The Stage Door

I found the Stage Door a little confusing in terms of its menu: it was as if it hadn't chosen quite what it wanted to be and was trying unsuccessfully to be several things at once. It seemed to be part Greek restaurant, with dishes such as kleftiko, moussaka and houmous on the menu; part steakhouse, with several steak dishes on offer; and part throwback to the 1980s, with dishes such as egg mayonnaise, avocado with prawns, and prawn cocktail. Personally I would have preferred it to be either a proper Greek restaurant or a steakhouse, and left the 1980s dishes out altogether. Very odd!

The decor was a little bit cheap and plasticy, however everything was in dark, wood colours so it wasn't too bad unless you looked closely. Being there on a quiet Wednesday night, the service was good.

I had the egg mayonnaise to start. This was an enormous portion (containing unbelievably large eggs!) and I struggled to finish it all... this is in spite of me liking eggs and generally having quite a piggy appetite! I then had two other starters in place of a main course - avocado with prawns, and houmous with pitta. I have to say, the houmous tasted a little odd. I have houmous several times a week, I really like the stuff, but there was something just not right about this one. Not something I could put my finger on though. The avocado with prawns was fine but came with presliced, supermarket-type, brown bread which had its crusts cut off and was pretty stale around the edges. It should not have been served in that state.

Everything gave the impression of being a bit cheapish really - the butter came in those tiny, wrapped portions which I think should be relegated to cafés only, and shouldn't be seen in restaurants, plus I don't think restaurants should even consider serving presliced supermarket bread!

And just looking around at the bread on our table showed the confusion of styles in this restaurant - there was crusty French bread to go with my friend's soup, pitta to go with my houmous, and then the sliced supermarket stuff to go with my avocado and prawns. It was just all wrong! They need to get Gordon Ramsay in here to sort them out!

The Stage Door Restaurant, 92 The Broadway, Wimbledon SW19 1RH