This place is hard to work out. I've been here about 6 times, and had some great nights here and also some absolutely terrible ones. My last experience has prompted me to write this review.
If you are just going for drinks and a few nibbles then its great at the weekend, lively atmosphere and good tunes, but not so much if you want to sit and eat.
The staff are hit and miss, I find most of the waitresses are friendly and helpful, except when it's busy and they get stressed out. When busy, the staff can act like everything you ask them for is a personal insult. I must say i'm not surprised with the kind of people they have as managers there.
The manager we encountered here was literally one of the rudest I have ever come accross. She actually shurgged then rolled her eyes at me when I complained that our drinks had taken 30 minutes to be brought over. Our waitress (who was lovely) had to apologise to us for her managers behaviour! We noticed that throughout the night the manager sat at the bar texting, quite often completely ignoring and walking away from customrs entering the restaurant, leaving busy stressed waitresses with their hand already full to try and attend to them as well. It was quite shocking to see.
It does get very busy on a weekend and they just dont seem to be able to handle it very well. Last time a group of us ate there on a friday, there were 5 mistakes made on our order of 12 dishes. These were eventually taken off our bill but only after we pointed them out.
I do always really enjoy the food, especially the chilli squid and prawn toast, and my tip would be to go on a quieter night where there is less chance of them getting your order wrong or having to wait ages.

Great place for a few cocktails and dim sum after work or as a meeting point at the weekend as they have a happy hour from 5-7. I have only had dim sum and cocktails at the bar so can't comment on the table service but i have always had fun in here and the food drinks are delicious!

My fave place ever the best food and cocktails ever 100% xx

I’ve eaten here may times and always enjoyed the food, although some of the waitresses have been a bit on the grumpy side. We recently took a couple of friends to the restaurant to share our experience and were utterly disappointed. The po faced waitress that took our order decided to question every item that we ordered, saying, no, perhaps you should have this instead!? And, two of us were driving so wanted to make sure the cocktail we ordered only had a single measure in, again, she contradicted our decision saying, no, you should have two shots, it will be ok!? So, after the difficult process of ordering the food, she then proceeded to tell us that we had to leave our card behind the bar in case we run off without paying! I have never been asked to do this in Drunken Monkey or any restaurant ever! I told the waitress it will be fine to swipe my card and open a tab but that I wasn’t happy about letting her keep my card for the duration of the meal. She said it’s company policy and we have to, that was that. We asked to see the manager who came over to us begrudgingly, and shrugged his shoulders, reiterating this fact. He said you have to leave your card behind the bar or you can pay up front before they serve our food. Unbelievable, his attitude was appalling and he was rude. If the restaurant was heaving and they had little control over the restaurant I may have understood his concern about people ‘doing a runner’ without paying. But, it was a Monday night and there were only 3 other tables occupied with a huddle of staff drinking at the bar! To top it off, the waitress missed off one or our orders so we flagged this up with her. The dish was brought out along with a bill for £4 that was shoved under our nose expecting to be paid before we ate it! And they had added service charge to this! Unbelievable, we felt totally offended, and have never heard anything like it. As much as I liked the food at Drunken Monkey, I will never eat here again.

Really yum food and this is the best dim sum restaurant we've visited. The chilli salted squid was delicious! Shame the menu didn't have a little more choice and we couldn't really get a dessert but the main course more than made up for it! Prices are reasonable. Decor was very nice and it's a friendly atmosphere would definitely go back!

Just awful. The food was disgusting - very greasy, very watery, not at all flavoursome.
The service was terrible - we were a table of four and they couldn't get our orders right. You are likely to have to remind the staff of your order, send stuff away, ask again, and challenge the bill when the unserved items appear there but not on your table. And then they'll be rude.
We ordered the cheapest bottle of white wine for £15 - standard - but the bottle they brought out couldn't more obviously have come from the newsagents across the street "3 Italy wine for £5". It's stench filled our noses as soon as the top came off.
The place itself has no atmosphere - unless you count five-year-old, cobwebbed, stale paper lanterns as atmosphere. Or perhaps the smoking incense in the toilets is atmosphere? I wouldn't have minded but for the fact that they sat us in a hole somewhere at the back where the staff themselves could barely reach us - they put the plates in our hands through two different doorways at random times.
Just an absurdly awful place. I cannot imagine where all the positive reviews have come from.

My wife and I meandered up to the Drunken Monkey for a late Sunday Lunch. We had a hankering for some dim sum. I am in a wheelchair, so accessibility was a concern. The entrance is a little tricky, with a lip and a hump, and both doors need to be opened, but it was reasonably doable, and once inside the venue is spacious and comfortable. The tables were a little low for me to be able to get my knees underneath, but there was plenty of room behind me, so i didn't mind.The drinks were served promptly, and our waitress helped us navigate through the menu. I think we were encouraged to over-order, but that's understandable.

The food? The food was REMARKABY GOOD. The rice dishes (my wife had chicken fried rice, I had bbq pork fried rice) were so good that i would have been very happy with those alone.The chicken potstickers were excellent (with a very hot, and I mean VERY hot, delicious dipping sauce), as were the crabmeat and pork dumplings.with one small dish and the main rice dish, you can get a very good and filling meal for less than a tenner.The service was a little slow, but not enough to stop us from going back. We'll be back.

I didn't expect the atmosphere that hit me last night I would have been happy just to get some decent Dim Sum but the music was great as was the mojitos.
The bar was cool and not stuck up as are so many other bars nowadays, the staff were all quite friendly and the crowd was surprisingly mixed, I guess that is down to the location between the City and trendy Shoreditch.
My only disappointment was that there was not enough of us in our group to try all of the Dim Sum dishes but we all agreed to rectify this on our next visit.
I will definitely be coming back, thanks for a great night.

Chris.

A great place for groups. I took 18 friends there on Saturday night. The food was fantastic and only £15 per head for the set menu which had plenty of choices.

The veggies in the group were more than happy with the alternatives. The waiters and waitresses were quick clearing empty plates and topping up the jugs of lager.

The manager, Chris, was very helpful. Give it a go.

Its not a fancy place but the food and the atmosphere are awesome for groups of friends.

This place gets the 5 stars for combining everything we were looking for to have a great night out.We were advised to book and am glad we did cos when we got there it was heaving. The staff were busy but made us welcome. we had to wait for our drinks but we ordered a selection of cocktails from a vast menu, and they were all superb, my favorite was the 'Drunken Pear'.

As there were 12 of us we had the set menu(to make things easier) which had a selection of everything off the menu. The food just kept coming all the different dumplings and dishes plus the roast duck with pancakes was amazing. This was All for £15. I say all as there was so mush we even took some home!At the end of the night we were so partied out we didnt want to go elsewhere, and the friendly door staff gave us the delivery menu, so next time i cant get a table i'll order in.Thanks again!!! 5 stars

I'd like to nominate Drunken Monkey in shoreditch for the title of worst table turners ever. I booked a table for 6pm on Monday and was told beforehand that i'd have to vacate it at 7:30pm. I arrived a few minutes early and finishd at around 6:50pm so stayed sitting with my friend to finish our drinksand continue chatting.

It was then I was asked if I'd like to pay my bill and finish up at the bar. I told them that I'd barely finished 5 minutes ealier and nonetheless had booked until 7:30pm. The waitress went away and bought the bill without further prompting, she didn't push me to move however.

I thought I'd secured my place till 7:30 but imagine my surprise when a couple came and plonked themselves squarely in front of us at our table in a not too subtle hint! To be fair to the couple, they seemed very sheepish at the episode and I'd challenge anyone to top such bad customer service!!!!

This was my first visit to the drunken monkey and i was pleasently surprised , as whenever you eat in bars the food is usually not the best , don't get me wrong it is not hakkasan standard , however they didn't try to be too much i found the food both simple and fresh and great value for money , as there were three of us dining we had a chance to share quite a few dishes and i must say the bill must have been about 15 pounds each including a cocktail and a bottle of wine ,which i think was pretty reasonable. I must say the Strawberry lemonades were to die for !! Will definately be back.

I should have listened to the poor reviews before going.This place has very low quality (freezer reheat) food. The service is non-existent, you are likely to have to ask for items multiple times. You also need to check that what is brought to your table is your food, our group was missing a number of dishes.Overall very disappointed, but I only have myself to blame, as I was warned by the other poor reviews.

Visited this place 14/06/08 was brilliant. Funky red lanterns decor interior. You need to reserve a table if you want a bite. We got there 8pm and were really lucky to get a table for an hour. I thought before we went that it would prob be possible to have snack food at the bar but there is very little seating/standing room there. Excellent excellent value! Had mojitos for £4.50!! and prawn toast, dumpling etc for just £3/£4 per dish. Music is very funky. Was a kind of danced up reggae beat if that makes any sense! Music gets louder as the night goes on. Very pleasant staff. Well worth heading down for a bite to eat with the gang!

I went to The Drunken Monkey a few weeks ago with a large group of friends (around 20) for a birthday dinner party. We were all very impressed with the extensive cocktail list, and overall we found the the bar staff competent and friendly. The food was great quality, however there was very, very little of it, especially considering we had all paid £15 a head for the set menu and left still feeling hungry! Despite this we still had a great night, and I would definatley return to The Drunken Monkey; however I would not recommend going with a large party to eat as it seems they are unable to adequately cater for big groups.

The Drunken Monkey's clearly a restaurant that doesn't care about its customers! We arrived at 11:50 today, the 18th May '07 to have lunch.



As we entered we were met with disdain and told the kitchen would be open at 12:00. I asked politely whether we could sit and have a drink whilst we waited ten minutes and were told, NO. No apologies. All that whilst the doors were open, tables decked out and all ready to go. Typical rudeness of a restaurant (or management at that time) that get it's clientele just from location, not from service. No more Drunken Monkey for me!

Having been a big fan of the Drunken Monkey for at least two years, I've been quite disappointed to watch the place slowly let standards slip. As commented elsewhere, the waiting staff are often difficult attract, yet there is often a large huddle round the cash register.



On my most recent visit to The Drunken Monkey, having just been sold a round of drinks, the bouncer suddenly called time and tried to evict our table, more aggressively than anywhere else I've been. We were quite a mature group with both males and females, all of whom were surprised by this.

The Drunken Monkey is fantastic. It has a great atmosphere, cool smooth tunes and fantastic food. Booking a table is a must but there is a terrific bar to mill around in as well.


The food here is a real high - light, fresh Asian flavours at a reasonable price. The Drunken Monkey is a great place to eat with a group and share a combination of dishes.

The Drunken Monkey is cool.

Despite our disappointment and not actually seeing a drunken monkey (or any other kind of animal), Drunken Monkey was a great Chinese meal in pub-like surroundings.
Anyone still wanting to see an inebriated primate should maybe sign up for The Discovery Chanel.

The Drunken Monkey was alright when I reached there, it was cool. Spotted some Latino babe behind the bar. Well, now you have my details.

Great place! Really loved the cocktails and, unusually for me, the decor - I don't normally notice that kind of thing but in this case I couldn't help it!