Village East I decided to book ‘Village East<\/strong>‘, which is located on the trendy This Modern European restaurant seemed like a safe bet and as we had First impressions were good. The restaurant boasted a stylish interior, Our waitress greeted us politely but unfortunately her manner went Well, you can imagine that by the time we came to order our food, this Our starters, when they arrived, were on the small side. We decided it was Mains were less enjoyable, with the Wellington looking, and tasting, more About this point we were assigned the total polar opposite of our waitress I was the only one who opted for dessert (in a flawed move to salvage the Price: Starters from 5.80p, mains from 11.80p, sides 3.00p, desserts Our meal came to approx 65 pounds for 3, including the 40% discount. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Village East Restaurant Review Helen Forrest was hoping to be more impressed with the Village East Restaurant Village East 171 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UW I decided to book ‘Village East‘, which is located on the trendy Berdmondsey Street, as a treat for myself, the Veggie and a friend who was in the city for read more …<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHelen Forrest was hoping to be more impressed with the Village East Restaurant<\/em><\/p>\n
\n171 Bermondsey Street,
\nLondon,
\nSE1 3UW<\/p>\n
\nBerdmondsey Street, as a treat for myself, the Veggie and a friend who was
\nin the city for the day.<\/p>\n
\nbooked the special offer through ‘TopTable.com<\/strong>‘ it was all the more
\nattractive.<\/p>\n
\nfull of polished surfaces and clean lines, whilst managing to maintain a
\nwelcoming atmosphere. We were shown to a table near the open-plan kitchen
\nand toilets, which wasn’t as unfavourable as it might appear. However as
\nthe restaurant was nearly empty I’m sure a nicer table could have been
\nfound.<\/p>\n
\ndownhill from there. When I mentioned for the second time that we had
\nbooked via ‘TopTable’ she muttered that she would have to get us ‘the
\nother’ menu, immediately making us feel like penny-pinching chancers. The
\nspecials, which she had lovingly read out only a few moments before, were
\nstill available but ‘of course would be full price.’ Of course. The air
\nbristled around us as I contemplated telling her that we were quite able
\nto afford the food at full price but liked a bargain when we saw one…
\nPut simply: don’t have a 40% off offer if you are going to be so grudging
\nabout it. This place was hardly The Ivy after all.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwaitress’s manner was threatening to make anything we had taste rather
\nbitter. I had the Scallops and caramelised pork belly with carrot puree to
\nstart, followed by a rare moment of conscience (as a Buddhist I shouldn’t
\nreally eat meat) in which I ordered the Pumpkin and Goat’s cheese
\nwellington. When my friend stumbled over the pronunciation of her pasta,
\nbut named all the other ingredients in it, she was rudely corrected by her
\nmaj – ‘Oh, you mean the passs-ta…’<\/strong> Cue an embarrassed response from my
\nfriend and the settling of a grey cloud over our table.<\/p>\n
\nprobably a small portions kind of place… My 3 scallops were perfectly
\ncooked, although the pork belly was rather anemic and didn’t have the
\ncrispy crackling I had been imagining. The carrot puree looked like orange
\nbabyfood and had about as much taste. On a more positive note, the
\nveggie’s Gorgonzola tart was apparently very nice and my friend’s
\ngazpacho, good but a bit bland.<\/strong> I think by this point we were discussing
\nhow different this experience was to our previous ‘TopTable’ meals, and
\nthe quote of the night had occurred, which was ‘There is only so much cold
\nsoup you can eat,’ – bless her.<\/p>\n
\nlike the boot of the same name than the nicely cooked pastry and sweet and
\nsavoury filing I had been expecting. It was like it had been born of a
\ndifferent restaurant, reminding me of a Weatherspoon’s meal, with thick
\ndark brown pastry, cut into 2 huge slices. It tasted mostly of stodge and
\nmushrooms, with more mushrooms on the side in a metallic tomato sauce. Our
\nfriend’s pasta was better, silky and well-flavoured, but again the portion
\nwas too large. Very odd.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n(who was to return for tea and the ill-feted payment). This waiter
\nsimpered, he smiled, he caressed us with his charming words… It was too
\nmuch, too late – get some consistency here Village East!<\/p>\n
\nmeal). I selected the creme brulee as it is one of my favourites. Oh dear.
\nInstead of being nicely caramelised by the blow-torch, the brulee looked
\nas if it had been cremated for crimes against french cuisine. One pathetic
\nlooking raspberry covered some of the worst of the charcoal, and the
\ninnards were nice but sadly were totally ruined by the topping. Just to
\nreally seal the bad restaurant deal, little miss Sunshine brought us a
\nbroken teapot (we all ordered Earl Grey), without a word. Yes we should
\nhave complained earlier but I decided in typical British
\npassive-aggressiveness to make a stand over the ‘optional service charge<\/strong>‘.
\n‘You haven’t given me enough,’ she blustered. ‘We don’t have to pay it,’ I
\nbatted back,’and I really don’t think the service was worth 11 pounds.’
\nShe stared, went to speak to her manager and that was that. Needless to
\nsay we won’t be returning, deal or no deal.<\/p>\n
\n6.00p, wine from 15.50p.<\/strong><\/p>\n