worse - Frankie & Benny, Chiquito, Harvester et al.
So for casual dining really not a great selection. I actually just went to Jamies now after taking the kids to the park, me and two children, I like my food but I wouldn't have wanted to sit down at a starched table cloth with a waiter scraping the crumbs off the tablecloth. Obviously if you always go out for dinner wearing a suit and tie, this might not matter to you, but clearly there is a big market for casual dining, yet most of it is absolutely terrible.