Water House
London
Reviews
some serious kinks to work out - I completely agree with the other reviewers. The Water House has a ways to go to warrant a 2nd visit from me. I hate to judge on first experiences, but when you live in London and there are so many new restaurants opening up and not enough time to try them all, you become picky with your time. And I expect good things from places whether new or not. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with Water House. I so wanted it to be great as it’s nice to support eco-friendly restaurants but I think I’ll have to stick with Acorn House in King’s Cross with I LOVE!
The decor is very simple with clean lines, wood tables, concrete bar and floors, white chairs and large windows overlooking the canal. Good atmosphere even though it’s in the bottom of an apartment building.
Although the Saturday menu was a brunch menu, nothing was inspiring or jumped out at me. Lots of pastries and unhealthy choices. Soups and salads would have been nice to see alongside the beef, mushroom or lamb burgers. So I had the cod “lasagne” with a rocket salad yet it wasn’t with cod but with mackerel which was fine as I’d prefer to have whatever fish is fresh (or maybe it was the leftover fish?). It was luke warm and pretty bland. For £15 I would have expected something delicious. You can’t charge that much for a dish and have it mediocre.
There were so many waitstaff running around and we had 4 different people wait on, then no one. It took forever to get our bill when we asked too which is frustrating.
I would expect this will do well with the people living in the building or area as it seems like a nice place to have a coffee and pastry or toast from their various breads that looked amazing while reading the paper. But to go there out of your way, no way, unless they can get it right.
07-03-08
Tags:
cafe, eco-friendly, terrace
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So close, yet, so far - It was obvious to me when I visited the water house the other week that they had just opened and, more importantly, they're going to struggle to survive unless they change some things real soon. I admit I'm no esteemed restaurant critic like Gordon Ramsay, however, there were so many things going wrong and it was a real shame because it has lots of potential.
Positive things to say:
- my chair was comfortable
- the interior was minimalist and very clean
- the food was tasty (albeit cold!)
- the layout of the restaurant was open with plenty of space
- they have a (wine) bar!
Negative things to report (I'm going to get RSI after I'm done with this section):
- the waiter didn't know the menu. I would've thought this to be an impossibility given there were only about 10 items on it.
- 2 items listed on the menu were actually out of stock....hmmm. ok it's saturday morning and they ran out!!??
- my burger was 'warm'. my friend's fritata was warm on the outside and cold on the inside.
- I asked to substitute the cheese on my burger for beetroot (don't ask!) and when the dish came out they removed ALL other ingredients instead of just the cheese.
- we had to ask for water 3 times...
- there was no atmosphere at all to this place. no music. no buzzing noise from conversations. staff were walking on egg-shells.
- the man at the door (whom I assumed to be the owner) did SFA all morning! It seemed to me that all he did was walk around and give orders, and that the staff were uncomfortable working when he was constantly looking over their shoulders. My suggestion to him: get off ya butt and go and get those 2 missing items on the menu! Oh, and fix your brand new juicer that is actually broken.
If I had visited again in 6 months from now I'm sure i wouldn't be writing such a scathing review, but this doesn't hide the fact that it was a pretty bad experience and that's enough for me not to want to go back.
01-03-08
Tags:
broken juicer, poor service
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Not Impressed - Me and some friends gave this new place a go and I wasn't that impressed. The walk on the canal was nice but when we got there..... not so much. Its cool that it's ecological but the wait staff didn't even know what was in the food when we asked them. We waited a long time to get served. The ambience was cold, even though I can appreciate they were trying to go for a minimalist feel. It felt like a glorified cafeteria. They ran out of tea and their juicer broke down. Need less to say, I'm not going back. Sorry WaterHouse, first impressions are just that!
28-02-08
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There is no T in Water House - 6 of us went to try out this new place which is situated overlooking the Regents Canal just near Kingsland Road. The place felt relaxed and had been done out nicely with the usual mix of wood, glass and concrete.
This is where the fun ended, the juicer had just broken down and they had, believe it or not, run out of English Tea! Call me old fashioned (and very English) but if you are only serving a brunch menu up to 5pm then surely you need to have tea and not just of the fruit variety.
There was nothing really wrong with the food but £10 for a mushroom burger which consisted of 3 mushrooms and a bread bun is not what I would call good value. I've had better and cheaper veggie burgers at Ultimate Burger!!
The service was just ok and they automatically added 12.5%, which for this neck of the woods is a bit of a cheek.
I would be quite suprised if this place lasts more than 6 months as they have opened in completly the wrong place...I may be wrong but I doubt it.
16-02-08
Tags:
, burgers, Tea!
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