Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames
Poor Boys

Poor Boys

5 The Griffin Centre Market Place, KT1 1JT, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom

Wine • Vegan • Seafood • American


"This review is the one you need: 1. The queue was 1hr 10 mins on a Saturday at 7pm, not bad in my eyes for a hyped restaurant. It was -2 outside when we queued up so glad I was wearing a fat coat. The queue runs along the river so it will get chilly so make sure you 're warm if visiting in the winter. When we got to the front, the manager moved us under the tables with the heated lamps which was lovely. The food was mostly worth the wait. All in all, not too bad. I was expecting way worse. 6/10 2. The food was mainly good. My highlight was the beef brisket doughnuts...paired with the sauce and the pickles.. omg delicious. The buttermilk prawns were also banging. We had *all* the snacks. The chicken skin was not worth it...cold and dry. Mac and cheese balls were not pulling and dry from the inside. The best snack was the jalapeño popper and calamri. We got the po boy with the buttermilk chicken and I think the chicken was really dry and not tasty. I wish we got the grilled chicken po boy as with all the fried snacks, it all started to taste the same after a while, so if you go I 'd recommend if you 're getting the snacks, get the grilled chicken/prawn option for your BYO Poor Boy . I 'd give the food on its own an 8/10. It was mainly hit, but the items that were misses, were real misses. 3. The restaurant was coooooold inside. Make sure you dress warm if you 're visiting in the winter. I had to sit with my coat over my legs as a blanket! The seats are super uncomfortable and the bathrooms were not the cleanest. 1/10 4. Service is fast and the server we had was very attentive. No fault whatsoever with that! She even swapped over some sauces for us as we had so many of the same sauces! The only thing about the service was that the server didn 't ask us about our meal at the end, but that is being really nit-picking. 10/10 Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Price per person: £50–60 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 3 Recommended dishes: Brisket"

Al Forno

Al Forno

107 High Street, Kingston Upon Thames, United Kingdom, KT3 4BP, Kingston upon Thames

Pizza • Pasta • Steak • Italian


"What a horrible experience we had since our last visit in 2021. We have been regular customers for years, and we were really looking forward to come back after since the pandemic. First, service was the worst. We were rushed and not attended enough throughout the evening. We try to order something, and midway through the order, the waitress decides to just leave the table leaving us with outstanding requests. This kept happening during the whole dinner. Second, the tagliolini with truffle were so tasteless and bland, I had to keep adding salt, pepper, chilli olive oil just to get some taste out of it so I can finish my plate. And I am usually not a fussy eater. The pasta itself was undercooked and very doughy/chewy, too. We ordered extra pepperoni on our pizza, and in our opinion, there was no visible difference to the amount of salami put on it. What came out to us is what it would normally would've come out with. Thirdly, I ordered a tiramisu which I was really looking forward to, given all the experinece so far, that this will wash all the bad away. How wrong was I... The tiramisu was nothing short of a small whiskey size glass stuffed with layer of lady fingers and a layer of mascarpone with just a shy amount of sprinkled cocoa on top. Upon looking closely at the so-called tiramisu dessert, I noticed that the lady fingers were so dry and not soaked in coffee at all. I decided that I won't be having this and wished to return it. When we received the bill and after we paid for everything we had but the tiramisu, we were asked by our waiter how our food was. So we though, oh, someone actually cares and wants to know, how nice. Little did we know that no one actually cared, and the only reason we were asked this was so that we can be told by the Manager how wrong we are, how we have no right to complain about the food or the service, how as a goodwill gesture we weren't charged 2 pounds for the extra pepperoni (which on the contrary was on the bill, and we paid for with no objections), how the Manager is sick of customers telling them how Italian food should or should not be, how we have no right to object or say anything negatively about their precious chef's dishes, how we don't understand nothing, etc. In conclusion, and after reading through previous reviews too, I can confidently say that this seems to not have been nor will be the first or last case. There seems to be a clear pattern and common complaints about same thing, but that no one will ever take that constructive feedback away and try to improve. Needless to say after years of supporting this local business, we will no longer be returning. Not just for the terrible food experience, but more so for the horrible customer service we received from the Manager."