Its Openhouse weekend this weekend and since I’ve missed the last couple this year I wanted to make up for it with a vengeance so I set out a fairly ambitious schedule. To ensure that we had the right kind of energy hiking all over London and up and down buildings my brother and I decided to stop off at Smollensky’s on the Strand for some lunch. That we could take advantage of a top table 50% off offer just sweetened the deal.

Today, Saturday, seemed to be kids party day with a whole area dedicated to the little munchkins and their parties. For the most part it didn’t really interfere with our meal though I couldn’t help but look at the clown with apprehension. I HATE clowns. They scare me to death!

The menu at Smollensky’s is what you’d expect from a grill with a predominantly American selection including ribs, burgers, mac and cheese with some, as the website describes it Mediterranean and oriental dishes. Normally the kind of menu I would drool over though in all honesty both Pat and I were still fairly full from our breakfast at Giraffe!

Given the very American styling of the restaurant we expected the service to be just as top notch as what you get in American. We were sorely disappointed. We had come in for lunch relatively early and thought we would beat most of the lunch time rush. Sure there were a couple of groups of kids but since they were being entertained by the scary clown and therefore weren’t exactly clamouring for waitressing attention for the early part of our meal it was just a couple of other tables and a few wait staff. Therefore we were very surprised when it took them forever to take our order, then clear our table, then offer us dessert. We couldn’t even hail a waitress for all the money in the world and at one stage when asking for the bill I took a chance to ask one that I encountered on the way to the toilets! However that’s not to say the wait-staff, when we did get their attention, weren’t friendly – they were just so slow and clearly struggling to cope! We had to ask for our water and dessert a couple of times.

Food-wise it was, if not divine, at least not too terrible. Pat wasn’t too impressed with his rack of ribs which appeared to have been boiled and then simply smothered in barbecue sauce. His favourite item was the chipotle mayonnaise … I went for the Smollensky’s Macaroni Cheese which is your traditional mac and cheese with some leeks, chicken and bacon thrown in. It looked tasty but was mainly salty from what I recall. Strangely a bit watery too. The main reason I wanted to go to Smollensky’s was to try the Grandma Smollensky’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake. It was as rich sounding as it the name suggests. Even for a sweet-tooth like me it was just a little sickenly sweet.

Overall I wasn’t left super-impressed with Smollensky’s. I do however quite like American grill food so would be willing to give it a chance again, with different meal choices, with the 50% off and hopefully improved customer service.