XO - London

The food was very good, and the sushi was excellent. Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Good experience as always here. Vibrant place. A good book restaurant at Belsize Park.

The ambience in the bar before dinner was good, and the food was delicious. But it was spoiled with very bad service. We were left in the bar and had to ask 3 times if our table was ready (it was not particularly busy). Service at the table was fine, but it was certainly not the type of service to justify the high prices. The 50% discount made the food decent value, but I really do not see the point when charging such high prices, then it must be favored. £37 for a part of the black cod is exaggerated. I don't think Nobu's accusing of it. We are local and would like to see that it was a great local restaurant, but on our experience, I fear it wasn't.

I have been going to XO for several years, but their standards begin to slide and went with friends for a birthday meal. There was nothing wrong with our appetizers, and the duck/watermelon salad was as good as ever, but the squid was so much better there. but the prices are high and the portions are small. The net was not better and the Korean lamb with Kimchi was bad value at £25.00 for 3 luke warm lamb snells when the competition in the london Asian restaurant market remains intense. Service was also a little hit and miss (e.g. 1 finger shell for the 4 of us? Is there a barrel with finger shells? could have been more accurate and attentive. For such a high end place, I went away and thought I won't go back for a while, and that's a shame as I'd rather go somewhere else for the money.

The waitress at this restaurant was excellent and provided helpful explanations of the menu. However, the management was very poor. Upon arrival, they claimed they could not find my booking through OpenTable and I had to show them on their own computer screen. This is the second time in a row at different venues that this issue has occurred. It is important for the restaurant to be in full communication with OpenTable to avoid frustrating customers and potentially losing their business.