The Brigade Bar + Kitchen Reviews Summary

Food Quality

Pros:

• "Delicious fish and chips and the special white chocolate mousse dessert was incredible."
• "The quality of food and wines were really good."
• "Really well cooked meats, generous portions, nice add-ons."
• "Really delicious food for a good cause. The menu is small and the chefs really put an effort into making the food great."
• "Beyond unbelievably amazing experience here. Absolutely unique entree’s than anything I have ever tried."
• "The food is delicious and well presented."
• "Food amazing and cooked by apprentices."

Cons:

• "Too pricey for what they offer. Mediocre food and service."
• "The skin wasn't crispy and the dish wasn't well balanced."
• "It is supposed to be a charity but the main courses were very poor value. The Dartmoor lamb for £22 my friend chose was inedible as far as I could see."
• "The food was OK and the menu perhaps a little limited."
• "Overpriced and under par food."
• "Food was bang average. Nothing you can’t get in from a burger van."
• "Unfortunately the aubergine dish was very undercooked."

Social Impact

Pros:

• "Wow wow what an amazing job this people are doing. Had a plain healthy lunch in LB, good coffee and the bread and butter are so good. And at the same time my money in some way is helping fight homelessness."
• "They have an amazing story here. They employ and train homeless people."
• "The restaurant works with homeless and unemployed people and trains them for the positions required to operate the restaurant."
• "They are doing some very cool non-profit work supporting young chefs."
• "The social work of the restaurant is incredible."
• "Such a good cause. Money well spent and a great example of a restaurant changing people's lives through their apprenticeship scheme."
• "And all this, as a social enterprise? They've done an excellent job here."

Cons:

• "It is set in an old fire station and could have kept maybe a few features to give the place some of the character of the external building."
• "Their donations went from GBP 1 to 4, and prices became quite astronomical, but the overall quality of the menu, the food, and the whole experience, has dramatically declined."
• "It's a bit unfortunate that this place, which used to have the best English Breakfast in all of London before Covid, slid so much in quality of food and popularity."
• "I’m sometimes reluctant on social enterprise restaurants because they can lack of quality or attention to details."
• "The manager is a rotten apple which put squarely is a deep seated issue, not a teething problem."
• "Overall, I really care about the concept of this place, but I think it hasn't been managed very well."
• "The Brigade is an expensive experience for middle-of-the-road food."

Service

Pros:

• "Service good. Out of 10. IPA 10. Water 10. Set menu cancelled 0. A la carte Menu 5. Main 2. Dessert 8. Coffee 10. Value 3. Noise level 2. Setting 8."
• "Fantastic food, service and venue."
• "The service was professional."
• "Very friendly staff who were helpful."
• "Wait staff attentive and knowledgeable."
• "The service is very attentive and I was asked several times is everything ok while I was eating."
• "From the moment we arrived, we were made to feel welcome by the friendly and very attentive staff."

Cons:

• "To start, the staff who meant to show me to the table did not know where I should be sitted resulted in my getting in the way of the other restaurant staff."
• "Really bad service."
• "Avoid! Bad experience from start to finish."
• "The service leaves a ton to be desired."
• "Very slow service. I actually left in the end because no one seemed interested in taking my order."
• "The manager handled the situation rather badly."
• "The service from the bar was extremely slow, especially the manager in the suit."

Ambience

Pros:

• "Decor is nice, a bit loud/busy on Thu evening but still was possible to have conversation without shouting at each other."
• "The restaurant is decorated beautifully. Completely enjoyable!"
• "Nice decor inside was very pleasant to spend time there."
• "The interior was really nice with a busy atmosphere, so I would recommend it for a nice dinner with friends."
• "Nicely decorated inside."
• "The ambiance is cozy yet cool and not pretentious."
• "The space is really nice- light and airy."

Cons:

• "The noise from the bar was very loud, so the five of us were struggling to talk around the table."
• "VERY LOUD. Bar area super crowded."
• "We had to wait for 10 minutes before being even acknowledged and didn't get much attention during the dinner."