Wild Honey Restaurant - Mayfair, London

I was invited to Wild Honey Restaurant by our PR agency just before Christmas. I'd heard of the restaurant and understood it had a good reputation. It's situated in George Street, Mayfair and is run by the same team as Arbutus.

We arrived a little late after a mix up with directions and the taxi so were a little rushed. The entrance to the restaurant is a little cramped, there were five of us but we all felt a little squashed between the bar and the door. As we were led to our table, you couldn't help noticing the oak panelling and massively high ceilings, along with the booths where we ended up. It was a bit of a squeeze in the booth as there were five of us and one person had to sit on the end. This wasn't great as the coat stand was immediately behind him and made things even tighter.

Still, we were starving and looking forward to tasting the food. It took a while to get drinks ordered and they forgot about one of the drinks. It was hard to get the attention of the staff, perhaps because we were in a booth but they just didn't seem to want to serve us, at least that's what it felt like.

The menu on the other hand looked great and I was feeling in a particularly gamey mood, opting for the Shoulder of Hare cooked in red wine, pappadelle, olive oil and Parmesan, followed by Slow Cooked Venison, roast carrots and soft polenta. We ordered a bottle of red and some water and by now things were looking up, plus we were now munching on some rather nice bread.

Our first course arrived in good time and looked very terrific, the smell of the food was lovely too but over powered by the smell of the waiter! I hate to say it but this chap had some serious body odour and it wasn't nice at all. My first course was awesome, absolutely delicious and I'm sure I could have eaten another plateful had I not have the main course still to come. The hare was beautifully cooked, the sauce very rich and tasty and the Parmesan worked a treat. I found the dish top notch and right up my street and almost made up for the smelly waiter!

My main course arrived and again looked lovely, very rich and gamey although very similar to my starter! I was starting to regret ordering another game dish, but it didn't disappoint despite the similarities with my starter. I was soo impressed with my dishes, they were very very good.

Between us we decided to have a cheese board instead of desert, we'd walked past it earlier and all fancied sampling it. It was good, a nice selection of cheeses from the UK and France although I can't remember what exactly we had. We all really enjoyed it.

My conclusion? Well, first class food it has to be said, the restaurant atmosphere and ambiance are great too. It was really lively and enjoyable and the booths would be quite nice if there were four of you. You have privacy and can talk amongst yourselves which was good as it was a business kind of thing but the booths hinder the service, at least it did with us. We really struggled to get the attention of the staff, particularly at the end when we wanted the bill - we had to go and ask for it!! Wild Honey could be SO much better in my opinion. Improve service and deal with the smelly waiter and you'll have an amazing restaurant.

Worth going back? Yes I think so, I'd give them another chance as the food was brilliant!