I appreciate the concept of Ethos, but I believe there’s a lot of room for improvement in its execution.
Ethos is housed in a beautiful space. It’s clean, comfortable, and quite unique. With the trees inside, there is an upscale earthy vibe and it works well here. When you walk in, you’re greeted by a host and guided to your seat. You can then go up to the buffet to grab your own food as many times as you want, in whatever quantities you want. They also do have a few appetizers available on a small menu that are fixed price, but I can’t really imagine why you’d order one. They aren’t very special, and it’s a bit odd to order half your food off of a menu and the other bit via a buffet, but I guess some people might.
In terms of food choices, there are not as many options as I would’ve liked. They are a bit repetitive and don’t exactly make sense, but the worst part is, they are the opposite of healthy. Vegetarian and vegan options don’t automatically mean healthy. These dishes have way too much oil, batter, and grease. I didn’t like the fact that much of the food was fried, over dressed, or overly oily. It seemed contrary to the purpose. And I really wasn’t impressed with the flavors of most of the dishes. There was nothing that I left wanting more of.
There are both cold and hot foods available. Cold options include dishes like: Greek salad, baba ganoush, hummus, guacamole, roasted carrots with feta, broccoli and carrot salad, bean dip. Hot options include: fried broccoli cakes, Indonesian style fried rice, sweet potato fries, fried halloumi bites, fried scotch eggs, vegetable pasta bake, Hungarian goulash, and chickpea & coconut curry. Too much emphasis on fried and heavy foods.
Also, there were several times when multiple dishes were missing and we had to wait for them to be replaced. Instead of being able to get a full plate, we had to get part plates and go back once dishes were finally replenished. Sometimes it took quite a while – up to 15 minutes – making for a staggered meal.
Once you fill up your plate, you go to the cashier who then weights your plate and adds the amount to your table number. You pay for your meal at the end, so each time you have a plate weighed, make sure you are conscious of what you’re adding to the final bill. If you don’t pay attention, you may not realize that your first plate already cost £15. And yes, this place is expensive. More expensive than it should be. At the end we asked the waiter how much an average plate of food costs here in his experience, and he said most people end up paying £15-£20 per plate. That’s too much for what you’re getting and unfortunately, many people unknowingly go back for a second plate without being aware of the price.
Dessert operates the same way as the appetizers – you pay a fixed price for each dessert. We didn’t have any desire to try the desserts, so I can’t officially speak to their quality, but they looked quite small, ordinary, and overpriced.
I have nothing but good things to say about the customer service, though. Everyone was friendly and pleasant.
Tibits is a similar concept, and though it’s not as upscale, I believe it’s better executed – better value, better options, better tasting, and healthier. I’d recommend it over Ethos.
