... We decided to go to Garfunkel's, in Leicester square, because we walk past it everyday after work (whilst starving) yet had never eaten in there. The restaurant is situated down Dean Street, which is one of the roads that leads into Leicester Square. It can be seen from the centre of Leicester ... Read review
Advantages: Food isn't bad, pricing is averge Disadvantages: Service is Bad!
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The pricing at Garfunkel's isn't out of the ordinary at all; it is exactly what I thought it would be. Our large starter (it was stated for 2 people) was about £7 and my main meal was just under £10, with my boyfriend's being just under £15. Obviously our drinks were a bit costly but they usually are, my glass of rosé was about £5. Our total bill came to about £40 in the end which is average I think for a restaurant of this type. We didn't ... ...there!
Overall I wouldn't say I had a bad time at Garfunkel's, but I would hesitate to go there again. The price is average, the food is alright, but the service is definitely below par, and hampered our experience. I'm not going to say that I will never go back to Garfunkel's, or indeed try another version of the chain, but it definitely won't be my first port of call. ... more
Last Friday my boyfriend and I decided to go out for dinner. We decided to go to Garfunkel's, in Leicester square, because we walk past it everyday after work (whilst starving) yet had never eaten in there. The restaurant is situated down Dean Street, which is one of the roads that leads into Leicester Square. It can be seen from the centre of Leicester Square, and is very easily accessible from Leicester Square tube station. It is also in walking distance from Charing Cross National Rail station, and about 5 minutes walk from Trafalgar Square.
WAITING TIMES
As we had decided to visit this branch in central London on a Friday evening, we decided to book in advance. So, my boyfriend rang up the restaurant that morning and reserved a table. When we got to the restaurant we entered and queued for a couple of minutes before everyone else. You got seated when you got to the front of the queue, a system that didn't seem representative of us booking a table earlier in the day. When we got to the front of the queue my boyfriend told the waitress that we had booked a table. "You've booked a table?" "Yes" "Really?" "Er, yeah" "You've booked a table? For tonight?" "Yeah, for 2" "Well I've got a spare table for 2 anyway" Apparently they don't normally take bookings on a Friday night, fair enough, but there's no need to look at us like we made it up! Anyway, it was only about 5 minutes between when we entered the restaurant and when we sat down, so that wasn't too bad. However, this short wait wasn't something that we encountered for the rest of our meal. Although we didn't have to wait long between sitting and getting our order, and ordering and getting our starters, we had to wait a long time between our starter and our main, and a similar time between having our plates cleared away and our bill being brought to us.
Our wait overall was uncomfortably long at some points, particularly when it came between our starter and our main. I deduct one star because of this.
SERVICE
As I mentioned before, the first staff member we encountered was a waitress who didn't believe that we had booked a table. Not the best first impression, and unfortunately this below-par service carried on throughout our meal. As I mentioned above we spent the majority of our meal waiting for one thing or another, as this really puts a sense of unease over the whole experience. The staff weren't overly friendly, and didn't apologise for the long wait. This bad service was something that I feel other diners also felt; at the table next to us there was a group of 6 who had ordered a sharers platter as their starter. They received their main courses first, and had to ask for their platters. Also, the young girl with them had ordered a burger and asked for it to be without mayonnaise - unsurprisingly it had mayo with it.
Although we visited on a Friday night, I don't think that the place was busy enough to warrant the bad service. As the evening wore on the restaurant got less busy rather than more, yet our service seemed to get worse. There were plenty of empty tables around us in the area we were sitting in, yet hardly any attention was focused on us. Unacceptable - one star deducted.
FOOD
My boyfriend and I decided to share a starter, so we ordered 6 potato skins. These were delicious; 2 were barbecue sauce flavour, 2 had bacon in and 2 had chives in. The sauce was a lovely sour cream and the skins were the perfect size for us for sharing (my boyfriend had 4 and I had 2!) For our mains my boyfriend had a 'giant burger' which had both beef and chicken, also bacon and cheese (piggy) whilst I had salmon and broccoli fish cakes. Both these main courses came with a choice of chips or jacket potato - we both chose chips. My fish cakes were very tasty. The outsides were crispy and the insides were smooth and creamy. The crisps also were very nice; they looked like they had been cut fresh from potatoes (although they probably weren't!) and were cooked for just the right amount of time. My boyfriend's burger was apparently very good, although so massive that he couldn't finish it.
The food here was tasty and cooked to a good standard.1 star each from me and my boyfriend.
PRICE
The pricing at Garfunkel's isn't out of the ordinary at all; it is exactly what I thought it would be. Our large starter (it was stated for 2 people) was about £7 and my main meal was just under £10, with my boyfriend's being just under £15. Obviously our drinks were a bit costly but they usually are, my glass of rosé was about £5. Our total bill came to about £40 in the end which is average I think for a restaurant of this type. We didn't leave a massive tip either so we saved a bit there!
Overall I wouldn't say I had a bad time at Garfunkel's, but I would hesitate to go there again. The price is average, the food is alright, but the service is definitely below par, and hampered our experience. I'm not going to say that I will never go back to Garfunkel's, or indeed try another version of the chain, but it definitely won't be my first port of call.
