The Blues Kitchen is one of the better bars in London serving decent food and good music. Been there on a weekend and it was quite busy, not bad for a new bar about town. Though we had to wait a while before we got seated, the bar made up for lost time. Well stocked with bourbons and whiskey, it lives up to its reputation of a blues venue. The soul food that followed was perfect - the Missisipi Mud Pie - one of the best I've ever eaten, so I'm definitely coming back for more.

I rarely write reviews of my experience in a restaurant or bar, but I was so angered by my experience on Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, that i just couldn't let it lie.

As a Camden resident, I've walked past this place a number of times, and the renovation (it was previously a pretty dingy place called the Oh Bar) has transformed the interior into a comfy looking establishment, and the menu looked tasty and promised fantastic 'soul food'.

I went for brunch and, let me tell you, there was a destinct lack of soul in the food, the staff, and the place in general.

Firstly, the food. Terrible. I had an 'American Breakfast', which looked a good combination of sweet and savoury. The bacon was simply shocking, a real horror show. Limp, undercooked - no soul at all. I'm sorry, but if you put brunch on the menu, cooking bacon perfectly every time is one of the most basic skills your chef must possess. That aside, I had two of the worst poched eggs I have ever been served, greasy (deep fried from frozen) hash browns, two dry pancakes (clearly packeted not freshly made, and with the most pathetic drizzle of maple syrup on them), and some BBQ beans which had a crust on them after they'd clearly been set aside for a while.

Secondly the service. Useless. The waitress did her best, but explained on several occasions (after an initial 45 minutes of waiting) that the kitchen was backed up due to a 'big group'. This group was admitedly about 10 or 12 strong, but there were probably only 4 other tables of two in there - it was hardly busy, and would have been a doddle for any kitchen run properly by a competent head chef. We recieved our dismal food after an hour and ten minutes. Funnily enough, two of the other tables walked out, with one complaining that it had happened to them the week before.

I'm not sure if they have a different chef and kitchen staff in the evenings, because some of the other reviews here suggest a decent bite to eat, but let me tell you - this is WITHOUT DOUBT the worst place I have eaten brunch in for quite some time.

As a resident of Camden, I may well go back to give them another chance to impress me with their dinner menu, but until they massively improve the service and quality of the brunch experience, I won't be going back here for my breakfast and would recommend you do the same.

Every other day when they do 'do' the blues, this is one of the best places to listen to the blues in London. Add to it some of the best bourbons & whiskeys guaranteed to drive away your blues!

I love the Blues Kitchen, I work around the corner on Parkway so I pop in for a 'working lunch' once or twice a week! The food is ace and I celebrated my birthday there over the weekend and got into the Halloween spirit of things! The bands were brilliant and we danced for hours! Its probably the best way to work of all that delicious American food! I highly recommend this place to anyone.

Sorry, forgot to put any stars before!

Haven't tried the food yet, but, as a bar and a venue, it's leaps and bounds ahead of what it was like as the Oh Bar, which only ever seemed to really come alive when the Crawl was happening, and even then not exactly brilliantly. They're finally getting decent bands in, I've got no gripes about the service I've had there, and the fact they serve up bowls of popcorn as tapas with your drinks is a pretty sweet touch.