Le Petit Citron

"I’m looking forward to returning to Le Petit Citron next month. My friend and I went there after Xmas shopping at Westfield in December. Starting with a cocktail and then on to the set lunch menu of delicious garlic prawns with sourdough, followed by steak frites or hake with cous cous for the main. We both had the pot au chocolat for pudding. The atmosphere was warm and relaxing and the service was great."

"We had wanted to come here for a while, brought my daughter here for a treat. Horrible. An Easyjet meal would have tasted better. All so bad..the chicken was dry, powdery lumps of blandness with a thin watery sauce, vegetables completely devoid of taste but looking good, same for other diners, a plate of asparagus going back to the kitchen (untouched) on the opposite table. The singular 8cm square of potato gratin that I ate was good. The rather tiny & thin slice of seabass was adequate, but no seasoning, nothing, just completely plain, if the accompanying tomato paste had been edible… (I do understand Provençal cooking, but we expected simple & flavourful, not dry bland, inedible prop food). We did complain to the lovely staff that it was unusual to be sending COMPLETELY FULL plates back to the kitchen bin & they did raise it with the chef, apparently the only recourse available was to remove the staff tip, horrendous. Not my intention at all. Even my poor daughter tried to negotiate pointing out that we were leaving without eating anything, yet still paying the full amount..sad that she tried to get it sorted for me when I couldn’t, we were so stressed with it (and left so hungry). If the staff had asked us how our meal was whilst we were eating (as restaurants normally do?) it may have helped, it wasn’t busy (6pm and 3 other tables only) unusual not to check, maybe they don’t ask because they’re worried about the response. Watching our (& our neighbour’s) completely full plates going to the bins was disconcerting.. Seems the owners aren’t worried about poor reviews/unhappy customers (judging by the lack of resolution available to their staff. I also expect the reply here will be the equivalent of ‘the team are so sorry you had a really crap, costly & stressful experience, we look forward to seeing you again soon’ like they’ve done to another recent unhappy reviewer. ???? if you do read this, no response (once again) would be much better and honest of you. You chose to not sort this out with me at the time and took full payment for food that could not be eaten and went to the bin instead. I feel ripped off & zero resolution plus a glib, tone deaf response would just be further insult. For me I’m sorry your professional, apologetic server had to contend with this. It wasn’t her problem. Nothing is going to change the fact that I’d been building up this visit to my daughter and it’s just been a stress. Such a shame, we came in ravenous and left just as hungry. Don’t understand the good reviews, for us the atmosphere was leaden, chilly and oppressive. It felt like the food was for Instagram or stylistic purposes only, no flavour, ironic considering the origins of the cuisine. As soon as we arrived we got worried when we were asked & answered! in the space of five mins literally Three Times if we had a reservation (Wednesday 6pm, near empty restaurant), maybe busy later but hard when people don’t listen but keep asking. The place felt very subdued, sterile and off so we chose not to order starters, wine, desserts, coffee (all the stuff we were looking forward to) and it became a damage limitation exercise instead. We ordered only very basic mains but sadly they took nearly 40 minutes to arrive, if we had been told there were delays in the kitchen we would have ordered starters..why did it take so long for two ridiculously plain dishes when the kitchen had no other orders? If you’re planning on coming to this restaurant hungry ???? I’d recommend bringing snacks to tide you over ;) perhaps some herbs or sauces to make a proper meal..sure was dry. We are baffled by the other good reviews, maybe cronies or ?? the place is an absolute duffer. After the stress of it all I came home and threw up the small square of potato gratin that had singly cost me £20 to eat, an amazingly crap, stressful experience from what appears to be a lovely, thriving, cosy bistro - it’s absolutely not. Try Ploussard’s, Zedel’s, Chez Lindsay Richmond or La Petite Auberge Islington instead - this isn’t up to a basic chain standard."

"Great French local for Brook Green"