I so much wanted to enjoy this, I really did. You see I think Fabric is a great place for a night out. It’s a more civilised evening venue.
We have eaten here a couple of times before and what we remember is that we always left a bit disappointed that the food didn’t match the surroundings. The walls and ceilings are plain white, the table and chairs are also white. One corner has dark brown leather settees and chairs to relax in and watch the world go by in comfort. Your eyes are drawn to the bar, with a dark brown wood cladding, contrasting nicely against the white walls. Fabric is aimed at a more upmarket clientele.
It was a Friday and we opted to have a meal before the theatre show we were going to see. I had missed the fine print on the website that said the pre-theatre menu wasn’t available. Not to worry a main and dessert from the menu would do nicely.
I opted to order a Wild Boar and apple burger, served with onion rings and fries and Jax ordered a Fabric Club Sandwich.
About 5 minutes after we ordered the server approached us to say that we couldn’t have the club because it was after 5pm and the chef had told them that he was set up for ‘Ala Carte’. A quick glance at the menu showed no time restraints, poor show indeed. Is this a sign of a chef that can’t be bothered and is just going through the motions?
We ordered a satay chicken burger with mayo in it’s place, very ala carte isn’t it?
We then proceeded to wait 40 minutes for two burgers, I kid you not, 40 minutes. No servers approached us or informed us when we took our seats that the wait time was so long. Very disappointing.
Let me be clear, Fabric was busy but not overly so. There were still a few tables empty.
When the food was eventually delivered to our skeletal remains, we were somewhat underwhelmed.
Wild Boar & Apple Burger
The plate consisted of a good quality bun, the burger looked dry around the edges (though the centre was moist and not to bad), SIX hand cut fries and a large lettuce leaf with a few leafs of rocket and a balsamic reduction smeared down two sides of the square plate. The onion rings? Well these were on the bun to, 2 raw red onion rings on top of the burger, no idea what this brought to the dish.
The Chicken Satay dish was presented identically with the exception that the bun contained 3 small pieces of chicken breast. No sign of any ‘satay’ sauce.
This was very unsatisfying, this was Fabrics idea of ‘comfort food’, this was our idea of bland and tasteless. Though towards the later stage Jax did say that she had found a single peanut. Hooray for the added texture.
We paid £7.95 for our mains, not a lot of money, but I would happily pay a bit more to have say an extra few fries or a better quality burger. They seem to forget that a good looking plate of food doesn’t replace taste and it never will.
For dessert, well, we saw the micro portions coming out of the kitchen and decided to give it a miss.
Would we return, well, for a drink absolutely, for food? Well you know the saying ‘three strikes and your out’, well in our case, they are well and truly out.
