World Foodie Guide

12 Responses to “Arbutus (revisited) – London, England (7/10)”

1. on 22 Mar 2009 at 9:00 am1Fat Les

   I’m beginning to concur with you on this. You merely hammered the nail with the ‘Why?’ paragraph. One thing that we must respect with Arbutus is the outstanding value of both the set menus. £15.50 lunch for 3 courses in a starred place is quite simply ‘I bow to thee’.

   NB I’m intent on spoiling the outcome of my impending visit to Hix and yes as insurance, I’ve bought quite a few hats in advance.

2. on 22 Mar 2009 at 10:33 am2Andrew Webb

   It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy it? I think it’s a great place, Anthony and Will run what in my experience is a great little restaurant. What I’m particularly impressed with is the way they extract every last bit of value from his ingredients and pairing the ‘cheap bits’ with the ‘expensive’ bits (i.e mini shepherd’s pie with loin of lamb). They’re getting whole animals in and breaking them down, you’d be surprised how many places don’t do this. However, I’ve read elsewhere on the net that some people have an issue with the Bavette dish, but I’ve had it a couple of times and it’s been great.

   I agree with Les, the £15.50 set lunch has been that price since the placed opened in..04 I think ottomh.

   You might enjoy this too.
   http://eyedropper.co.uk/2009/02/05/video-off-cuts-leftovers-from-the-c4-pig-project-pt3/

   Andrew

3. on 22 Mar 2009 at 1:13 pm3Helen

   I must say, it looks yummy in the pictures! Still, these things are very personal. I have a massive obsession with smoked eel too so that had me from the beginning. It looks like a fine piece if eel.

4. on 22 Mar 2009 at 8:15 pm4Douglas

   I’m not a fan of this, nor Wild Honey. I wouldn’t go back to either even if the meals were complimentary. Life’s too short.

5. on 22 Mar 2009 at 8:25 pm5Lizzie

   I find that I rarely re-visit restaurants, especially as there are so many more to be tried out there and so little budget to allocate! Still, the smoked eel dish looked lovely.

6. on 22 Mar 2009 at 10:43 pm6Christie @ Fig & Cherry

   Oh no, what a shame! It’s always horrible when you remember something fondly and then it disappoints. Luckily there’s loads of other nice restaurants in London! I’m back there in May for 6 months, so I’m looking forward to checking out your reviews section for some further inspiration

7. on 23 Mar 2009 at 10:41 am7admin

   Fat Les – ooh, going to Hix soon? Excited to hear your opinion…

   Andrew – what can I say? It was OK the first time and nothing special the second time. Can’t keep doing revisits to places that are just OK, but that’s just my personal opinion of course. There are plenty of people I know who love both Arbutus and Wild Honey.

   Helen – I think you would have loved the smoked eel!

   Douglas – haha! I won’t be revisiting Wild Honey either now, after this meal…

   Lizzie – I don’t often get to revisit restaurants, but once in a while, I’ll look through my London reviews and pick a few. I guess I picked the wrong one!

   Christie – yes, that feeling is depressing, but as you say, luckily there are so many other great restaurants in London. If you’re back for 6 months, you’ll get to try a good few of them! Looking forward to meeting you…

   Helen Yuet Ling

8. on 23 Mar 2009 at 12:00 pm8American in London

   I agree with you, Helen – the room still has a pleasant buzz, and the food is well-prepared, but it seems very safe and boring these days. Plus the service is too careless for a one-Michelin-starred place. I last visited in January of this year for a fun night out with four other friends. There was a major hiccup when one of our friends’ orders was incorrect and it took almost an hour for the “right” dish to come out, at which point we’d all finished our food and were left awkwardly trying to pretend our friend wasn’t still trying to eat his dinner. While the restaurant didn’t charge us for the one main course, there was no apology or explanation for why a new dish hadn’t come out much earlier. I’d much rather spend my money elsewhere these days.

9. on 24 Mar 2009 at 3:31 pm9admin

   American in London – wow, your last visit didn’t sound too fun for the poor dinnerless friend! There are too many other places to throw my money at…

   Helen Yuet Ling

10. on 15 Jul 2009 at 5:26 pm10Amy

    I hated it. The manager was very rude – we were there 5 mins early and it was pouring down and she wouldn’t let us take shelter inside.
    And the food was so underwhealming, I could do better myself at home without much thought.
    Boring and rubbish.

11. on 03 Aug 2009 at 8:43 pm11Maggie

    Me and my husband were visiting London and went to Arbutus. It was very disappointing. Overall, the food was incredibly salty and uninspired. One of the appetizer’s,the mackerel and eel burger, had a garbagy taste that lingered for a day. The bavette was inedible — fortunately, they ended up not charging us for that dish. I wish I had read this web site before we wasted the money. This was the only meal in a 2 week vacation to England that we were unhappy with.

12. on 06 Aug 2009 at 10:25 am12admin

    Maggie – what a shame, particularly as you were visiting London. It’s worse when you’re on holiday I think because you only have a certain number of meals and you want to enjoy them all. I hope the other meals made up for this disappointment!

    Helen Yuet Ling