Qype: Hardy's Restaurant in London

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I drooled over the menu, and waited excitedly for the bus to stop so I could dash down the road and visit Hardy's with a friend. I was so disappointed by the end of the visit after a combination of things being below par - and not just 'oh-maybe-it's-just-an-off-night' wrong - I ended up moving elsewhere for desert and coffee.

My friend had booked a table and got there a few minutes before I, by when a waiter had already whisked away one of the menus as he needed it - by menu I'm talking a black and white A4 printed page (rather different to the sample menu on their website). Fine, so chatted with my friend and oggled the menu and waited for 20 minutes for someone to come and offer me a drink. I was giving all the right signals - menu down, looking around, neck craning - even a bit of finger tapping to catch someone's eye in order to get a drink. Eventually half out of my chair I waved someone down and asked for a bit of wine advice, were met with a blank stare so we ordered a bottle and got back to chatting. It arrived and was fine and we ordered our food.

We went for the game terrine, rare steak for main. I asked if the steak came with anything to which the waiter floundered a bit and said no I need to order a side vegetable - we both opted for spinach and awaited our food. After a while I imagine the owner came to us and asked if we'd eaten yet, a bit concerned we said 'Er, no'. She disappeared and came back with our plates - 'Who ordered the herbs ont he side rather than on the steak?' It was our turn for blank stares as we had no idea what she was talking about. She shrugged and put the plates down and went off. To cut a long story short the game terrine was like a cold, thick slice of meatloaf, the steak was indeed rare but also as tough as boots - and a big piece but rather unpleasant to eat. I couldn't quite finish all my spinach because it also came with A BIG PILE OF GREENS AND POTATOES (not quite as bare as our waiter had suggested) so the windly bowl of spinach between us (£7.50) was really silly.

After trying to get another drink and waving over waiters for the next 20 minutes we were fed up and decided against tempting fate with teh deserts and asked for our bills.

One of those places I really begrudged paying the 'discretionary 12.5% service charge' which such a lack of it. So £75 for a shared starter, 2 mains, and a bottle of wine really didn't float my boat.

Check out my review of Hardy's Restaurant - I am Urbanite - on Qype