Absolutely Terrible
I visited Novikov a few weeks ago with a friend of mine to celebrate my birthday. We had made a booking a few days ago because it was a restaurant suggested by friends and having visited Rextail the week prior, I expected to have a delightful experience. Before I start, I will say the food was delicious, despite the portions being absolutely tiny and not quite enough to fill a grown man.
On arriving, we were taken to a seat with our coats still on; no one had offered to take our coats to the cloakroom and I actually had to ask if the restaurant even had a cloakroom.
Secondly, I would like to mention that when we were booking, we mentioned that we had specific dietary requirements and the person on the phone assured us that they requirements would be met. On arriving, we decided to double check just to be sure and this time, we were told that our dietary requirements could not be catered to, essentially restricting us to two meat options on the entire menu.
Anyway, we did decide to go ahead and order what we could, despite having thoughts of walking out at that point. The waitress who was serving us seemed extremely grumpy and did not seem like someone who wanted to be at the job.
There were tiny details as well that were ignored. For example, upon arriving, no one took the effort to pull the chairs out or place the napkin in place or even smile. Throughout the entire meal, we had to fill our glasses ourselves and when the jug was empty, no one came to refill it. The one point we were asked if the meal was okay was once we had finished everything and the waitress arrived to take the meal away. I understand a lot of these details are tiny, but for a restaurant in Mayfair, the bar is set extremely high and the prices we pay for the food and service need to be justified too.
On finishing our meal, although my friend mentioned during the reservation that the meal is for a birthday, there was no sign of the staff knowing anything about this.
It was an extremely disappointing experience for me and it is such a letdown for a birthday experience and on the way back, my friend who was treating me felt extremely embarrassed having taken me to what she proclaimed was one of the worst restaurant experiences in her life.
On e-mailing the manager with a complaint, after one e-mail, she has also not bothered to reply back, which shows that on principle, this is not a restaurant worth visiting.