The London Carriage Works

Feb 2009 After reading several favourable reviews on The London Carriage Works restaurant, Liverpool we decided to book a table. Unfortunately our experience was not as pleasant as the many reviews, mostly over a year old; it seems that the place has gone downhill. When booking we asked for a table at 9pm, they informed us that they did not have a table available until 9:30, but if we came in at 9 and sat at the bar they would probably be able to seat us earlier. This was not a problem as the bar area looked lovely in the photos so we came in shortly after 9, informed the waitress of our arrival and sat in the bar area, by 9:45 we still hadn’t been shown to our table, upon asking when our table would be ready the young waitress showed us to a table that looked like it had been ready for quite a while, had they forgotten us? Our coats were not taken as you would have expected from a restaurant of this class, we had to walk across the room and hang them up ourselves on the coat stand. We looked at the menu, ordered our food and asked for a wine list which we would have expected to be given at the same time as the menu. Our starters arrived, but still no wine list, we had to ask for it again. The waiter serving our starters had not been informed who was having what and had to ask us, I found this very unprofessional. The wine list was handed to my husband while he was in the middle of eating his soup causing him to spill some. We ordered the wine which didn’t arrive until just before our mains were served, once again the waiter had to ask who was having what. While we were eating our meals the waiter was cleaning the tables near us with smelly disinfectant spray, not creating a pleasant environment to enjoy our meals in. The restaurant and bar area are very modern with a lot of glass and lighting effects, the tables do not have tablecloths and are far too close together, it’s not cosy and the overall atmosphere is not dissimilar to a busy pizza express/beef eater type restaurant. The food was better than average, nicely laid out but the portions were very small. Overall I was very disappointed in the very poor service and lack of experience from the extremely young staff. For what is an expensive restaurant (£50 a head) I expect more and will not be returning.

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Sharon D.

Sorry, while this trades on its reputation, the time I went the staff were a little stand-offish, the portions very small and completely over-priced. I didn't enjoy it.

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David C.