Anyone who has anything to do with preparing and serving food in the UK takes great heed of the words of the restaurant critic A A Gill in the Sunday Times. ""Good food with bad service presents itself as bad food""
Such an epithet can surely be placed fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the proprietors of Shilo's
We arrived six handed without a reservation (not a great idea) , to be told that they could accommodate us but it would be 30 minutes wait. Fair enough. 60 minutes later and counting we were ""fortunate"" enough to be led to a large table for 8. Only to be led back to the waiting area, as there was some confusion about whether the table was already taken or not.
We finally sat down and was greeted by, well, nothing. A waiter en passant said that they were very busy and that he would give us his full attention in 10 seconds. I think he meant 10 minutes but I wasn't in the mood to argue, and I don't think he was either.
When he eventually did arrive there was no explanation of the dishes on the menu just what was off the menu. Sort of Faulty Towers ""the veals off' moment, without the comedic genius of John Cleese. Just substitute chicken for veal and you get the scenario. A kosher eatery with no chicken equates to a Starbucks without coffee!
We all agreed on something simple to eat with the exception of one member who ordered a plain Kobe burger, stipulating plain,plain and even plainer.
You guessed it, it came with all the trimmings. Waiter to diner ""well we are busy,we are trying our best"" obviously not at listening. It did eventually arrive plain adorned with a miserable smirk from the messenger.
All food tasted fabulous but not sure what the 6 condiments, placed before us in little dishes were, I suppose it would have been nice to know, but that's a bit too much to ask at Shilo's.
To add insult to injury the table was cleared before one of the party had even finished eating, perhaps it's a French custom I have not come across before.
Forget the high price,forget the high quality steaks, forget the obligatory 18% service, forget even the lack of car parking space. Go there for one thing and one thing alone, to taste the heady mix of superb kosher food, repugnant service, and French indifference , that leads to an unforgettable evening for all the wrong reasons.
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