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Reviewer: Mac
Reviewed on the: 4/11/2013 8:05:10 PM
Overall Rating: 76% |
Atmosphere Decor Value for Money Service Stars
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Food Wine Music Transport and Location Overall Experience
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Vivat Bacchuss is one of my favourite restaurants in London, for oh so many reasons... so in the interests of not showing favouritism, I'm going to be sure to find any weakness they have. Let's start with some the reasons that the are one of my favourites and take this review from there. First off, they are a South African restaurant - I was born in South Africa. Need I say more? Secondly, they actually consider themselves a wine bar, and what with the all the fine wines available from the Fair Cape, they certainly have a few good South African wines in stock. Of course the rest of the world is not neglected and there are quality wines from many of the new and old world vintners. I must have eaten here 5 times if it was once, the proximity to London Bridge station and the fact that the serve biltong (cured south african meat for those who aren't foodies, and perhaps the biggest reason for this being one of my favourite restaurants) means that it's hard to resist the lure if I'm in the area. It's not a cheap restaurant, but considering the area, and the fact that they serve good quality food and wine, that's not unexpected. Finally the one detraction: I do find that the service is slightly lacking at times, and think that the staff could be trained a little better... this is not the waiters impersonating Houdini escaping the floor to smoke out the back of the kitchen, but rather them being sometimes over eager to serve. Subtle attentiveness, rather than intruding every 15 minutes with a “Can I get you anything?”, is the trick. Unfortunately, I also noticed that they are sometimes under educated on wines and how to serve them, which in a wine bar should really be top priority. Overall, if you are in the London bridge area, I would definitely suggest a visit to this restaurant. Be it for a business meetings over a few platters of food and drinks, or catching up with friends after work. A word of caution if taking someone special for a quieter meal, this place is very busy in the early evenings, so best enquire as to whether they have their downstairs area open before eating there.
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