The Drunken Monkey

It seems the Monkey's really bucked it's act up since the last reviews - I went last night, and had the most friendly and attentive service of anywhere in London. Cocktails are enormous, delicious and ridiculously cheap before 7pm. We ordered a veritable mountain of Dim Sum (so much that we practically ran out of table space) - beautifully steamed parcels, buns as light as a feather, fantastically spicy ribs. The duck spring rolls were the only let down, being little more than a deep-fried wrapper.
A word of warning though - book in advance! It gets incredibly busy, and you wouldn't want to rush this lot.

This was the worst service I've received in an eaterie for many years. We missed Happy Hour because it took forever to get served. I joked did we still qualify, the barman looked disgusted and walked off for 10 more mins (as punishment?). He then brought the wrong drinks (on purpose?) We waited 1hr 15mins for a table on a Tuesday (there were 3 parties of 5+ waiting but they wouldn't open a 2nd seating area). They got my food order wrong (tho I'd asked the waitress to describe the dish in detail!) After trying to rectify, 5 servers stood giving the nastiest looks. Eventually the dish was thrown down in an almighty strop. They questioned our refusal to pay £8+ service charge. Truly shockin

Having been a big fan of the Drunken Monkey for at least two years, I've been quite disappointed to watch the place slowly let standards slip. The waitresses are often difficult attract, yet there is often a large huddle round the cash register.

On my most recent visit the bouncer suddenly called time and tried to evict our table, more aggressively than anywhere else I've been. We were quite a mature group with both males and females, all of whom were surprised by this. After good natured protests, the bouncer physically picked one member of our group out – stating how he was ‘going to get him outside in a corner. Thankfully, my girlfriend stopped a passing policeman who intervene

They couldn't give a monkeys.....

The food was tasty, if nothing too out of the ordinary. The drinks menu was indeed impressive, taking up three of four pages allocated to the menu and offering a wide selection of beers and exotic cocktails. The atmosphere although funky was ruined by the stifling heat of this non-air-conditioned restaurant. The irritation this caused was only compounded by the heavily-accented waitress who growled her way through our meal, leaving our throats parched-dry as we waited at least half an hour for a simple drinks order. Her sullen face only burst into expression as we told her that the optional service charge added to the bill was going to be halfed!