iBar Whetstone – Food Review
iBar Whetstone – Food Review
Katie Chu is impressed with iBar in Whetstone
iBar
1277 High Road
Whetstone
London
Tel: 020 8445 2165
Review date: Wednesday 17 Feb 2010
I popped into this bar/restaurant the other day during my lunch break (I
work on Whetstone High Road) and was pleasantly surprised.
The first thing I noticed was that the staff were pleasantly attentive and
the service was very smooth, and we were soon seated at a table far enough
away from the other customers.
Looking at the menu, among the standard pub fare there were interesting
concepts like, ‘devilled chicken livers’ and ‘chestnut bake’ – not your
standard Whetherspoons grub!
I settled on a Chicken Pie while my colleague went for the fish-cakes.
The crust was light and flaky, and the chicken tender. My appreciation was
matched by my friend who was impressed by the ‘fluffiness’ of her
fish-cakes.
All in all a delicious meal and excellent service. A hidden gem I’d
heartily recommend
P.S. The best chips I’ve ever tasted (Sorry Mum…)!
Lunch for two about £10/15, service not included.
iBar
1277 High Road
Whetstone
London
Tel: 020 8445 2165
www.ibar.uk.com
Live Music – Night Club – Bar – Restaurant – Private Parties – Corporate functions
I had some food in here not only the other day, but once again at a point in time. Not much fare, didn’t enjoy my [b]fluffy[/b] fishcake [b](thanks mum!!)[/b]. Unfortunmna,aerlr ly we were seated near other humans, so that was not much fun at all. All in all, a terrible time for all. So have some of that.
me and my partener had a lovely dinner on thursday night ,we realy enjoyed it we both had king pranwns in tempura then i had the sirloin steak and my partener had a haggies risotto unusual dish but was truly delicious.
we will be back soon
i took my mum for a treat yesterday to Ibar,and had a delicious meal in this freindly welcoming restaurant,we can ‘t wait to go back and look forward to many more meals there.the menu is great,with plenty of options for vegetarians and non alike. highly recommended!
Four of us were enticed into the iBar for Valentine’s Day for a promise of Dinner, Live Band, Disco and Dancing. We had previously been there in the previous incarnation as a pub and music venue, and hear rumours of upmarket moves.
The venue had been nicely decorated for the night with the usual hearty things and sashes around chairs, and so on.
We knew something might have gone wrong before we got there, because their web site had taken down the advert for the evening, and had replaced it with an urgent appeal for a cover band (£250 and drinks), and so there was a level of expectation that something might not happen.
We chose from a very limited set menu (£24.95), but it was clear that for the night, the staff brought in, whilst friendly and attentive, were undertrained. I asked for a bottle of Merlot, as was asked ‘Was that the red one?’, and a bottle of screwtop was plonked on the table, only to be knocked over by the server at the first course. Just as well it had not been unscrewed.
They tried with the food, which could be best described as OK. Starter Moules were deemed to be satisfactory and beef teriyaki was tender and interestingly served with a sweet chilli sauce. Steaks were sent back as all four of them were cold. This was attributed to a communication problem as the kitchen staff did not tell the waiting staff to serve. New ones were provided without dispute.
During the meal, the band loped in one at a time, and we could see signs of setting up. No music. Then we saw signs of the band taking down and moving out. I asked one of the band what was happening. ‘The gigs been cancelled.’ he said. The disco man also came and went without a song being sung. The lights were turned off, and we finished the night in silence.
Something went very badly wrong here, and the venue failed to produce the event that it was charging for. No apologies or explanations were offered, and the floor staff looked perplexed and dismayed. No refund was offered, and it was only after near confrontation with the front of house for the restaurant that they proposed that we should be offered a free drink.
It seems to me that these people had bitten off more than they could chew, and in an attempt to benefit from the usual overpriced Valentine’s night, they had not got as many customers as they wanted, and reacted by trying to limit their loss.
As far as our group were concerned the iBar tried to charge for something it simply did not deliver.