Wolseley is booked...woe is me

[magnolia]

I guess I've been lucky with Wolseley at odd times of the day - normally I just walk in and there's no problem getting a table for one or two. But today I decided to book because I am meeting s/o I don't know well, and they're fully booked *all day*. I can't take a chance and just walk in - where else could I go around 16h00 or so, that has great pastries and is roughly on tne the Jubliee/Central line axis? Please don't say Patisserie Valerie. No me gusta.

[jackal10]

Tea at the Ritz?

[magnolia]

Thanks but it's too much of a production - also way too expensive. Thing I like about Wolseley is that it has unpretentious but very good service, nobody hovers over you - and you can get out of there for well under £15 having stuffed yourself silly. A proper 'cafe' in the old-fashioned Eastern European vein !

[clb]

Clarke's serves afternoon tea (downstairs in that part of the restaurant they term a cafe during the day): excellent cakes, scones and jam, good tea. Near both Notting Hill Gate and High St Ken tubes. Nice and quiet (certainly at lunchtime; I can't imagine it becomes full of loudmouths by tea).

Have you thought of Sketch - the ground level room, can't remember what they call it? Lovely patisserie and, unlike the restaurant proper, not horrifyingly expensive.

clb

[magnolia]

Actually both of those are great. Person I'm meeting lives near Notting Hill so that may work. Thanks !

Clarke's serves afternoon tea (downstairs in that part of the restaurant they term a cafe during the day): excellent cakes, scones and jam, good tea.  Near both Notting Hill Gate and High St Ken tubes.  Nice and quiet (certainly at lunchtime; I can't imagine it becomes full of loudmouths by tea).

Have you thought of Sketch - the ground level room, can't remember what they call it?  Lovely patisserie and, unlike the restaurant proper, not horrifyingly expensive.

clb

←

[dipardoo]

two suggestions:

risk the wolseley, you'll definitely get in at 4

otherwise, what about upstairs at yauatcha for tea and cakes. delicious

[Hallie]

Thing I like about Wolseley is that it has unpretentious but very good service, nobody hovers over you - and you can get out of there for well under £15 having stuffed yourself silly.  A proper 'cafe' in the old-fashioned Eastern European vein !

←

Maggie, you have summed up entirely why I love this place.

Several months before it opened I was moaning to a friend of mine that what London needed was a 'grand cafe' like those in Paris and Vienna. It seemed to go hand in hand with today's burgeoning coffee culture. It seemed like the perfect antidote to Starbucks. Lo and behold, the Wolseley opened. We need more places like this!

If its afternoon tea you are after for not so much money, I've found that the restaurant upstairs in the Great Court at the British Museum does a fairly decent one - though not nearly as good as the Wolseley.

[magnolia]

OK, the punchline is that although I suggested going to Clarke's, the person I was meeting was in St James's anyway, so I suggested we meet and just try our luck at getting into Wolseley without a booking. As Dipardoo has indicated - at 16h00 - the time I had tried to book - we walked in and there were loads of tables. We had a pot of tea each and two giant pieces of superb cake, for about £7 each. And sat there for three hours, nobody said boo even though people started coming in for dinner. Theyeven asked if we wanted a refill.

Edited November 12, 2004 by magnolia (log)

[howardlong]

...Thing I like about Wolseley is that it has unpretentious but very good service...

←

That's strange, because the one thing that was a negative on my trip there yesterday (Sunday) at 5pm was the pretentiousness of some of the waiting staff, in particular those at the upper echelons.

Let me elucidate. It reminded me of both Hakassan and Oloroso in Edinburgh in this respect. Some staff were more interested in their own self importance and preening than providing an enjoyable and efficient service to their (wait for it) *customers*.

When we arrived, rather than coming over to us as we entered to check our booking, we were bellowed at from fifteen feet away by a chap in a black roll neck jumper and jacket. The black roll neck and jacket combo is important: right away this is normally a signal for pretension in my book! After picking ourselves up back to our feet, the chap came over to us with his clipboard of bookings, and we were taken straight to the table. Now why didn't he come over to us at the beginning rather than announcing our entrance to the entire restaurant and half of Piccadilly?

When it came to ordering, when asked what the Crab Hash was like, and what the Merguez was all about, the response from the waitress was so short and curt that my fellow diner and I looked at each other wondering if she'd said anything at all. We asked again but the response was still very lacklustre. Hardly like they were trying to sell us anything. We wondered if we were getting in her way.

Once we'd had our order taken, I should note that the South African chap who did most of the rest of the service was good - he was friendly and chatty, and rather than pretend he didn't know something, he came right out and said it: "I've never poured from a decanter before". He didn't need to worry, he was doing pretty good. He made up for the disappointing opening of the others.

OK, but what about the food? We arrived while Afternoon Tea and the Cafe menu were still being served. We took the Cafe menu: it's not a large menu, but there should be something there for most people. I had the large steak tartare with fries and salad (16.75) and my dining friend took the Crab Hash (£12.75 once we'd crow-barred the little information about it we were going to be allowed). What's interesting is that there isn't a great deal more on the full dinner menu compared to the Cafe menu. The menu made me think more of a production line style kitchen than a Michelin starred establishment.

For dessert my partner took one of the sorbet/ice creams, and I took the sheiterhaufen. Luckily there were some Germans next to us so I took great delight in attempting the schoolboy double entendre pronouncing my dessert as many times as it took my fellow diner to kick me under the table.

Food quality and taste was good, although the fries made me immediately think McDonalds. The desserts really are the business - save space for these, or, better still, go in just for dessert.

The wine list is slightly limited but what there was, was good: after a glass each of house Champagne, I chose a 2000 Guimberteau Lalande de Pomerol (£33) that I couldn't get enough of. OK, this may age, but it's drinking so well now I just couldn't resist.

With the desserts I took a 37.5cl 1998/1999 Austrian Pinot Noir Trockenbeer sweetie (£37.50) that was just divine - gimme more!

I was particularly pleased not to see table-turning going on. Whether this is a side effect of their policy of holding back tables for folks coming off the street, I don't know, but it was welcome.

I really liked the decor and layout. The atmosphere was conducive to chats between diners on other tables, which sometimes can be entertaining (or not: it can be akin to sitting next to someone on an aeroplane and indulging in unsolicited chat if you're not careful).

So, apart from the attitude of some of the staff, it won't take much for me to take another slightly boozy Sunday afternoon in there.

Cheers, Howard

[edited to try to correct my atrocious spelling]

[and again - is there no limit to the number of times I can mis-spell dessert?]

Edited November 23, 2004 by howardlong (log)

[magnolia]

When we arrived, rather than coming over to us as we entered to check our booking, we were bellowed at from fifteen feet away by a chap in a black roll neck jumper and jacket. The black roll neck and jacket combo is important: right away this is normally a signal for pretension in my book! After picking ourselves up back to our feet, the chap came over to us with his clipboard of bookings, and we were taken straight to the table. Now why didn't he come over to us at the beginning rather than announcing our entrance to the entire restaurant and half of Piccadilly?

When it came to ordering, when asked what the Crab Hash was like, and what the Merguez was all about, the response from the waitress was so short and curt that my fellow diner and I looked at each other wondering if she'd said anything at all. We asked again but the response was still very lacklustre. Hardly like they were trying to sell us anything. We wondered if we were getting in her way

Sounds like a case of the Sunday Sillies, or else the staff are really just *too cool* for Sie.

although the fries made me immediately think McDonalds

But McDonalds have the best fries so I guess that's a compliment.

With the deserts I took a 37.5cl 1998/1999 Austrian Pinot Noir Trockenbeer sweetie (£37.50) that was just divine - gimme more!

Yum ! Not many appreciate the charms of this wine, glad you liked it 'cause there ain't much more around.