I've been to Le Café Anglais twice now. Obviously that means the first time was good enough to entice me back. That initial visit was a Sunday lunch with out-of-town guests. We were all delighted by the extensive menu and impressed by the room. To begin, we chose from a vast array of hors d'oeuvres (essentially Anglo-brasserie tapas). Every one was well presented and delicious. Our main meals were perfectly cooked, the wine was wonderful, the puds were lovely, and our fellow diners consisted of the good and the great (recognizable London luminaries). The one slip-up was that one of our servers knocked a bread basket off our table. We didn't realise that was a harbinger of things to come...

My second experience was at dinner, and everything imaginable went wrong. First, our reserved table wasn't ready at the appointed hour. We sat in the bar and had cocktails (no complaints) and hors d'oeuvres (a couple of which were even better than we remembered). But after 45 minutes, when we inquired about our table, we were asked if we wouldn't like to just stay in the bar and have our dinner there. Fifteen minutes later we were shown to our table. At that point (an hour later than our reservation), several items -- the ones we wanted to order -- were no longer available. Service was agonisingly slow. We asked for a wine recommendation, and it took another 10 minutes for someone to help us. We ordered a bottle, but one of us asked for a glass of a different wine to go with a particular dish. The bottle arrived, but not the glass. The starters arrived, but still no glass. Then 20 minutes or so later we were informed that one of the mains we had ordered was overcooked and the chef didn't want to serve it. When our main meal finally arrived, there was an item we hadn't ordered, which was taken away but still wound up on our bill. The comedy of errors ended as we departed, with the manager dropping our coats on the floor.

I understand that even the best restaurants can have an off night. But our experience was so extremely bad that it left us wondering whether there had been some kind of tragedy or disaster that evening. We've got spies attempting to find out. If that turns out to be the case, we'll give Le Café Anglais another chance. Otherwise, I don't think we'll be back.