Best Comfort Food Restaurants in Balham

The food and drinks at this restaurant are delicious. You are going to pay accordingly, but expect to have a solid meal and very good drinks. The atmosphere is beautiful — the restaurant is well decorated. It’s not too loud and not too crowded, which makes it feel pretty posh. However, we had a very odd experience with our server Nelson. He didn’t even say hello or good evening when we arrived and he just raised his eyebrows and said “yes please” when he took his notebook out to order. While I am all for efficiencies (I used to be a server and a bartender for 3 years), part of the hospitality business is…hospitality. This man expressed no smile, no emotion, and no sense of humanness. It was so weird. One of the ladies who appeared to be a manager came over to take our dessert order and she was very friendly, but we couldn’t understand why Nelson was so extremely cold. It appeared that this was his demeanor towards other tables as well. We arrived 5 mins early, didn’t take long to order drinks and food, and didn’t linger. What was his issue? We will never know. We will definitely be back to the Ivy, but will request to not have him as a server.

Had a lovely valentines meal at Bocconcino Soho. Great service from a slightly older waiter from Brazil with glasses, there was a band roaming around the restaurant playing requests and they were fantastic, made it a very special evening. I thought the tuna and beetroot starters could have done with a little sweetness for balance and some sides with the steak at the price would have been good but overall a great night…thank you.

Hubby's birthday so quick trip to London to celebrate and booked a table at Seven Dials for lunch. Food was well presented and tasted amazing. Sides are for sharing so three between two was ample and could probably got away with two. Hubby enjoyed his can of beer, Hawksmoor own brand, and I loved the fact there was a decent choice of non-alcoholic beverages. The young lady serving us was great, even singing Happy Birthday to hubby when presenting him with his chocolates and birthday candle.

Everything was great, the tuna, sibas, praws! Amazing dips and bread, but Greek salad was floating in so much oil. Also, my favourite umbrella from my dad was stolen from that restaurant... :( but i would come back for food again for sure!

We booked a late lunch to celebrate New Year, neither of us are local so just booked on the reviews. The service was fantastic and the food was amazing. Will definitely come back.