Browns

The food was fine, the service was fine, the drinks were fine, this whole place was just… totally mediocre. By no means bad, but also nothing really out of this world either. The drinks were cheap so I may come back to the bar with some friends and happy hour if I am nearby, but wont make a trek for it.
We went last Sunday hoping for Brunch, but they stopped serving at 12, so we settled for lunch dishes. I had the Browns burger, which was dry and pretty flavorless (had better at Byrons) and my boyfriend had the chicken caesar, which was a pretty standard chicken caesar. It was all okay.
The part that really annoyed me is they had a 25% off for checking in on Unilocal, we were heading here anyway so I decided to do it. We forgot about it when being seated, but told our waitress before we ordered. She said that she would ask her manager, which took 15 minutes. The manager then came over and looking all confused, said that she had never seen this before, but she would ask her other managers. She then never returned, which is just aggravating. Don’t tell me you will look into something, but not follow up. We ate our meals, and then, when we asked for the bill we asked our waitress what the deal with the discount was. She looked at us all confused and said, «My manager never came back?» We said «Nope.“She went to check again about the coupon. When she brought our bill she told us that no one had ever seen the discount before and that they could not honor it.
Browns, whoever runs your Unilocal account, needs to let the other managers on duty know if you are offering discounts. And really, Miss Manager, you looked at your Unilocal page on my phone, saw the discount offered and saw that I did what was asked to get it and you still wont honor it? Anyway, I live in Soho, there are so many other food options out there I don’t need Browns, and you probably don’t either.

Very serviceable traditional English breakfast and tea and we had very attentive service. Yes, it’s a chain, but one you can count on.

I have eaten at Browns and this particular Browns on many occasions. I am still amazed at how busy this one always is. I believe most people hit the bar then get the munchies and snag a table as there is always a ²⁰⁄₃₀ minute wait on tables.
The food is ok and the staff always helpful, I have eaten in the upstairs private rooms before, I think it used to be a bank or the such like. The best tables are the booths as I always find the service better not quicker just more attentive. Perhaps it is something to do with the fact there are more of you so more spend and better chance of a tip or am I just being sceptical?
Aside from the pre theatre crowd, post theatre crowd the after work drinkers at the weekend I have always found it easier to get a table at the weekend. Clearly if you are there during the week my advice book in advance otherwise be prepared to wait for that table!
I like Browns and will continue to eat there on and off.

I have been here to Browns quite a few times recently for afternoon meetings.
The décor, service & noise level is certainly conducive to talking shop and meeting with people in a business setting. Those aspects have certainly got me through the door, but it has been a quality drinks and good service that have kept me in their for longer than I otherwise would have expected!
Speaking of service, customer service and staff here are all pretty good. The only criticism that I do have is that some of the staff do seem undertrained, especially when faced with making cocktails. I’m not talking particularly obscure or fancy cocktails — I’m talking staples like Martinis & Pina coladas. Other than that I am always happy with the service I received here at Browns.
Speaking of drinks — they are all pretty tasty here! One of the great selling points of Browns is there happy hour specials where many of the cocktails are available for 5 Pounds before a certain time. Which for the quality of the establishment and the location I think is pretty good value!
I have yet to try any of the food on offer here, but I would certainly not hesitate in future.
All in all a good all-​round experience here at Browns.

Astonishing, excellent service. I hosted a one-​day conference here. (I hired a room upstairs of the restaurant). Since I live in the US, it was a gamble booking in sight-​unseen. We were actually incredibly pleased.
The location is great. The room was quite ample. It was beautifully set up. It was comfortable. The Audio-​Visual assistance I was given by Stuart/​Stewart who managed our event was truly World Class. The pastry I ordered was well-​liked by all my people. We had lunch there, too, and everyone was so pleased with the food and service in the very busy restaurant. I can’t say enough nice things about Browns. An exceptional place to host an event. We will use them again.

Great place for a quick dinner before the theatre. If your looking for somewhere central — with good food and reasonable prices, its a good option.

Shout out to Unilocalers, CHECK your bill!!! I love this place to drop in for a cocktail as it has an ideal location and a £5 menu on cocktails all day long which are very drinkable. HOWEVER I am sad to say the staff are stroppy and I had a mistake? made on my bill. I went to the bar and placed my order and waited for our cocktails so why did he charge me £3 service charge? He did not say it was a mistake just asked if I wanted to see the Manager? No real explanation was given for this £3 charge but they refunded the amount to my card. So let it be known just take a cursory glance at your bill or you may find a little extra charge on it that should NOT be there. This is why I have rated only 1 star, not for the cocktails or venue but for the staff, service and not explained charges! xoxo

Went for cocktail after shopping. Staff need a bit of training in making them. It was just slopped together Cosmopolitan.
Got a Unilocal discount, which popped up when I signed in. So we decided to eat! Food was nice.
Good service, plenty of staff. Place is well organised from the time you enter to the end of your meal (I hate being kept waiting to pay the bill).

Sunday afternoon tea for £16 for two, what can be wrong about that? Now that I have tried it, I would rather recommend spending a little more some place else, because it was not really good! The scones were hard and the tartlets to sweet…

I make it a point to have a traditional English breakfast just once when I’m in England. We landed on a red eye, dropped our stuff off at the flat we were staying at and made our way here to catch breakfast just before they stopped serving.
It had everything I expected in a traditional breakfast. I was pleased but not blown away. Plus it seemed a bit nicer than the greasier spoons I have been into so I guess I was expecting a bit more.
I would check it out if you are in the area.

Went for a late lunch.
Service was terrible. Food was poor.
This place used to be good but is now on the downhill stretch of needing new management. Tourists will keep it alive for a year or two.

Oh this was a bad decision — late on a Saturday night after the theatre in the middle of touristy land, we searched for somewhere with a spare table and ended up here.
We walked in and were immediately told off for not checking in the hostess (who was not there). Then every table seemed to have some complex conditions around it. Eg. if we sat at the comfy booth, we couldn’t have table service — we had to order at the bar. If we sat in the quiet part we could only choose from the bar menu, but could have table service. It was exhausting to try and find a suitable combination.
When we did finally sit down, it was at a table next to the tills in the restaurant area (where we could have both table service and the full menu). For the first ten minutes that we sat there, there were dirty plates piled up about a foot away from us.
Eventually when someone came over, I ordered the tomato soup and my friend ordered the fish and chips. My soup was cold and came with stale bread (to be fair, after I mentioned the bread, they brought me some more, warmed up). The chips were nice on my friend’s meal, but the fish wasn’t brilliant and the mushy peas were inedible. When we told them about the peas, they told us that it was their special recipe and although some people didn’t seem to like them, they thought they were excellent. (Well, as long as the chef likes it, it doesn’t matter about the customers, right?!)
All in all, my feelings are that I shan’t be returning, even if they do have the last table left in Covent Garden at 10.30pm on a Saturday night.

Met friends for dinner at the Browns in Covent Garden last night… wish I’d read these reviews before going.
The truth is that this place fails in most areas.
* Service is terrible. I think servers are overworked or the restaurant is understaffed. They never come by and when one finally flags a server down they seem astonished that you need assistance. Bizarre.
* Food takes forever to arrive. Forever. It took at least 1 hour to get dinner.
* Food itself is average at best. The bread starter, while pretty to look at, was dry and stale. The penne with tomato sauce was just… wrong. (Ragu makes a better sauce.) Others in our group had the fish and chips and chicken breast, which seemed okay. I had the house salad, which I requested without edamame. Which of course came with edamame.
* Ambiance is okay. But this place is VERY loud. So loud I couldn’t hear half of what the person next to me was saying.
The Bottom Line: Not sure why this place is so busy, aside from the fact that it’s a great location. We definitely won’t be back. Total let down.

Last weekend I was here with a friend to catch up and do some plans for our upcoming appointment. I think this restaurant was the perfect place to do that. We got a nice, quiet table and a very good waitress who earned her tip. The food was excellent and I recommend the place.

I had a great sea food platter from browns but the service was rather slow as we had gone for a pre theater meal and they were inundated.
I tried the baked camembert which had been left to sit too long so it had hardened when i got it but they were quick to rectify the problem

This a great venue and close to Trafalger and Leicester Squares. It offers great food and drink at good price always busy and has a real buzzy atmosphere

I am a fan of Browns’ happy hour — good value for money (£4.50 I think at the time of writing this) & a good range of cocktails. This offer is for their ‘Signature’ cocktails on the menu & runs from Sun — Thurs. Also worth a try is their bar platters offer, My friends & I are huge fans of the 3 for £12 and recommend the flatbread with Stilton dip & the prawns are relish too
However I am not so much of a fan of this branch as it is usually packed and sometimes the staff can be a bit offhand. I must say though a few months ago I ordered a cocktail that had looked & tasted fabulous in another branch of Browns but here it tasted completely different & to be honest disgusting, so I bravely took it back & asked for a new drink. To his credit, the bar man made me another drink & as far as I could tell did not appear to spit in it!

Central location, decently priced drinks (especially considering its Covent Garden address), but extremely slow service. Not only did we wait for ages at the busy bar for someone to serve us, but the bartender stopped right in front of us, asked «who’s next?» and looked at the people either side of us before deciding to take our order. How very rude. No tip for him!
The Tip Nazi

A friend of a friend made the reservation to have dinner here, seems it’s a place she likes. Well, the service was slow as molasses in January, and the food was not great. Not awful, but I’ve had SO much better.
The drink I had at the bar was also just average. The only really good thing I had was a bar nibble of chicken & chorizo kebabs.
Wouldn’t recommend, wouldn’t return. I was late to my show because the waitress simply kept disappearing. Even when we finally said we had to leave it took forever to get things, like dessert and the bill…

If Brown’s was a pupil, it would be the exact middle of the class.
Our meal was solid, if unspectacular. No one seemed bowled over by their meal. No one could find any fatal flaw.

Okay okay as everyone is review this place today I want to too.
When my sister was at University (she went to Oxford you know!) all her friends parents would come up and take their little darlings out for lunch. Browns was the place, in Oxford they all use to go. I think that sums up this place pretty well — it’s well posh, and a little too posh for the likes of me. It’s not posh in the great food sense, it’s posh in the, stuck up people sense. A very British experience unfortunately!
They do a few things well here, please don’t take this as being a 3 star as a negative thing, their afternoon tea is superb and they have fish cakes to dies for. Ask for the hollandaise sauce with it as it goes soooo much better than the one they give you but really well made.
Well done Browns, you Great British institution you!