Chez Gérard *CLOSED Feb 2012

This place does not cut the mustard. We ordered Chateaubriand, for two, as per normal. In my past experience this cut has always been presented to the recipients as cooked, then carved in front of them. We are talking £44, for a "select" cut of meat here. (£22 each). Sadly whilst the price was as expected, the meal fell very short of expectations. It was served, cooked and cut, over a plate of what can only be describe as fries. The staff had no recognition of what they were serving and treated it like any other dish. I guess the chef and source of meat would meet the same standards. I am not a snob nor rich enough to eat such a dish in any sense of a regular basis. But I would like to let others know.

Scipio (Unverified), 11/01/09

---

I normally avoid chain restaurants like the plague, but on a rainy Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago my girlfriend and I accidentally ended up in Chez Gerard.

I can sum it up pretty quickly - mediocre food and okay service for an extremely high price. We spent £50 between two of us for a main meal each, some garlic bread to start and a couple of beers each ... nothing else.

My girlfriend's steak was not cooked as she had requested it, and the food in general was ok but no better than you would expect from a pub charging half the price.

The thing that angered me most was the price of drinks - £3.95 for a small bottle of lager, and it wasn't even cold. You'd have thought for that price they could at least stick it in the fridge for a bit, but no ... it was room temperature.

We came out feeling ripped off - it confirms what I've thought for ages. Avoid George Street and above all avoid chain restaurants ... local establishments are so much better.

soupysoups (DI User), 19/12/08

---

I went there with husband and toddler. The restaurant is very nicely decorated and central. The kids' meal deal was excellent value. For £5.95 my little one got a drink, bread with butter, small salad, main meal, dessert and a hot chocolate!!

As for our meal, we were only given one menu, which looked limited, but we ordered burgers with frites. Our meals took about 30-35 minutes to arrive, which seemed a long time, but luckily the drink, bread and salad for my little one came in stages before our mains, so he was preoccupied.

In my burger the chicken was warm/cold in the middle, while the bacon and other toppings were hot. I felt that was a shame as it ruined the experience. My hubby is simple to please and said his meal was ok (beef burger).

I then ordered a creme brulee (£4.95) and expected a decent sized dessert, but got a shock when it arrived. If you imagine 2 tablespoons of creme brulee, that's the amount I got. My son's dessert of waffle and icecream (from the kids menu) was bigger than mine, and his entire meal was just a tad more than my dessert. In saying that, the waffle was stone cold (although advertised as warm waffle), it seemed it was stale and they thought no kid would know the difference.

After we were served our mains, we waited a long time before my husband had to go and get a dessert menu from the staff and ask if we could order dessert. The same went for the bill, we had to grab another waitress to get our bill as it was bedtime for our son.

When we were nearly done, we noticed a waitress bring out pizza for the table next door. It was a big surprise for me as I did not see it on our menus. They must have has another menu that they did not give us - disappointing as we would have ordered one instead of a burger.

Overall, it was a good experience. I would certainly go back for the kids' menu, and also for the fact that they accepted the Tesco deal vouchers for Caffe Uno- a real bonus!!

I would rate my experience 3.5 stars out of 5.

G.M (Unverified), 12/09/08

---

This is my husband's most loved restaurant at airports (!) Having not been abroad for a while we went there for breakfast on Saturday morning. The staff assured us that the kitchen would just be starting to cook and that we could order breakfast.

The waiter confessed that he didn't know what marmalade was but wasn't it just the same as jam? Our breakfasts took 45 minutes to arrive.

We had a great laugh and it was beautifully quiet and peaceful as the staff avoided us and the sensible people didn't come in. It was also very good for my diet as I wasn't hungry by the time the food came. My poor old husband wasn't very keen on the end results either and has sworn that we will never go back..

Ah well.

Mrs Robinson (DI User), 15/07/08

---

I had the misfortune to eat in Chez Gerard last week. My mother and I went before going to the ballet. We asked for the pre-theatre menu, and proceeded to order 2 glasses of wine, and 2 medium steaks from this menu. The wine took ages to arrive. The steak was less chargrilled than burnt on the outside, and terribly tough. When we were brought our bill, we found that we had been overcharged. It turned out that the wine we had ordered was not part of the pre-theatre menu, despite appearing on this menu. The waitress had neglected to tell us this, even though we specifically said that was what we wanted - and then said that she didn't think she needed to explain as it was quite clear on the menu. (Tiny print on a very confusing menu - why have things that you can't have on a 'deal' menu? And it would not have been difficult to say - sorry that wine isn't part of the deal) So, we paid up. A shame, because the menu looked nice, and the surroundings were pleasant. But I would not go back, not only because of the poor standard of food, but for the sheer rudeness of the waiting staff.

Liz (Unverified), 23/01/08

---

We spent a hilarious ‘Fawlty Towers’ evening in this branch of Chez Gerard over the Christmas break. First the waiters spent ages going through a seemingly endless (at least 6) list of dishes that weren’t available that evening, Oh and the mid-priced sauvignon blanc and ‘Stella’ were off too.

It seemed they must have got a job-lot of mushrooms as the ‘specials’ were mushroom soup, another mushroom dish and some sort of beef-en croute (yes, it's got mushrooms in it). Luckily we wanted steak but, oops! they only had the one sauce (out of a choice of two) – how difficult can it be to make a béarnaise sauce? We asked for some tap water as well as wine and by golly that’s what we got, so freshly straight out of the tap it hadn’t even had time to get cold.

My steak came medium as opposed to rare as requested, but everything else was ok in a perfectly boring sort of way. Oddly, the staff seemed preoccupied with drinking cups of something (soup? I wondered. I supposed they’d got to get through those mushrooms somehow).

We used to go to Chez Gerard in Albermarle Street in London and what a treat that was! I’m sorry to say that the fact that this is a now a chain restaurant has done it no favours at all – I shouldn’t have expected better and how depressing is that?

GM (Unverified), 09/01/08

---

This is a chain restaurant in a city centre location, so I expected it to be a little overpriced, but I also expected a reasonable quality.

For starters, we ordered two onion soups: one was boiling and the other tepid on top, cold at the bottom. The crouton wasn't a crouton; just a piece of bread. Although, credit to them where it's due: we sent the cold soup back and they replaced it in its entirety.

My steak was rare as ordered, and they got the frites right, but my partner's pan-fried sea bass was flaccid and lacking a nicely crispy skin.

The bill (£35 per person) arrived unrequested as soon as we declined dessert.

This restaurant will do well from tourists due to its location and recognisable name, but you will probably find better value for money elsewhere.

TomTom (Unverified), 30/11/07

---