Tipped

It wasn't like this last time.

October 10, 2009

When I first stumbled on this place a couple of months ago, I was happily in love and glad to recommend it to friends. Sadly the honeymoon period seems to be over. Despite impressive coffee, an inventive and well executed menu and a playful, elegant interior (surely these three reasons are enough in themselves to suggest I had found a great local), I won't be visiting Lantana again. I won't go into the details here for fear of sounding puerile or melodramatic, but I can summarise with the conclusion that this was the rudest and indeed worst service I have ever received in London. I was enraged to the point of leaving the cafe before placing an order and appalled to be entirely dismissed by noxious, disinterested sarcasm when returning to explain my disappointment later in the day. If you can tolerate being treated with utter contempt, you'll find good things. Otherwise, I recommend finding somewhere with a little more soul, humanity (in fact) and decent manners. A hot spot for hipster masochists.

It's good, but how good?

June 14, 2009

Lantana is the first place I've visited on the basis of Tipped recommendations. I'm looking for a new breakfast haunt and Lantana's Australian menu with its mixture of British, American and Pacific food looked like a welcome break. Hard to beat a blogging cafe owner as well for an insight into what the place is likely.

Physically its a small but light place on Charlotte's Place surrounded by gourmet butchers, Italian delis and other upmarket shops. The atmosphere is relaxed and inviting.

The food is expensive and I think you have to know what to pick to get a good deal. The baked beans and spinach are great and the sourcing of the meat is excellent as well. A lot of the choices are underwhelming though, the corn fritters lack both seasoning and just picked freshness. There's a reason that potato is more commonly used in the same role in the UK.

I've been a couple of times and while I plan to return I am left wondering whether you could better spend the money on buying expensive bacon and sausage and dropping some feta into the baked beans yourself. It's a treat but lacks anything that really compels me to come back.

Tags: breakfast, australian, cafe

Finally, not the full English!

March 20, 2009

I have finally got round to writing a review for Lantana, having had lunch there with friends numerous times. My boyfriend is addicted to the hummingbird cakes (he says highly recommended!) and one friend keeps having the skewers and salad because it's so good she can't move on. The service is always friendly and they'll happily recommend stuff to you. I really love this place: I have recommended it to all my friends (who have all loved it and keep going back). The food is fabulous, the service is very friendly and it’s just a great place offering interesting food outside the normal breakfast/brunch offerings in London. Oh, and interesting fact for Cafe Oasis, lantana is not an invasive weed in it's native Mediterranean, just Australia. May explain why my friend from Barcelona adores this place!

Tags: breakfast, cupcakes, cool

Very upsetting experience

March 07, 2009

My boyfriend and I were thrilled when we discovered this place as we live around the corner and the food here is good, honest stuff (the sort of place you can trust that the sausages are good.) We are self employed so often go in there for brunch or a coffee, read the newspapers they provide, and chill out. The staff were always friendly and the cakes very inviting. We had one issue when a bean-sized pebble was found in my boyfriend's food, but the lady said sorry and that it must have come from the rocket - and that's fine as these things happen.
However, this morning (Saturday) I went there to meet a girlfriend for brunch. My friend was half and hour late so I had a 2 cappuccinos while I waited but didn't order 'til she arrived. We both had massive fry-ups, extra side orders after we had finished we continued to order more coffees and mineral water. It got a bit busy, being Saturday and as we were on a table that could seat 4 we were asked a few times if we minded sharing, which of course we didn't. We shifted up but other tables got free so we never actually had to share the table.
One time the waitress came over and asked if we wanted anything else as there were people waiting for a table (I couldn't see them) but we ordered further drinks and carried on chatting away. There was a table seating four that was free for ages. Then the waitress came over and seated some people there and said they were a party of 8 and would need our table. I assumed she meant for us to budge up but then realised there was nowhere for us to move to and that she meant she wanted our seats. At this point my friend still had half a cup of coffee and I had a bottle of mineral water so I asked the waitress if she meant she wanted us to go. She said that it was difficult to watch us sit there for such a long time when the cafe was so busy. I was very shocked as we had ordered plenty to eat and drink and still had drinks. As I tried to explain this she said she could move us downstairs and I said not to worry, that we would have the bill and go. She then responded by showing me the hand and walking off! She then went to the counter and started bitching about us to the other 2 members of staff there. When she came back I thought I must have misunderstood and tried to explain that we had been ordering food and still had drinks, and that we were a little bemused and offended by her attitude, to which she barked that I had upset her and she walked off again! At this point the 4 people sat at the table next to us and said their friends wouldn't be there for a while yet (I now wonder if there were more friends coming?) and we just laughed and tried not to show our embarrassment.
A different waitress brought us the bill and I said I was sorry (yes I was STILL trying to be affable and I was apologising?!) if I had upset her friend but that I was a little offended and that we are regular customers here and all we wanted to do was finish our drinks and not be kicked out. She then replied very gruffly that yes I had upset her, that the other lady is the owner and that Lantana is her baby, and how hard she tries to make it work. Again, not a very customer -service friendly response.
My friend finished her coffee (and I took my mineral water with me) and we left. All in all I feel very hurt that we were treated this way. We were made to feel very unwelcome and every time I tried to speak to the waitress/manageress she walked away making the issue very dramatic and made it look to other people that I was kicking up a fuss. I clearly have made the wrong assumption - I thought this was a lovely little cafe that prides itself on its chilled out, cosy, welcoming vibe. Sometimes it gets busy and I have waited my turn and happily queued for a table previously, and would never expect staff to tell those with tables to drink up and get out. They provide papers and magazines and offer you pitchers of tap water and I assumed that this meant they want you to stick around and relax. This is what I was doing (while still ordering more drinks!) and feel wholeheartedly sad that I have been treated like vermin and cannot go back to my (previously) favourite new place. A note to the owner - do not work in customer service if you don't like people. Try to manage any problems rather than just sticking your hand up and storming off. Furthermore, if you are working hard to make Lantana a success, it might be an idea to be nice to regular customers and encourage them to enjoy your cafe, rather than humiliating them and shoo-ing them away.

Tags: cafe

Cafe oasis

January 14, 2009

I'm perplexed that anyone would name a cafe after an invasive weed, but then again so is a dandelion. The most wonderful and caring staff can be found here, serving great food and coffee. Maybe my ears are so waxed up that I'm not even aware of the music playing. Be firmly reminded that from Shostakovich to Sex Pistols, music is always the food for love.

Three conjoined things about Lantana Cafe that make it great-

1. Best Baked Beans
2. Best Corn Fritters
3. Best Baristi

Tags: baked beans, barista, breakfast,

Turn down the music!

January 04, 2009

I had lunch here a few weeks ago. It's a tiny place with no more than 6 or 7 small tables, so get there early (noon) if you want to be seated, otherwise go for breakfast, which I hear is also great. The food was superb - lamb skewers (tender as opposed to dry!) served with two large and very fresh salads from the counter, chickpea and cauliflower. The blueberry friand I took back to the office was also delicious. However, be warned about the level of music playing at Lantana. For such a small space, the music is extremely loud and I could barely hear my friend sitting less than a foot across from me. And then you get fellow diners shouting at each other because of the music. One of the co-owners left a comment about this on my blog after I reviewed Lantana, and she said to let the staff know if the music was too loud in the future. This is exactly what a reader of my blog had to do the other day! So it seems that I won't be able to return to enjoy another lunch after all...You might like it though!

www.worldfoodieguide.com

Tags: Australian, food, restaurant, lunch, breakfast,

Good Times Good Vibes Good Coffee

November 12, 2008

Lantana is officially my favourite new place to hang out west of Tottenham Court Rd. I've been a couple of times now and Shelagh who runs the place is super friendly. Her blog is awesome too and documents things like when they recently started serving soup http://scramblingeggs.blogspot.com/

Anyway what can I say, they serve Monmouth Coffee which is good and the coffee was really well made - they have nice cakes and sandwiches which look super tasty plus today they were serving apple and celeriac soup which sounds awesome.

The best thing however, was whilst sitting outside smoking a fag wondering what I was going to do having been stood up by the person I was meant to be meeting, I started chatting to one of the Barristas (does it have a capital B?) and she was completely awesome - we chatted about good coffee in London and what makes a great place to drink coffee (good vibes) and what colour bedrooms should be painted - all in all I haven't met a friendlier bunch of people in ages, plus their coffee is awesome AND they have a table outside for smokers - awesome - i heart lantana.

Tags: monmouth coffee, cake, sandwich, soup, awesome, good for smokers

cute cafe that serves hearty fare

October 23, 2008

I felt like treating myself to a hot lunch for no particular reason, so I thought I’d take a trip down to Lantana, as I’ve been hearing good things about this place.

It’s very laidback and the staff are all very friendly and chatty. They obviously like to have a laugh and a joke which is lovely. You get tap water without asking which I think all cafes and restaurants should do.

However, the food is pretty expensive for café fare, with all the mains coming in at over 7.50. However they are well cooked with quality ingredients.

There aren’t many lunchtime options for vegetarians, so you better like corn fritters (they are very good), but that is the reason I won’t be a regular here. However, the breakfasts do look good – and they serve them all day on Saturdays so I may be back for some Lantana baked beans w crumbled feta, sautéed spinach and sausages on sourdough toast (sans sausages of course) or field mushrooms sauteed w parsley and garlic served with grated parmesan on sour dough toast. Mmmmm.

The owner writes a blog which is quite interesting. It’s quite nice to be privy to the trials and tribulations of opening a café. You can read it at Scramblingeggs.blogspot.com. I particularly love this post: http://icanhaz.com/taxi

UPDATE: I had breakfast (the mushrooms with poached egg) - it was amazing. Although VEGETARIANS, MUSLIMS AND JEWS BE WARNED the beans have gammon in them x

SECOND UPDATE: More veggie food - yay!

Tags: fitzrovia, lunch, breakfast, eggs, cafe, relaxed, friendly, chilled out, coffee, tea