Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, London

Having watched Jamie Oliver on television, I had thought that it would be interesting to see what he has to offer in his restaurant. I've also heard of the restaurant Fifteen. I was told that you had to book way in advance. I did book 3 weeks before for a dinner one day before New Year's Eve. It was only possible to book a table at 6.30 p.m. or at 9 p.m. These are not ideal times. I reserved at 9 p.m. We arrived shortly before. There were 3 or more people standing in front of the cloak room/coat rack. Nobody bothered taking our coats or asking. We were then told that we would have to wait although we did have a reservation. So we ended up waiting upstairs for half an hour with a cocktail. We were then shown to our table. We had risotto and another starter.

Red wine risotto

Kitchen

We had to wait for about half an hour for our starters. The red wine risotto was not cooked right, it had no real taste. Cooking risotto is not that hard, it takes practice but I definitely cook it better myself. The price was quite high also. The open kitchen is a good thing if you want to see the cooks in action. The only problem was that I could see one of them sneezing all the time which was not very pleasant considering that he may be preparing our food. 

Wine recommended by the sommelier

The sommelier did recommend a good Italian wine which was good value for money. After the starters we had to wait for more than half an hour again for the main courses, which was very annoying as we had already been waiting before and I had made a reservation for the restaurant 3 weeks in advance.

Seafood dish

8 hour cooked lamb stew with lentils

We had a seafood dish, I would say tuscan style and 8 hour cooked lamb stew with lentils. The lamb was absolutely tasteless. Nothing interesting at all and definitely overpriced. Being Austrian, I have had lentils in many ways and these were just cooked without any special taste. I mentioning this because of the high prices, otherwise I would not complain if this were a simple restaurant. After the disappointing starters and main courses, we did not have desert. I ordered a coffee and grappa for digestion. The waiter then brought the bill and it was approximately 150 Pounds including service charge. I then told them that we had waited very long for everything, I had booked 3 weeks in advance and I do not think that they deserve the amount they consider for themselves as service charge. I think that it should be up to the customer to decide how much to give. I would like to mention that it was past 11.30 p.m. already. Then a maitre came and said that I would not have to pay the service charge if I was not satisfied and I just paid for the dinner. They asked me why I am not satisfied and I explained. They did not give us a gift whatsoever.

All in all, the place is overrated. It is a shame that such a nice person like Jamie Oliver takes on poorly educated personnel and still asks for prices at gourmet level. The service and quality is probably better when he is around but for a good restaurant his presence should not make a difference. I would definitely never come back and told all me acquaintances with similar interests about this experience, which was by far the biggest culinary disappointment I have experienced in years.