The Last Wine Bar

The Last Wine Bar in Norwich is currently celebrating it's 20th anniversary, but if the service we experienced was typical, it'll struggle to celebrate another 20 years. Michel Roux has recently had an excellent show on the BBC (Michel Roux's Service) where he said that if you can serve ok food with excellent service you've got a good restaurant, but if you serve great food with poor service, customers won't go back.

The food in the Last Wine Bar was excellent, we sat in the bar where you can choose from a more sophisticated evening menu, as well as a bar menu. The informal setting creates a relaxed atmosphere and the décor is that of a tasteful brasserie. To start I had marinated wood pigeon breast, with celeriac purée, roasted baby turnips and vanilla oil which was perfectly cooked, with beautifully complimenting flavours. The vanilla oil really elevated the starter from a good restaurant dish to something a bit special. The king prawns in kateifi pastry with hoi sin dressing received rave reviews and I stole a taste of the duck and fois gras terrine which was equally moreish. To follow, I opted for the char-grilled sea bass with brown shrimp and caper butter and new potatoes which was really well done. I shared a side of roasted butternut squash and beetroot in a chilli dressing with my girlfriend, who also had nothing but praise for the rib eye steak ordered from the bar menu.

However, as hinted, the excellent food was let down by poor management. As we arrived, the restaurant had just seated a table for 25, which seemed to take the entire waiting team to serve. This ultimately lead to us having to wait well over an hour to even order starters. Our waiter was apologetic and did everything he could to try to ensure we had a positive experience but he was let down by a rude manager who seemed unconcerned with the service they were delivering. We would have liked to have sampled the desserts, but we were informed these would take at least 20 minutes and it was already 10.30pm, so it being a school night, we decided to call it a day.

I've heard some really good things about this restaurant, so hopefully this was a one off, and the waiter did discount the bill and take my details to see 'what he could do' with my feedback. The food definitely meant that this restaurant merits a second chance, where hopefully the service will be what is expected of a restaurant celebrating 20 successful years.

Posted in: Michel Roux,Norwich,Restaurant,Review,The Last Wine Bar