please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
visited a few days ago the grolsch was warm in the downstairs pub, decided to have a pizza in the restaurant upstairs, the place was very busy so why employ so few staff, the service was a joke, ordered drinks and a pizza and got the pizza before the drinks, the problem is that its a tourist haven one visit never to return if it was a not a tourist pub the locals would never use it more than once. 2 waiting staff to cover a packed restaurant.
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Very touristy though the Bombardier was passable. Early Friday evening but unlike John Bonser's experience there were no 'heavies' on duty. Perhaps the previous review took place during a football tournament.
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A beautiful location in St Katherine's Dock and most people can't believe this place exists when they first go there. A really nice pub when it's not too busy. The beer is expensive but not too bad - Expect £3.50+ for a Guinness. Alas the outside closes at 9pm I believe and that's what the bouncers are for. People live round there and the marina is peaceful so you can't really complain.
The bar service has improved no end over the last few years and the toilets always smell of pilchards...
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Another pub visited on Sunday lunch. Went up to the restraurant and ordered the steak while my missus had some pasta. The waiter service really was excellent, the lager very palatable and the bottle of red wine went down too quickly. The food was faultless. Personally, I thought it was good value for money when you consider location and it's really hard to find something to fault on this particular visit.
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This place is busy, has always been with the office crowd after work - but we had a great fish & chip supper (aboou 7 quid each) last week, great service. Oh and a pint of carling was only £2.95!!
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Interesting looking from the outside, but inside it's the usual overpriced London tourist trap. Bombardier on draught was at least drinkable, which gets it an extra point.
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Large pub / restaurant spread over 3 floors close by St Katharines dock. Looks inviting from the outside, but inside was a major disappointment last Friday evening - oppressively loud music and Fullers London Pride a whopping £ 3.10p per pint ( they even give you a receipt just to rub it in )
On the evening of my visit, the pub was packed with what seemed to be a mixture of the post work office crowd and foreign tourists presumably staying in one of the nearby hotels or either visiting Tower Bridge.
Even allowing for the fact that it was early Friday evening, quite why the pub management felt it necessary to have a couple of typical hard -looking black-coated heavies on the door defeats me.
I won't be rushing back to this one
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Nice enough place
big enough place
but this is why it gets a 4 rating
THE BLOOMIN PRICES !!!!!!
MAGNERS £4.85 A BOTTLE !!!
THATS TAKING THE P
WHATS THE MARKUP ON THAT I WONDER
BRING YA CREDIT CARD !!!!!
anonymous - 19 Mar 2007 14:49 |
A seemingly pleasant enough and interesting pub situated in St Katherine’s Dock, The Dickens Inn dates back to the 18th century when it was in fact a spice warehouse. I paid an afternoon visit with my girlfriend last Saturday (10th Feb) and having being impressed after visiting here a few years back, was excited to be returning. Interior wise, the place is fine. It’s woody and has the traditionalist feel that I find appealing, yet it suffers elsewhere. It is indeed a tourist trap and this was most evident on my visit. That isn’t a problem of course, but the prices were. A pint averages just over £3.00 here and heaven knows how much s bottle of wine will set you back! The food smelt good though and in all honestly, if you are looking for a place to just have a short wind down, then here will do fine. Don’t have a session though. My wallet most certainly wouldn’t appreciate it!
HTM69 - 14 Feb 2007 18:39 |
Very large pub set in a lovely location. when the weater is sunny there is nothing better than sitting outside people watching. However it is a tourist trap so it gets very busy and often has bouncers outside during the day. Inside is dark and misirable and the Bogs are a camels ride away down flights of stairs and endless corridors. OK for an afternoon drink if you are feeling flush or someone else is picking up the tab. As can be seen by the photograph they take a pride in the appearance and water the hanging baskets regulary. Give this place a once over, after visiting an ATM.
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Over £8 for two drinks?! Tourists may not know they are being ripped off but Londoners do... won't be going there again...
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This place is very badly arranged. Massive bar with 2 staff who never keep tabs on anyone pushing in. Then on a hot summers day it gets very very clammy inside with no air con so its ouside for the punters. Problem with this is the beer garden closes at 9 and the nazi security guard is very prompt at kicking you out back into the furnace of fire. Nice surrondings tho
anonymous - 24 Jul 2006 20:40 |
firm favourite when on a daytrip to London. tourists? yes, but then i guess i am one just for the day! interior looks knacked through dirt and poor care rather than age. but its all about the frontage onto the dock, which is picture perfect. always on bottled beer here so can comment really. not that many pubs in the area so always seems to be packed solid.
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Not bad at all, slighty odd interior, but the beers are fine. Didn't try the food, but it looked pretty good to me. Not a bad outdoor section either.
anonymous - 27 May 2006 18:08 |
Wedged full of tourists and people who should know better. Obscenely expensive. Close to £3.50 a pint regardless of what you are drinking.
Despite the presence of hordes of young ladies, I have never got my Dickens Inn here.......i'll get my coat.
anonymous - 10 Apr 2006 15:01 |
Have to disagree. The pizzas were rubbish. typical crap served up to tourists. The building is good as is location but inside it's like a harvester and the beer I had was in bad nick. don't bother.
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Should be superb but the service ruins it. You've never seen it so bad, a 20min+ wait for service is not unusual, and don't expect the staff to make it any easier by serving people in order or (God forbid) rushing! A pleasant place to drink off peak though (ie, weekday afternoons), and the pizzas served upstairs are admittedly excellent.
anonymous - 28 Mar 2006 22:45 |
Mock villagey style pub in a tourist trap environment. Expensive drinks but pleasant atmosphere. Sunday's would be nice though it's always understandably rammed. Okay if you can get seats, the view over the wharf is nice on a sunny day. A walk around St.Katherine's dock is recommended to find a cheaper establishment. Minories is up the road for cheaper drinks though the words frying pan and fire come to mind.
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Nice building in nice setting. Service is a bit can't-be-arsed. Bog standard beers. Rammed on summers sundays. Worth a visit. Just.
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This was another one of those pubs just of the curcuit in the eighties, Always good to chat a tourist up, and have a laugh before moving off to the circuit, Was quite expensive back then even by a locals standard, Good fun though.
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Reasonable place, fair value if fairly standard Sunday lunch on ground floor. Comfy seating and not bad for range of beers but no cocktails being served while I was there!
maleo - 21 Nov 2005 12:46 |
Pleasantly surprised. Had lunch on a friday at 1 pm and it was not overly crowded. Enjoyed the pub grub on the first floor as well as the view of the Dock. It obviously caters to tourists and is set up to get you in and out.
Better experience than anticipated.
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A lovely pub to go to on a warm sunny evening and sit outside with the masses of tourists and city professionals. Not a huge choice of wines but a good selection of beers. Ate upstairs in the pizza restaurant and had to ask the same waitress 5 times if she would take our order before we finally collared another waiter. Had to wait ages for the food to arrive.
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Been there twice on weekday lunchtimes. Excellent bar food and decent grolsch on tap. Appears to have a good selection of bottles and also cocktails. Pizza place above it and a grill above that. Plenty of seats both inside and out. Very pleasant location. Not bad at all!
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Very touristy.
The pizza place above is the only reason to go. Cheapish pizzas that go from large to bigger than dustbin-lid size. Largest one available has its own table to hold it.
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Nice setting by the docks beer was ok and the Pizzas are huge. Typical London prices and will get very busy in the summer. Good stop for a pint when walking the Thames path.
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Expensive and overrated
anonymous - 7 Jan 2005 14:21 |
magic place. yes, its touristy. so what! its a unique place, and there's nothing like it in london.
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It's big, it's by the water, it has lots of floral stuff outside, but it's not so much a pub, more a machine for extracting money from tourists and brokers from the nearby commodities markets. Very expensive, very busy, and the customer-facing liquid distribution operatives behind the bar radiate as much conviviality and charm as a border guard at Checkpoint Charlie. Outside is nicer, but the benches aren't comfortable and the pub employs a particularly Stazian brand of bouncer to tell you off for any misdemeanour. You will be tolerated as long as you have enough lines of credit to pay for the booze.
A shame: it could be a splendid place with a bit of imagination and humanity. I imagine it makes a fortune as it is, though, so don't expect anything to change.
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One for the tourists! Overpriced beer (over £3 for a pint of Guinness last time I went), gets packed so can take ages to get served espically during the summer, if you do get a spot outside you'll be herded back into the pub at around 9.30 so as to not upset the posh neighbours. Go for a walk into Wapping or over Tower Bridge and find a decent boozer next to the river.
Michael - 14 Jan 2004 10:43 |
nice location, no sky sports, but they show terrestial matches
oliver - 17 Nov 2003 13:14 |
Good, reasonably priced food and Pizza place upstairs. Do watch your purse/bag in the evening though.
justvisiting - 17 Oct 2003 13:33 |
Wauw, this one only added a week ago - and it's one of my favourites(!) However, being very pictoresquely located in St. Katarine's Dock I only know it as a very nice place to have lunch (in a foreigner's opinion:-)
And again: this site *is* called
'beerintheevening'; so there...:-)
Flemming - 21 Aug 2003 21:20 |
Beautiful location for a pint on a summers day with a good beer garden with some shade.
3 real ales available and very spacious inside.
Darren in the City - 14 Aug 2003 16:55 |
