Morgan M

[Andy Lynes]

keep up andy, both jonathan and i have reported that the service was ok for us, and we have been there since matthew :-)

If I was going to be pedantic, I'd point out that JD found the service "clumsy" and that you reported that the service can be "shambolic" and that the table next to you were "disgruntled". I might also mention that slow or disorganised service has been a feature of nearly every posting on this thread since Bloated's first which described it as "very slow indeed".

Given that Matthew's post sounds more like the script to an unfilmed episode of Fawlty Towers than a restaurant report, and that he was there only a week or so ago, I'd say it was reasonable to assume from the evidence we currently have available to us here that things have not significantly improved service wise at Morgan M.

However, I'm not the pedantic sort, so I'll just promise to try and keep up in future (insert smiley of choice here).

[Suzi Edwards]

However, I'm not the pedantic sort, so I'll just promise to try and keep up in future (insert smiley of choice here).

i'll choose the winking smiley for you, because that's the spirit with which my comment was made.

i asked morgan about the service and he said that he feels it's improving week on week. i guess that's why i felt the time line was important. he also said that the restaurant was full almost every night and that this had made the initial opening period harder for them to cope with. the proof of this will be if people are still complaining about the service in january, as morgan says it will all be sorted by then.

[MobyP]

Tracey MacLeod at Morgan M in today's Indy doesn't find much to complain about.

[Andy Lynes]

Quote from the above mentioned review :

"Then the waiter returned with a steaming jug of Tarbes bean soup, and a little speech about the provenance of the bean. There would be many such speeches over the course of the evening, together with a quantity of napkin-fluffing and glass-filling which made it impossible to maintain a conversation. The service ran like clockwork: we just wished we couldn't hear it ticking quite so loudly."

Did others get the speeches and general noncing about? If so, that could easily explain why the service was so slow, or as Jon says, maybe the kitchen is shorthanded and they are using the speeches to cover up the gaps in getting the food out into the dining room.

[Jon Tseng]

Restaurant reviewer gets good service...

... random punter doesn't.

Now where have I heard that one before?

[Matthew Grant]

Speaches? Lack of communication was a big problem, nobody asked how our meal was, getting people attention was difficult. There was a team of at least 6 waiters.

In my opinion the problem lay with inexperience. Our waitress just seemed to be out of her depth and we ended up feeling sorry for her. Why did Morgan talk to every other table following the meal but ignored ours?

[Janice]

We got the speeches but we couldn't understand most of them since we got the limited English too.

My impression was that the service problems were the result of insufficiently experienced staff trying to deliver an over complicated style of service. They would be better off keeping it simple until they can get things running more smoothly.

Would make for a more relaxing meal too. The night we were there, there was a distinct atmosphere of stress coming from the staff.

[Andy Lynes]

Restaurant reviewer gets good service...

... random punter doesn't.

Now where have I heard that one before?

Oh, you old cynic you!!

Here's a statement from Morgan's PR :

"I've just been speaking to Morgan Meunier about the website you sent over last week. I posted him the comments and we have just been chatting about them - he was hugely grateful for the feedback and is definitely going to respond to the people on the site in the new year. He acknowledges that there have been problems with staffing and has now hired a restaurant manager which should hopefully make things run a bit smoother. As soon as I have a statement from him I will send it to the website".

[Suzi Edwards]

good review in the guardian today....mentioned "i have heard murmurs about the service, but we expereinced none of them" looks like matthew fort peeks in here.

[Andy Lynes]

I believe he does take a look from time to time.

[Andy Lynes]

Rather earlier than expected, here is the promised statement from Morgan M :

"I have been reading your feedback on Morgan M, my newly opened restaurant,

with great interest and am extremely grateful for all your comments.

To address the points raised about the service in various postings - I am

aware that we have had problems and for this reason, we have recently

employed a new restaurant manager, Yannick Chaloyard who is already

addressing any difficulties.

When I opened the restaurant I was not prepared for the enormous amount of

attention and support that I received, especially not so early in the

restaurant's life. This meant that we were unable to install a satisfactory

system within the front of house team ­ something we have already addressed

with the staff and will continue to work on in January.

When I conceived the idea for Morgan M, it was to be a neighbourhood

restaurant offering good food and value for money and good, but relaxed,

service ­ which hopefully we will achieve by January.

It is also worth stressing that often the waiting staff are working to the

pace of the kitchen, and that myself and my Sous Chef, Sylvain Soulard, are

dictating the speed of the meal. Obviously we have also experienced teething

problems at times but we are looking at how we are going to address the

diverse expectations of our diners!

I hope that this offers some kind of explanation to your experiences and

that, if and when you come back to the restaurant, you find the concerns

raised in this forum resolved. I spend the majority of my time at the

restaurant and welcome any feedback you may have at the time. We can only

improve if people tell us the good and the bad.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the

other improvements we are planning from January. Obviously we will be

introducing some new dishes. We will also be changing the structure and

prices for the dinner menus. The à la carte menu will consist of 3-courses

plus an amuse bouche and a pre-dessert, for £27 per person. The "Tasting"

and "From the garden" menus will also include a pre-dessert and will be

priced at £36 and £32 respectively. This is to reflect the changes in

clientele we are attracting, who, like many of the commentators on this

site, are coming to the restaurant with extremely high expectations, so we

are aiming to make the meal even more of an experience. The lunchtime menus

will not be changing and we will continue to offer 2-courses for £19.50,

3-courses for £23.

Thanks again for all your support!

Morgan Meunier"

I have passed on my thanks and those of the eGullet membership to chef Meunier for his swift and very enlightening response.

[Basildog]

Very refreshing attitude! Chefs/owners talking to customers ,explaining instead of bullshitting!

Excellent work egullet and MM

[Bapi]

Very refreshing attitude! Chefs/owners talking to customers, explaining instead of bullshitting!

Now if only you could do the same at your place Adrian

I totally agree, hugely refreshing to see that comments are taken on board. This place has been recommended to me before, not least by circeplum; but the worries about the service have thus far dissuaded me from trying it.

Not so now, I'll certainly give it a try in the New Year.

[Matthew Grant]

When did the new manager start? i thought he was meant to have started when I visited? I only ask because I still fail to see why it is taking quite so long to sort this out. Other restaurants do not have to wait months before the service gets into its stride

I hope it does get better, the food was promising.

By the way, Morgan, if you're reading this why did you visit all the table in the restaurant except mine when I was there ? There was only 5 tables left!

[MobyP]

Maybe you had your big meanie face on.

[hornet]

The letter from the chef on egullet persuaded me to try this place out - I had enjoyed his cooking at the Admiralty althought the service there was pants.

Went for the a la carte and, as you would expect, was very good. Several dishes had relatively big supplements (£4-5) on top of the £27 for 3 courses so if you went for, say, the venison and the cheese it would cost £37.

I guess what most people are interested in, though, is the service. I thought it was pretty faultless. OK, some of the staff's English wasn't the best but they were attentive (the room was pretty full too by the time we had reached mains) and there were no long waits between courses.

My only gripe would be the taxi firm they ordered for us as £8 for a 1 mile trip seems excessive to me - do they get a kickback?

Overall a very enjoyable meal. The room is slightly plain and I can't help feeling that when someone points a gun at my head to say where they should eat in Islington I would still go for Lola's as the overall feel of the place will linger longer in the memory - the food at both places is on a par in my opinion.

[tony h]

When did the new manager start? i thought he was meant to have started when I visited? I only ask because I still fail to see why it is taking quite so long to sort this out. Other restaurants do not have to wait months before the service gets into its stride

same here - I went 3 months or so ago & got the same response from M himself.

[Suzi Edwards]

the review in the sunday times seems to suggest that the manager is the same person as when i was there. good review though.

[MobyP]

Melinda Stevens at Morgan M.

Tarka - I actually meant to pm you with the link a few days ago, but forgot.

[lamington]

I'm wondering whether others have experienced Morgan M since January... have things improved/become more consistent? Would also like feedback on the vegetarian menu now that the place has been open a while -- am thinking of taking a veg friend there for Sunday lunch in May.

[Suzi Edwards]

i ate there last saturday but i'm away at the moment so i haven't had time to post about it. in short - the food wasn't quite as good as my first visit but i didn't see any evidence of slow or poor service and they were packed. looks like they've ironed the teething problems out.

we had the five course tasting menu so i can't comment on the veg side of things. at least he's trying though, eh? the hightlight was a ballantine of foie gras, beautifully, classically and simply presented. low point was my raspberry souffle desert. jack took the left hand side of the menu, i took the other and he won. from memory we started with a watercress cream with frogs legs, jack had foie, i had smoked scallops with a really light raw asparagus salad, can't remember the fish, jack's lamb main was really, really good with at least two different preparations, but the pommes anna with my pigeon was crispy and delish. cheeses were a tad dry...

jack said the coffee was great. i was too busy shovelling the mignardises down without him looking (there was *a lot* of negotiation attempted around these.)

i can't remember a huge amount more but this is not a reflection on the restaurant, more on the fact that we were nursing terrible hangovers from the friday night.

i still think this place is good value (39GBP for the tasting menu, although there was one suppliment for the lamb, i think) and look forward to going back.

[lamington]

Sunday lunch at Morgan M:

The three-course lunch is now GBP30 +supplements. Choice of 4-5 starters and 4-5 desserts, but only 3 mains. A two-course menu which has been mentioned elsewhere no longer exists. Life is not so good for vegetarians, who can only take the vegetarian degustation "Garden menu" at GBP34. Seems rather unfair that there is no vegetarian a la carte option.

Staff were pleasant and helpful, both when booking and during lunch. None of the problems with service mentioned in early reports were evident on our visit. The restaurant feels welcoming and comfortable at lunchtime. The pace of service was good.

This account of the dishes may diverge slightly from the menu description because we kept forgetting to write things down! An amuse bouche and a pre-dessert were served:

* a white horseradish cream with pickled beetroot soup (probably good if you (a) like horseradish, and (b) like pickled beetroot. We don't).

* vanilla rice pudding with raspberry sorbet (yum)

Starters:

* cream of watercress with poêlée frog legs (very flat flavour as a whole)

* carpaccio of gently smoked scallop (main impression: 'raw'), asparagus salad and coulis, fromage blanc sorbet

Mains:

* roasted Welsh lamb rack and confit leg (rather dry) with garlic ravioli, gnocchi (unremarkable), spinach; (hefty GBP5.50 supplement)

* roasted fillet of veal (very pink), chestnut purée, glazed sweatbreads and kidney (good, with some fat), spinach, asparagus-morel-vin jaune sauce.

Desserts:

* chocolate moëlleux (Valrhona 70% guanaja), milk sorbet, armagnac drink; (basically a delightful, runny-centred chocolate pudding)

* tradtional orange tart, chocolate icecream (cocoa-y), zest confit, orange and vanilla sauce

The vegetarian menu:

* watercress soup with herb raviolo

* ricotta and spinach cannelono with swiss chard

* puy lentils with onion cream, button onions, and broad bean(s)

* asparagus with two creams/purees

* seem to have forgotten one dish

The bad bits? Well, we were offered a slice of bread. And never again did the bread tray pass the table. We were beguiled by the suggestion of an opening drink: champagne with white peach juice. Suckers, at GBP7.50. The coffee at the end of the meal was poor. Very poor. I'm getting tired of bad coffee in good restaurants. They just shouldn't bother. Especially when they have the nerve to charge GBP4.00 for a cappuccino.

For the most part we were very happy with the food, especially the veal dish and the desserts. The vegetarian dishes were well-judged, and in some ways more successful than the meat dishes. Perhaps one could say that the food is (mostly) well-executed, but doesn't necessarily leave an impression (except the desserts).

[Jonathan Day]

A return to Morgan M this week. The room was very pleasant, with midsummer light streaming through the large windows. Smoked scallops were great, as was the chocolat moelleux. Rack and confit leg of lamb didn't quite measure up: slightly overcooked, the sauce just a bit thick, with dull gnocchi as an accompaniment. A pre-starter of horseradish, beetroot and crème fraîche was perfect. Service was excellent, with no communication problems.

As with Racine, a decent French restaurant in London, at prices well below the top ranks (GR RHR, Gavroche, Waterside Inn, etc.) but very creditable food. As with Racine, though, hard to escape the thought that the genuine item, in its native land, would have been cheaper, better, and not all that difficult to access.

[alexhills]

had dinner here on Wednesday night to celebrate my increasing ancientness. was generally very good and bits truly excellent. took the tasting menu, which seems very good value at £39 for 6 courses, especially given that some of the tasting menu dishes have supplements on the carte. they also let us make several substitutions without any extra charge. service was extremely efficient and friendly throughout, although it is true that after the initial bread offering we did get any until we asked for some with our cheese. they also now warn people not to park in the dodgy side-road, which I think someone here had mentioned already.

the highlights food-wise for me were a ballotine of foie with sauternes jelly that combined sweet and bitter beautifully, i had the lamb main which was very complex, perhaps an excessive number of things on the plate but all very tasty and well prepared, a grilled rack piece and a chunk of confit leg beign the main constituents. what i grabbed of my brother's pidgeon was lovely, yummy puy lentils, very dark and the least summery thing on the summer menu... the rabbit my parents had seemed less exciting but they ate it all so that's my guess rather than the food itself.... the desserts were FANTASTIC however, a vanilla rice pudding with rasberry sorbet and coulis wrapped in tuile, a not quite souffle chocolate thing, i can't remember the right word exactly for it but it was amazing, crisp almost cake like outside and runny rich inside. they also let us split 2 cheese plates between the 4 of us. all very good, unfortunately by this point was in a drunken-order-cheese -in-french competition with my brother which means that although i got what I asked for I can't actually remember what it was. the wine was lovely too, a st.veran to start off with and a 97 st.emillion that was suggested by the wine waiter and really very good and i thought probably not too hideously marked up at 45 quid.

a very nice meal indeed overall, a couple of tiny off things, some squid ink pasta that wasn't really cooked anything like enough with the fish, the vegetable components a touch unadventurous for my taste, but these were tiny things.

[dallardice]

Went to Morgan M tonight at long last to give it a try...

...got there at our booked time of 7.15 (we booked late), got the sense that all was not going well... at 7.45 Morgan came out and announced that massive power cuts across the area meant thet his kitchen was without power, and LEB were not expecting service to be restored until 10.30, so he was reluctantly going to close the restaurant for the evening.

We're going to try again next Saturday at 7.45. We ended up at the Almeida, just round the corner from us, which was good as usual. We're big fans, we shared a dorade royale and had a very relaxed evening albeit rather less gastronomically adventurous than the one we were hoping for...