Cuisine - Gastro Pub
Price Range - Medium/High - The menu at Café football isn't the largest in the world it has to be said but the items that they do sell are all of a similar price. A few salads make up the cheapest plates which are £8.95 then the tipping point for the other end are the steak options which are £22.95 a piece. Upon reflection of the menu the average set back for a meal is around the £14 mark and for that you can pick up a burger with fries, pizza, salad or a few selection of British classics. Drinks can be slightly on the expensive side if you are opting for alcohol as cider's are £5 each and beers vary, beggining at £2.50 for a half. Soft drinks are cheaper as they start from only £1.95.
Service - 5/10 - After my visit, the service in Café football is enough to put me off from going back again. To start with five of us were crammed onto a table for four which was extremely uncomfortable, they didn't even set an extra set of cutlery so it was clearly a four seater table. After ordering our first set of drinks it must have taken at least a solid twenty minutes for them to arrive, only for the waitress nearly to be conned into giving them away. A fellow on another table was attempting to claim the drinks as his own but we were quick to notice and grabbed them back but surely you would have thought the staff knew where they were going?. On a plus our food was out faster than our first set of drinks which was good time but this wasn't enough to redeem the mistakes so far. Finally and very rudely, the bill had an automatic service charge of 12.5% sneakily placed on the end; we noticed and asked the waitress if this was a mandatory payment to which she said no. After asking for it to be removed, the young girl was least impressed, snatching the bill back abruptly as if we were in the wrong, then proceeded to throw our new bill on the table in disgust. I felt this was totally unacceptable and unprofessional.
Atmosphere - 6/10 - As I said previous our situation was already uncomfortable from the seating situation let alone the fact that fellow diners were after our drinks. The place was absolutely jammed packed and the bellowing drone was overwhelming; it wasn't ideal trying to talk loudly between the table and when the waitress' took the orders they were almost shouting themselves. At the bar area which was right next to the seated diners you could see the hustle and bustle going on, it reminded me of a Saturday night on the town and this probably didn't help the noise situation much either. An element I did enjoy was upbeat music that was playing, it was adrenaline pumping and cheerful which was reminiscent of the sort of music players would be listening to in a changing room pre-match. For some reason I just couldn't relax and the constant thought of where the drinks were and whether or not they were going to get our order right put me on edge.
Decor/Theme - 9/10 - Now this is an establishment really after my own heart, what more could a footballing foodie want than a restaurant themed around the beautiful game. As soon as you entered you are greeted by a cabinet display of classic boots which players would have worn, not to mention the names and pictures of heroic players posted everywhere on the walls. Down the tunnel towards the toilets they had framed shirts of players from around the globe which was a great, authentic touch. Living up to the sports reputation, the mutiple flat screens only seemed an essential, even in the head rests of booths their were small screens all displaying sky sports news. On the back of booth's they had sticker book photos of players both present and past, creating a childhood touching memory of when I used to collect them myself. All in all my favourite part had to be the superbly clever menu; most of the items ranging from cocktails to pizzas had unique names and played puns on famous footballing figures. For example a pizza named "The Special One" possessed Portuguese toppings refering to the Portuguese managing mastermind that is Jose Mourinho. Even the on the backs of the menus the meals were set out in 4-4-2 formations.
Presentation - 7.5/10 - Opting for a healthy salmon noodle salad there isn't many different ways you can present it and it was fair to say I was at ease with the way they did so. The bowl that was placed in front of me was huge and if required to you could wear it as a helmet; the fact that the bowl was like a bucket left me chirpy though as they did generously fill it up. Baring in mind it was a salad it did lack colour and a bit more diversity in vegetables would have worked a treat but because it was just noodles, carrots, spring onions and salmon it just didn't cut it. After looking at other peoples plates they seemed to have nice, quirky dineware but mine just didn't have the wow factor.
Food/Value for Money - 7.5/10 - My main of the salmon noodle salad stands in at £11.95 which I feel was very just. The noodles were perfect and there certainly was pleanty of them, by this I mean the cooking time had been nailed by the chef because they are easily over done from past experience. A negative aspect was the same as what I said earlier, the lack in variety; fair enough a salmon noodle salad doesn't have a shed load of ingredients but the addition of some bean shoots, a little chilli and other oriental flavours could have given the dish so much more excitement and promise. The ratio of salmon to noodles was greatly satisfying as you'd expect the restaurant to try and hold back on the fish as much as possible but they didn't and their was pleanty. You noticed the salmon flavour rush through straight away with prominence because it has such a delicious flavour; it was strong, seasoned well, had large, meaty flakes and maintained that spicy teriyaki flavouring it advertised in the menu. Overall I'd say that it was a decent meal that I'd buy again at the same price but I would exactly call it phenomenal food.
Overall - 7.5/10 - Café Football has so much potential to be a real great, novelty food chain that can branch out to footballing foodies around the country however there are many things that need to improve. The staff and unorganised atmosphere really do let this diner down and the fact that they don't show much consideration really does put me off returning in the future. With a decent tasting meal, enough to satisfy most hungry people, served up at a fair price for a London shopping centre food outlet, it's fair to say they would be successful if they could handle the rush and demand, not to mention the fantastic theme. Being an investment of Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs alone, it's teasing to any football fanatic and by no means should you let the service put you off but just don't expect the staff kissing your feet. My advice would be to pop in off the run of a shopping trip at Westfields or to visit at a time when it's going to be least busy to get the full potential but at all costs avoid the rush hours. To conclude I'd like to think this is a phenomenal idea with a perfect USP but it just needs improvement and polishing up in many departments in order to come out top of the league. To put it in a league it would be a definate Championship playoff squad that could be promoted under new management.
http://www.cafe-football.com
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