Fantastic Food, TERRIBLE service!Had dinner with a friend there Wednesday night, apart form a large party of about 20 people, the place was pretty much half empty. We were served by a bewildering array of people who seemed disorientated to say the least. Ordered some water when we were seated and a lemonade. Straight away I went to the waiter at the bar and asked if I could change the lemonade to a red wine which he said wouldn't be a problem.A lemonade arrived but no water (or wine). The waiter in fairness did eventually notice this and offered to change the lemonade but I said it was fine. We were much later presented with two bottles of water and accused of re-ordering it twice! Then I was informed by another waitress that the 1st course I was trying to order wasn't available and I should have been informed when we were seated. The food was really good, but not exactly cheap either so you'd expect it to be good. The main course was plonked down at our table and the (chef I think it was) stride off without offering us any cutlery!Eventually I managed to grab the head waiters attention, He said 'Oh it's disgusting isn't it, I'll get you some'. After dropping half of it on the floor he offered us some free deserts as an apology.This gesture seemed to have been completely forgotten about after it was made though, as another waitress then appeared offering us deserts and without any idea of all the things which had gone wrong. There seems to be no communication whatsoever going on, all the staff are doing there own thing, it's really weird! We declined desert and asked for the bill. I was tempted to ask for the service charge to be deducted but by this point I wasn't sure how long it would take for anyone to amend the bill correctly, so I paid it and left. It's a nice place and good food, but you can have a much better expearence elsewhere for the money you are paying. It must be like 'Fawlty Towers' on a Saturday!

Agree with the negative experiences of some here, especially the customer service. To try and get the attention of waiting staff was nigh on impossible.

They were often just chatting amongst themselves at the bar counter rather than being attentive...or at least present!

I don't think the waitress was actaully listening to my order when she brought out a glass of wine to me rather than the bottle for me and my friend.

Then she didn't add the cheese to the burger...but what do you know it was charged on the bill!

No sauces were offered for the burger so instead of trying to get their attention re. the lack of cheese and ketchup I just had to go up myself.

I may have felt a bit more kindly towards the experience if our food was up to scratch but it was severly lacking.

And, over-priced to boot. At least we had to wine to settle our growing annoyance.

When we eventually had to go up to the till to get our bill instead of waiting for a further age, I explained to the restaurant manager about the cheese etc and that we had requested the bill..twice I think but had got no joy...he was in no way apologetic and even apathetic.

This was one of the worst dining experiences in that it it purports to be a high quality, homely, great food experience in lovely surroundings, but am afraid only got marks for the room itself.

Style over substance. Oliver Peyton needs to spend more time checking the quality of his establishments rather than Ramsay-style empire building.

I would just grab cake and tea in the grab and go section next to it and get dinner elsewhere.

We ended up going to St Martin in the fields for some nice cake for dessert instead as I didn't want to waste any more of my money there.

What a shame for such a nice Gallery.

Our London trip was great until we stopped at the National Cafe for afternoon tea. It was a Friday afternoon and things were pretty slow in the cafe.

There were eight people in the cafe including four waiters, who were busy chatting.

We were totally ignored. After 10 minutes of waiting, finally, a waiter stopped chatting and brought us a menu after we repeatedly tried to catch his attention.

We were totally ignored again that. We waited for another 10 minutes, no one came over to take the order.

We thought okay, maybe this is how the Brits serve their customers. Then two men dressed in sharp suits came in.

The waiter immediately greeted them and brought them a menu. At that moment, we decided to walk out and the waiters didn't even try to stop and ask us what happened.

Clearly, this is not a place that welcomes tourists. We've been to many restaurants in many countries.

In terms of service, this is the worst experience we've ever had. We would give it a zero star if we could.

We would never go back again and don't recommend this place to anyone.

I was excited to take my parents out for afternoon tea after a day of sightseeing and chose the National Cafe, what a big mistake. The matre de was as rude as possible, refering us to the caffeteria next door instead of seating us, and when we returned to have afternoon tea he was rude and short. When the food arrived we found out (after drinking some tea) that the milk was sour, on bringing this to the attention of the wait staff the milk was exchanged but no appology was provided, and we had to explain to them that serving tea in cracked teapots could present a food poisoning risk, again without any apology or any offer to exchange it - the wait staff had to 'check with the manager' as to whether the pot would be thrown away. halfway through our visit the wait staff decided to move all the wooden chairs in the restaurant, another diners complaints about the noise didnt stop them. When the bill arrived we were charged for everything served (even the tea and coffee that was tainted with bad milk) and a 12.5% service charge was added, which I had to argue over removing. Do yourself a favour, dine somewhere where they value their customers.

My boyfriend and I went for a pre-theatre dinner at the National Cafe last night and had a fantastic time. The restaurant was buzzing and had a great atmosphere, the staff were charming and attentive and our food was simply delicious. I strongly recommend the salt beef sandwich and the macaroni cheese for main course, while the National catastrophe and apple pie both made irresistible desserts.



We were both so impressed that we are planning to visit again very soon to sample the restaurant's tempting breakfast menu before going for a little wander around the gallery.

We had a wonderful dinner party at the National Cafe last night. Had yummy cocktails at the bar then 5 of us had dinner.


Staff were friendly and the food was delicious, especially the desserts. I returned for a breakfast meeting a week later as the location is fantastic, and I ended up booking my boyfriend's birthday party in the private Trafalgar Room on a round table for 16.



The menu has been adapted and chef was very accomodating and helpful. Thank you the National Cafe.

Horrible, horrible, horrible! I have never ever walked out of a restaurant before, but I walked out of the National Cafe last night.
There was only one other table in the restaurant when we were there, but we had to wait for 15 minutes for some water (even though I had said I needed to take some medication) as the four waiters were too busy flirting with each other and texting!


My partner had to ask them to bring us the water, and from then on they were extremely surly. I ordered the salad deluxe and my partner asked for the National hamburger medium well. It arrived burnt on the outside and still raw in the middle. Actually raw - not pink, raw. This isn't just not fulfilling an order - this is a dangerous. My salad deluxe had lumps of uncooked unidentifiable vegetable which was horrid, and no cheese as promised.


When we complained (the waiter had said Everything is fabulous, yes? and we replied Well, actually, no) we were told we would have to wait for more than 15 minutes for another one, even though the only other table was already eating dessert. We left and I will never go back to The National Cafe. I recommend you find another cafe to go to.

I love the National Gallery and am always very pleased to have time to eat in the Cafe. It is a very pleasant environment and not to pricey like some gallery cafes.

The National Gallery Cafe is a cafe in a the National Gallery, wonders will never cease! The food's alright, the atmosphere's ok and its in a gallery, what more can you say?