Tom’s Kitchen

Great menu, great service, and a very reasonable price!
Before Christmas, some friends and I met up in London for dinner. Rather than go to somewhere I’ve been before, I suggested somewhere new for everybody, and after walking passed Tom’s countless times and being seduced by the smells, I booked us a table.
We started with a round of drinks, my Bullit Old Fashioned was nice and strong, but also smooth — it was delicious!
We ordered starters and mains and skipped dessert because we had already planned to head to Covent Garden for gelato.
I ordered pigs cheek and black pudding croquettes which were INCREDIBLE, and Mrs D let me try one of her scallops which was cooked to perfection.
For my main I was a bit more undecided on what to order. I fancied some mussels but one of my pals had the truffle mac’n’cheese as a starter which looked amazing… So I ordered one of them too. Sure they didn’t really go very well together, but I don’t care. The flavours were divine!
Total bill worked out about £45 per head, which for the food (and the service from our friendly waiter) was totally worth it. Highly recommend!

Food was okay, but pricey. I was disappointed as I had expected better food for the prices. My pancakes looked very sad and boring. The staff was not very attentive, we had to ask for water three times until it was finally brought to us and it was only a very relaxed Sunday late afternoon with not much business.

«Let’s go for brunch, Charlotte»
YES! But let’s find somewhere where you can book, I don’t want to wait 45min on a SUNDAY MORNING.
Tom’s Kitchen was the only place that had room for 5 and that was convenient for our little group. Having heard of it on a certain reality TV show, I kinda wanted to start off my day with a Bloody Mary too.
Tom’s Kitchen is a weird place. It feels like a posh place that is trying to be casual. Or… a casual place trying to be posh?
Because it feels homey, but the prices don’t. And the service is snooty. Maybe they were judging me for wearing casual clothes and taking videogames with my friends.
Was the food good? Yes, yes it was quite good. But the servings were pretty small, and the bill quite steep.
Oh well, I guess we paid for the location too. For a moment there I managed to imagine I was someone posh from Chelsea with my Eggs Royale.

An overpriced and over cooked small hamburger with some crappy slabs of bacon on it and tasteless, cold «chips» — a waste of money. The only thing that was fairly good here was the service. The wine was alright but it had better be at that price. You’re paying for the location, but the atmosphere here is nothing to write home about. The worst of it is, after spending way too much here, I left hungry. So many better ways to dine, I’m afraid. A rare 1 star from me.

Tom’s Kitchen is such a weird place for me. The venue is awesome and the hostess and servers really friendly. There are some amazing views out the window as the Somerset House is right on the Thames. And it’s a gorgeous old building to be having a meal in. The inside isn’t overly luxurious, and it’s quite comfy, warm and welcoming.
There were six of us for a 6:30 booking, and by 6:45 we were all there. The bread they brought us was really tasty to be honest. I was happy to be eating that while waiting to order. At one point I mentioned to the server that we were ready to order, but he walked off and never came back. Finally we flagged someone down a little after 7:00 so they could take our order. Of which two of the things most people wanted were sold out. Annoying. So add a bit more time, and they come back and take our order. Which they wrote down wrong so had to confirm. Which then had to be re-​confirmed about five minutes later when the server came back to triple-​check our order.
The food I ordered was really good. I split a pancake (because pancake day) and scallops with my partner to start. Both of which were tasty, but not amazing. For a main I had the braised beef cheek. It was actually really good. We also ordered some sides: truffle and parmesan chips (nice, but not fantastic), cumin carrots (awesome) and winter greens (which ended up being green beans, cabbage and broccoli… greens for me are leafy greens, but it was still tasty). It just took a really long time between starters and mains. Like a really long time. I can’t even comprehend, but it was long. That was unfortunate. We almost ran out of wine. (Which by the way, was a delicious and not ridiculously expensive Portuguese red wine.) And unfortunately, the pork belly that someone else ordered looked really dry and unpleasant.
At first we thought about ordering dessert, but by the end we weren’t that excited by the food or service to want to wait around for it. So we paid and left. So Tom’s Kitchen gets a solid four stars for food, brought down by the less-​than-​stellar service.

I had a business lunch meeting here once.
I ordered the
Shepherd’s Pie
Salad
The staff was courteous, polite and very nice.

I was really excited when we booked this because of its beautiful location in Somerset House. As a New Yorker who visits London frequently (my husband is a native), I was hopeful the traditional British fare would delight. Plus, we were taking my in-​laws for dinner after hosting us for Christmas… I needed something comfortable yet delicious.
Unfortunately none of my wishes were met. Not only were the drinks very juicy (a negroni should only have alcohol, no juices or waters) the food came out cold and the Shepherd’s Pie was inedible; the salt burned my mouth and tongue with each bite.
The «icing on the cake» was the fact that the toilets were worse than the public ones near the Underground…
Never, ever, again.

My first meal in London. Located in the beautiful Somerset House. A unique and scenic setting along the Thames. Beautiful first impression for an American and centrally located if you are staying in Convent Garden /​on the Strand.
For lunch I wanted something BRITISH so naturally I ordered the Fish Pie. It was good, hearty, rather rich, filling, well salted. I enjoyed it very much but not something you want to eat a lot of. Not exactly light lunch fare. To start my gal pal and I had their Truffle fries, at her recommendation. They were very hot, thick cut (not quite wedges, not quite steak fries) salty and covered in truffle-​y goodness and shaves of Parmesan.
My friend had their mushroom pasta which she ate all of, she said it had wonderful mushroom flavor so I suppose if you’re a fan of mushroom it’s a great option.
Honestly the highlight for me was probably the free bread and sea salted butter they served before the meal. Sounds really stupid of me to say that but it was excellent bread and butter.
All in all this was a good meal. A bit expensive for me but maybe it’s not for a Londoner. Nothing was bad, I certainly didn’t leave hungry but I wouldn’t say anything really stood out as a must have for me. Not sure I’d recommend it to a tourist (like myself) visiting London. With limited time and possible meals to be had on a vacation you want to try to have all your meals be the best. I’m not sure Tom’s Kitchen makes that list if you are in town for only a few days. A nice and memorable all the same.

Beautiful location in the heart of Sommerset House, very different ambience than the one in Chelsea.
Get the egg benedict (royale is great but a bit salty due to the smoked salmon) and the must ordered French Toast that is the best ever I had!
Keep coming back to Tom’s Kitchen for few years now and quality is still perfect!
The staff is welcoming.

Not my cup of tea. Average food. Slow service. Too expensive for what you get. Very disappointed indeed. Should have gone elsewhere but we were going to an exhibition there so thought it convenient. Never again.

I cannot comment on the restaurant (because I’ve not eaten there). However, I have just had a drink at the bar in front of the restaurant. It’s open to non-​diners. There isn’t much seating space — the bar itself, which is in the centre of a very small room that leads into the separate dining area, has a few stools in front of it. And there are one or two small tables and chairs dotted around the place. The range of drinks available is considerable. Prices are on the high side. Service is excellent. It’s an atmospheric bar. An ideal place for a relaxing drink after work or for a pre-​theatre snifter (provided you can get a seat, of course).

Delicious food, good service, and great location.

The food was great I reccomend the mac and cheese it is the best in the world… If you come to vist London you should go! The service was great and the food was great.

OK, these three stars are generous because there was a mouse in the restaurant that I was kind to point out and they didn’t even comp anything. Basically an old building and this little mouse kept on popping his head out. I was kind enough to discreetly tell the waiter. You would have thought we would have gotten a dessert comp-​ed or something.
The service was mediocre — the waitress who came to specifically take our dessert did not know the ice cream flavors.
The desserts were a big disappointment – the hot chocolate pot (which the waitress had forgot to put in to the order) came out being cold in the bottom. My honey ice cream was so icy I almost returned it.
The appetizers were good (crab cake, scallops, and mac and cheese with truffle) and my steak was good (although the chips were nothing to write home about).
The place was dead, so overall a big disappointment.

Had a great meal at Tom’s Kitchen! A very minimal dining room, simple modern elegance. Waitstaff was very attentive. We arrived for an early reservation at 7pm since we had someplace to be at 9, thought we might be the only diners for a while but the room quickly filled to capacity and by the time we left at 8:30 was a packed house. Food was tops and we got a chance to meet Richard Robinson the executive chef !! Definitely would come back next time in London.

I’m a huge fan of Tom Aikens, and I am a regular at his Chelsea Tom’s Kitchen. So when a friend of mine wanted to meet up in the West End I had total confidence in taking him to Tom’s Kitchen in Somerset House. I was looking forward to it.
After dinner I was a bit embarrassed in taking him there as the service at TK Somerset house was ATROCIOUS! No exaggeration we waited over 20 minutes to be approached by a waiter to take our drink order. We sat there with nothing watching 2 waiters swish by several times, always looking away from our direction. Oh, and did I mention it was us and one other table of 2 at that point. When we finally placed our order, another 10 minutes went by before someone came to tell us that our choices for main courses were not available. My friend’s second choice was also not available… Finally we got our appetizer of a shared charcuterie plate, which was of course delicious. Food thankful was tasty and well prepared as expected. After the starter, we proceeded to wait an exceedingly long time –2 more tables were seated, were into their own appetizers, the first table that was seated shortly before us had finished and left– before we even got our main dishes! It was almost comical how bad the serivce was and to what degree we were totally ignored and forgotten!!! Thankfully we had a bottle of wine… By the time we finished it was over 2 ½ hours on a quiet Thursday night, we decided to skip dessert and coffee for fear it might be too late to catch the last train home. Seriously. And I always want dessert!
I was so disappointed at the overall dining experience, due entirely to the service, or lack thereof. Thankfully the food was amazing, and the only reason my rating did not fall below 3 stars. Unfortunately it was really hard to enjoy Tom Aiken’s delectable cuisine when it took exceedingly long to be served. So much time passed between courses and just a general lack of attention. Please do better so I can go back and we can try again!