Raan Restaurant & Bar

ACSS (20 December 2007)

Small portions and poor service makes us not return to the restaurant. I am not a big eater but found the tiny £12 lobster starter although tasty, far too small. My main course of chicken, which was dry and covered in curry powder, came with a small salad - again tasty - but not a single carbohydrate balanced it. Where was a ball of rice or naan bread? The pickle it came with was nice but again, not enough.

Bizarrely, there was no pepper or salt on our huge round table, which was so large I had to shout to the person next to me and had to ask two different waiters four times for sugar for coffee. We ordered six sorbets but only five turned up. We requested the sixth but it never arrived. In the end, I ate half of mine and gave the rest to my son, as he was hungrier than I was. The final straw was a cold latte and no sugar. Our group of six all had something different and each dish was rather dry, with not a creamy sauce in sight.

For pudding, you have the exciting choice of three minute scoops of mango sorbet or raspberry sorbet. If, like us, you want value for your money i.e. good service and food that you cannot recreate better yourself at home or via a takeaway from Tesco - and eating out in London for six people is always expensive - then avoid this place. If, however, you are on a diet then it is the ideal place.