please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
classic case of it ain't broke, break it. Once a nice local pub, now utterly absent of any character.
A Young's pub with no Special even on a tap. Bought a half of Staropramen for £1.95...
2.30pm on a Monday in Kensington, no other customers.
An ex-pub. Shame on Young's.
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Visited again on saturday. the place remains a mystery to me. First thing to say is that the staff are great, very cheery and personable. But the barman's jolly, joking comment when I ordered another two pints of Winter Warmer that "damn, I'm not getting any practice making cocktails!" kind of says it all. A big sign outside advertises the pink cocktails to which he alluded, but the bar area of the pub was largely empty, and the dining area packed. It just re-inforces the point - it's not a pub, it's a restaurant. It's a venue with an indentity crisis. It's not surprising - the decor has had all hint of personality and authenticity airbrushed out of it - a kind of bland, international, hotel lounge anonymity. If they want the bar side of it to work they have to look at how the space and the ambience can work to provide an authentic English atmosphere, and not be rueful if people ask for pints of beer rather than cocktails. Otherwise might just as well turn the space over to tables and make it fully a restaurant - they'd make more money per square foot probably.
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I visited for the the first time recently since the refurbishment and all i can say is wow! The atmosphere was spot on and the food was delicious. The staff were friendly and attentive. I will definitely be coming back more often.
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It's a restaurant unfortunately, not a pub and you need to be aware of that if you're planning a visit
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What a fantastic little pub. Great for big groups of drinkers and a great place to take people out to eat. Lovely food, friendly staff and a great atmosphere. I can see this place becomeing my new local
anonymous - 15 Mar 2007 19:34 |
I visited the Britannia on Sunday and was very impressed!! We were a party of 8 and ended up being an hour late for our booking (London transport). The manager was very understanding and we had a lovele meal, even though we clashed with a big party. The best roast in Kensington!!
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Er, slight mistake there. It should have read. 'If you have been in this pub but not recently and are planning....'
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If you have not been in this pub and are planning to do so soon; be sure to wear a black arm band.
I did not feel welcome here. Shame, this was once a classic boozer.
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I took my girlfriend to the Britannia on valentines day and it definitely put me in the "good books"!!
The food was excellant and the service was top knotch. The staff made us feel more than welcome. They were attentive and relaxed despite both the restaurant and bar being full. I would definitely return to the Britannia, especially if the Black Bream is still on the menu!!!
anonymous - 19 Feb 2007 12:10 |
A tragic loss! This pub was such an oasis, but we always knew that it would be a matter of time before Youngs spotted how out of synch it was with its moneyed, tourist-oriented locality. I can imagine the bizarre interior layout will last for long - it's very claustrophobic at the front, and far too geared towards being a restaurant. Nice food, mind.
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I drank here regularly for nearly 20 years with a group of like-minded boozers. We went in once after its refurbishment - never again! It used to be an excellent pub, but went gradually downhill when the old landlady left. I could have just about put up with the new decor if the beer had been well-kept, but sadly this was not the case. Until recently this was one of the few pubs to have been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide - and had a plaque to prove it - but it is quite rightly not there any more.
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A real find, perfect location for a drink after work. Very relaxed atmosphere, friendly staff - table service for drinks. Didn't try the food, but menu looked promising.
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Used to sneak in here at lunchtime for a couple of drinks once a week with a mate at my old job. The boss completely disapproved of any sort of lunchtime tippling .. very fond memories of getting in ordering a couple of large vodkas, saying hello to the old gents gathered round the front and sneaking through to the back for a gossip and a laugh. Sorry the revamp seems to have gone down badly. But the memories will last.
anonymous - 5 Nov 2006 16:48 |
This place used to be a decent boozer.
Its reinventing of itself as a halfway house 'tween a restaurant - the prices are way too high for even a gastro pub - and a pub leaves it succeeding on neither count.
What a waste. I shall not be visiting again.
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Well done to the team at the Brittania! I came in last Thursday with three friends and had a fantastic meal. The service was great, with the decor to match. The waitress was so good we spent a small fortune but enjoyed every minute of it. Our personal favourite was the chocolate fondant, so come on girls, spoil yourselves! Turn down the volume on the restaurant phone though pls.
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Ullage you sum up perfectly what I feel is happening to our old watering holes. In years to come when all traditional pubs are just a distant memory some bright sparks gonna come up with an idea of a traditional London theme pub.
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It's turned into a restaurant. Recent reviews here applaud its virtues as a restaurant serving beer. Fair enough, but that don't make it a pub. Admittedly the old Brit needed a dusting over, but the new Brit is a soulless, vapid environment uprooted from its traditional incarnation as a pub into somewhere that could be in any city in the world, a kind of world class standard of anonymity and blandness. They do it well. So what. People come to the UK to visit pubs, not restaurants that could be in their own countries. As a Londoner I mourn the death of traditional boozers (of all standards and desirability) to this corporate, global standard of vacuousness.
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What a fantastic place. Went in for dinner last night with 14 other people and we all had a great time. The food was oustanding and the service was flawless. A massive improvement on the old Britannia. No more smelly old Fuddy Duddies waiting for god. This place is up with the best of them. If you want Great service outstanding food and a cracking pint of Special this place is for you. 10/10
anonymous - 3 Mar 2006 10:49 |
what a wonderful improvment on the the drinking den that WAS The Britannia! But where's charlie!?!?
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I have to agree with pumpy. I've been in quite a few times since it re-opened and each time have had a fantastic meal and have always been welcomed by the friendly staff. And it's good to see that they still serve great ales...not the norm in a refurbed pub. Even better that my girlfriend doesn't winge when i want to go there as she too can enjoy the drinks selection. I give it two thumbs up!!
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Not quite sure what all the fuss is about from everybody!!! This is a fantastic pub serving good food and fine beer and gave me prompt service. The £27-50 that Mr anonymous paid for his fish and chips was in fact Dover Sole and anyone who knows anything about food at all will tell you it ain't cheap!!!! I suggest he goes back to his frozen processed cod with limp chips and luminous mushy peas and moans in his pint to someone else because I thought this place was fantastic. Heartily recommended!!!!!
Pumpy - 22 Feb 2006 19:35 |
It used to be a regular meeting place for a few of us scattered over West and South London. It used to be a fine, typical Youngs pub, although the service could have been friendlier. But after the refurbishment it is appalling. It seemed to us (on our one and only visit to the refurbished pub ever) that if you didn't want to pay their exhorbitant prices for a meal and just wanted a quiet beer and a chat, the staff weren't that interested.
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What have they done!!! What used to be a friendly, cosy pub for drinks in an evening or a lunchtime escape from the office with good beer and reasonably priced food, is now a soulless sludge-green shell of a place. The staff are friendly, but probably have to be when faced with customers falling off their chairs when faced with the prospect of a £27.50 wallet-draining for what any ‘real’ pub calls fish and chips!
anonymous - 31 Jan 2006 11:57 |
I like the new Britannia, at least I like the back part. The staff are friendly and efficient. The place has had some new life pumped into it. It is sad to see another traditional pub go but times change. Well done to Youngs for what appears to be a step in the right direction. Great food here, great beer here and a lot of the old regulars still use it so it can't be so bad
anonymous - 28 Jan 2006 22:51 |
The Britannia is dead. Killed by Youngs. It's an anonymous, gastrified nightmare. Dark matt purples and grey - Ikea lampshades - polite but glassy-eyed waiters bringing drinks to your table, looking through you with a blank corporate gaze. All history, atmosphere, integrity, comfort, genuineness obliterated. You could be in New York, or Madrid, or Melbourne, that's to say, nowhere. The roots of what makes a part of English culture so vivid and unique destroyed in a vapid, hollow, banal makeover. Nothing here is genuine anymore, nothing preserved, everything surface, but with no meaning. An empty shell. Well done Youngs and your "winning formula" as you describe it ....
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Closed for refurbishment at the moment.
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something missing? fine looking pub but not much character.
anonymous - 26 Jun 2005 15:10 |
A very good pub. Large and spacious and generally free from music and blaring telly. It's got more touristy - there are routinely squads of well-heeled punters from the Copthorne Tara and other local hotels. They're fine though - the pub is big enough to accommodate them without upsetting the balance and feel of the place. It seems to suffer from a string of charmless landlords though. The rest of the staff are usually fine.
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Beer on good form ( Sunday 12/12/04).
This is still a traditional pub. With its wood - pannelling and seemingly well - heeled customers and no music / TV, it has a bit of a feel of an old style Gentlemans Luncheon Club, but I highly recommend it if you're in the area.
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A gem. One of Youngs' best pubs, and one of the best pubs in Kensington. The beer has been in superb condition whenever I have visited, and the food's good too. It is well worth a trip just to visit this pub, although its nice to do a crawl taking in the Radnor (Everard) and the Britannia Tap (Young) both of which are in Warwick Road.
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