Desperados

I would never recommend this place to anyone. The service was horrible and the staff including the manager on duty was so rude, because of this we decided not to pay the service charge yet they tried to force us to pay it, claiming they would call the police if we did not. UK law states that even if service is added to a bill, if the service is poor you can refuse to pay it. We had to ask several times for things as simple as forks, the table sauces had gone off and never once was anything like this acknowledged. 4 staff surrounding us at the end was just plain intimidation. Never again.

Name: Javier
Location: London Bridge

im actually shocked at the amount of bad reviews. Iv been to desperados countless times and have enjoyed myself everytime the staff are friendly the food is beautiful and theres loads of it and the cocktails are gorgeous although i do agree with the comment about the pictures in the toilets its not very relevant but it defenitaly gets theconversation flowing for new customers desperados is by far my favourite restaurant an they always go out their way to give u a really good birthday.

I have been using desperados for years and always loved it but after last night I will never set foot in there again! the customer service was just absolutely appalling! after being spoken to so rudely we actually left before our starters had arrived! As it is so close to Christmas we were worried about getting a table anywhere else but were welcomed with open arms by Mem and Laz on Theberton street! Our night would have been ruined if it wasn't for their amazing food and excellent customer service!
As for desperados I would have ranked them in minus figures if that was an option!!

Wow, if I had read the reviews I would never have gone!! Glad I did though because I thought is was great. There were loads of staff at hand and we got served within minutes. The food was lovely and I would definately go again. Not sure the toilets are suitable for young children though as there are very explicit paintings on the walls for some reason!!

The staff are ok, but the owner is extremely rude and abusive towards his staff. If you want to have a meal in peace and have a chat with your friend, stay away from this place!

A friend and I recently went to desperados for a drink in the late afternoon. The restaurant was pretty empty inside and after ordering two frozen margaritas we were informed happy hour prices only applied to people eating a main course. The margartias were tiny and about £6.25 each with service which was automatically added on.

Whilst I understand they need to make a living- a dead restaurant at 4 pm in the afternoon really should be grateful we even bothered going in. I'm just glad I didn't eat there as I have a feeling they were out for all the money they could get. Very disappointing and not in the slightest in keeping with the mexican spirit.

Also the decor is very confused-they seem to be trying for Mexican and just putting up anything they could find including Italian, Spanish, American, Argentinian and Brazilian items. Very confused, overpriced and a bit crap.

I have been to this restaurant many many times and every time I have been it has been fantastic!! The staff are always very welcoming and friendly, even when they are very busy and even found a table for us when they were fully booked!! The food is gorgeous, be mexican food I have had in a restaurant. I have taken different groups of friends and family there and they have all loved it in there as well.

I am actually taking my mum and dad there this weekend, and really looking forward to it.

I don't understand how people are saying the things they are, please ignore them comments and try it for yourselves!!

Oh dear oh dear oh dear! Bad planning meant we had to have our Xmas party here. thank god it was only lunch and thank god we could go somewhere else afterwards.

The starters could have been gathered up from a well known frozen food store, carried here and served - whilst only being shown the oven, grill of whatever they are meant to have in the kitchen.

The main courses offered little compensation. you would think that fajitas could be a safe bet. but what if the meat is so bland that cardboard is more appealing, or that you see guacamole that has split and looks like chick peas? I have no ideas how this establishment is still open and pity any poor soul that ends up here. Who on earth would put brussel sprouts in a vegetable fajita?

The only saving grace was that we drank a substantial amount of tequila and beer. And that didn't help much - we all left rather irate - having paid what worked out at over £40 a head for quite simply the most appaling attempt to feed a paying customer.

Would I recommend you go here? Only if you despise your friends with a passion and want them never to speak to you ever again.

Now, where is the golden arches?

Desperados.
Never has a name been more suited to an establishment.
This is the worst ‘restaurant’ I have ever been to: Worse than the worst greasy spoon ever, worse than a dodgy Dagenham kebab van. In fact I would rather suck stale dog vomit from the Paris streets than ever eat at this disgusting parody of a restaurant again.
To be honest this is not a restaurant at all…It is a cash machine not too carefully masquerading as an eatery.
I arrived with a large group; let me share the lowlights with you.
The usual half hour or so before service was offered, and then by surly careless staff.
Food served with an hour between the first and last main dish being placed on the table.
They served several steaks which had been burnt, set on fire and doused with water. When challenged we were told 'that’s what charcoal cooked meat looked like', we asked for the charcoal to be served instead as it would be more edible.
We ordered duck and were served shredded beef, when we exposed this, the manager lied, lied and lied again, the only duck we saw was his ducking and diving!
After returning corn on the cob which was burnt black (how do they do that?) we were given fresh corn, still frozen.
Drinks were tumblers of ice with a dash of liquid squirted over.
Virgin cola was charged at £4 a glass.
After taking over 2 hours to serve us, they complained that we were there too long and demanded we leave. (We stayed just to annoy them, what other reason would we stay for? )
We paid a deposit when we booked the tables; they tried to charge us twice.
So very bad service, lousy badly cooked inedible pap served as food, nasty overpriced drinks and they tried to rob us to boot.
The only reason you can possibly have for visiting this place is to see just how bad it can be, because no matter what you envisage……It’s worse.

After reading previous reviews I wondered if they refered to same Desperados we have used for several years.We are treated like family there,I get cramp in legs if I sit too long on hard chairs,they bought me a coushion !!!I walk with a trolley because of a balance problem,they run it up to the back of restaurant .The staff are always extremely busy but always find time for a chat.The manager and his wife work so hard he cooks a lot of the time,I always know because a tomato shaped into a rose rests on my chicken !!!Obviously with the rate of customer turn over ,as in all restaurants management dont take kindly to starter,drink,then afters orders..We've also seen how rowdy and rude some parties get.I rate the food ten out of ten,the at mosphere ten out of ten & the management and staff 100% genuine friendly people.

This is probably one of the worst restaurants I've ever been to. Where do I even start?

Food:
I had the combo mixed grill, because it had what appeared to be a decent mix of food, plus a nacho tray. The nachos were just about edible, however I'm pretty sure everything came out of a packet/tin and they just reheated it. The grill however was genuinely horrific. The 3 types of meat ended up tasting exactly the same, completely bland and doused in BBQ sauce. The pork was overdone, and half of it was a slab of fat. The chicken was bone dry and the ribs were just as bad. I had a feeling the food was days old and had just been left in a warmer. After scraping off the copious topping of sauce and trying the meat on its own, I found that it had no flavour of its own to speak of.

Service:
We were a large party so I expected some delays to our order, but an even larger group ordered after us and received their food well before us. They got our orders wrong, were impolite and ignored requests for water (but were very quick to make expensive cocktails).

Overall, I would recommend eating in. If you want the desperados food experience you can simply throw some meat in the oven, pour half a bottle of Texan BBQ sauce over it and fry some chips from iceland. Saves you wasting money.

Watered cocktails, £3.00 for nice homemade chips,expecting a nice portion but only got about 5 in a tall glass? whats that about.. £2.00 for a can of coke, had a steak fajitas but plastic cheese and store bought gaucomole. Long wait between starter and main and staff had poor understanding of english

Avoid it, too expensive for what it is.

NEVER SET FOOT IN THIS RESTAURANT!!!!

I have never written a review before, but it was all I could think of after leaving this dump. I ordered a cocktail, and I got a load of ice with a drop of lemon, oh and a dirty, very old slice of lime hanging off the glass. I tried to complain but was patronised by the waiter before he reluctantly replaced it....only to give me back even more ice. The 'guacamole' was this tiny blob of green liquid, probably from a tube and bought from some supermarket. The tortilla chips (8 in total) were swimming in a sea of microwaved cheese and so was the burrito. Not forgetting the micro waved, tinned beans and tiny flakes of chicken floating in a rubber tortilla. I'm actually laughing now at the cheek of them having the nerve to take people's money for such crap, they should be shut down.

I had the worst possible experience at Desperados, and I can't recommend enough to people that they avoid this place.
I have NEVER been forced by any establishment to order a main, even in the most expensive of places, especially when it's been clear that drinks and starters were being ordered so that the establishment would be making its money and then some. Even stranger is the fact that Desperados calls itself a "Cocktail Bar", and nothing on its menu or signage indicates that every single person must order a main.
I was out with a large number of friends and we had made a reservation in advance to make sure we would get tables that night. I had been there before and had just had drinks, so there was no way I could have been prepared for what happened.
We got there and immediately ordered several pitchers of drinks. The pitchers arrived quickly (almost completely filled with ice), but incredibly, it took over an hour before everyone was given glasses, because they apparently didn't have enough glasses(?!). At least one person asked for water on three occasions and never got it.
Before everyone even had glasses and was settled in, before they had even gotten around to asking every single person what they wanted, they started freaking out that everyone wasn't immediately ordering their starters AND a main. They actually yelled at us. We were in a large group, at about 10pm at night, so obviously there would be some people ordering mains, some people ordering starters, and everyone drinking. We were going to be there for 2-3 hours, ordering a ton of drinks, a lot of food, and we even asked what the bill needed to be that night for them to be happy, and yet they were insistent that every single person immediately order their starters and a main.
Then, incredibly, they told us we would have to leave.
There are so many beautiful, classy places in this area, with professional staff, good food and amazing drinks. This is not one of those places. AVOI

I've been a regular customer at desperado's with my friends for about a year now. We kept going back because they did good cocktails and nice food; regardless of the fact that the menu is supremely expensive and we are young students. However, upon going there yesterday, my friend and I were treated abominably. As soon as we arrived we were welcomed warmly, and led to a really nice table by the window. Then, when we ordered our food (we were asked for our orders extremely quickly - almost as soon as we sat down - and we were rushed along impatiently and when we asked for five more minutes). We asked if it would be ok if we ordered a starter, which was about 4.00, a jug of drink (16.95) and a dessert (5.00) rather than a main course as well. this appeared fine. but then, about five minutes later, the manager came up to us and said, 'im sorry, we are going to move you to another table, you cannot sit here' and treated us like little children as he said 'come on young ladies, come on, follow me', in an extremely patronising tone. When we asked why were moved, he did not answer, but we were sure it was because we weren't ordering a huge amount of food, and so we didnt 'deserve' the table we had been previously given. This put a dampen on the whole evening, and at the end, we decided to complain about how we felt undervalued as customers. We said that you cannot rank your customers according to the amount of food they buy; obviously some will order more than others, and we feel we have been treated badly. We were simply stating this fact, but he got very angry at us and didn't listen, interrupting us whenever we spoke and ultimately walking away and ignoring us mid sentence.

I just want to warn other customers that while this restaurant seems warm, friendly and welcoming on the surface, what lies beneath is cold, selfish, and quite frankly greedy. I urge you not to go, don't give that man your service, your well earned money, when he treats his customers li

I RECENTLY CELEBRATED MY 43RD BIRTHDAY AT THE ABOVE ESTABLISHMENT AND COULD NOT HAVE MADE A BETTER CHOICE IF I TRIED. THE STAFF WERE FRIENDLY IF A LITTLE LOUD AT TIMES AND MOST POLITE ALL THE TIME. THE PLACE IS CLEAN AND HAS A WARM ATOMOSPHERE WHAT EVER YOUR AGE. VALUE FOR MONEY IS ALSO A PLUS, WITH THE FOOD ARRIVING ON TIME AND AT THE RIGHT TEMPRATURE. A MOST PLEASUREABLE EXPERIENCE I WILL BE DOING AGAIN AND I WILL BE RECOMMENDING TO ANY ONE WHO WILL LISTEN.

JEANA IN ISLINGTON

Ah but.. it has a certain historical significance as the place where the Blair Brown deal over the leadership was agreed in 1994. Yes this was the old Granita restaurant. worth 5 quid for a dodgy coctail to sit at the table once graced by our finest leader since Churchill... er......

I went to Desperados last night and I would advise anyone to never eat there. It was an awful experience. The food is all pre-packaged: microwave rice, processed cheese and raw vegetables - nice! I could have done better at home with an El Paso Fajita pack! And the cocktails were just water! £5.95 for a Ribena - which was meant to be a cosmopolitan.

The service was slightly embarrassing in that we asked the same waitress for the same drinks several times and they never arrived. Glasses of cocktails turned up when jugs were ordered. My water never showed up so after two hours of loud Mexican guitar music, stifling heat and rubbish food I was so thirsty I was ready to pass out. So I went home and did just that!

If you value your pallet, sanity and wallet then don't go near this place!