River Cafe reviews
Really lovely place, especially on a sunny evening, if you've accepted that you'll have to pay quite a bit.
We had delicious antipasti of mozzarella, really tasty risotto with tomatoes, homemade pasta with prawns, and huge portions of monkfish and salmon. The wood-roasted vegetables that came with it were also great. Simple but really well cooked, with perfect ingredients.
The staff were friendly and helpful to us, moved us inside when we got cold outside, and helped with the wine list. Expensive but a really good experience. Would love to go again.
One the best eating experiences I've ever had. No complaints about food or service - both worth every penny of the hefty bill. Would definitely return!
by missfine "top london reviewer" (25 reviews), 19 Jun 2007Strange food combinations - a bread salad (which I thought might be more than bread in a salad), a peach risotto which was horrid, fish that made me feel rather unwell... followed by a £50 per head bill with no dessert and only 2 glasses of wine!
The waitress came and tried to take our dessert order whilst I was away from the table. When my husband asked if she could wait until I returned they became very sniffy. Truly awful. Would never return.
Boring! Eat the same menu for half the price at hundreds of other trendy restaurants in London. No need to trek out to Hammersmith for this.
by Dave S, 21 Sep 2005Wonderful cooking and admittedly fantastic ingredients but I always leave feeling like I have been mugged. The staff work the tables like sales managers work accounts. Nothing isn't charged to it's maximum, so a request for a sliver of the chocolate cake on the side of a to-be-shared panacotta was charged at full price. Pasta requested as a main course was charged at a premium add on of 20% despite the request of the 'primo' portion. This is a local restaurant and needs to remember that small giveaways can reap rewards, though looking at the usual at-capacity dining room, they are not about to suffer if they don't make me feel special - but then, I can always go back to Riva and often do, if the choice comes up.
by Anonymous, 08 Dec 2004Have we missed a great restaurant in London? Let us know.
Photograph © River Café. Credit: Ossie Gray
Stuart PhillipsCovent Garden »
