please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
It's a Chef & Brewer, so you probably won't be expecting too much. However, I probably visited it at the best time - mid-afternoon on a weekday with the sun out, and enough time to watch the world go by on Kew Green from one of the benches at the front. Nice pint of Everards 'Hazy Daze' wheat beer too.
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Average; I expected more from the outside. Guess you can never judge a book by it's cover, eh?
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Do not eat in this pub!
I did not believe the poor reviews about the food since we had eaten here about two years ago and it was reasonable. But clearly there is a chronic problem with this pub - we were told our food would be 45 minutes, which we were willing to put up with but it was actually almost twice that long coming! When it arrived the gravy was congealed, the carrots dry and the mashed potatoes almost solid. This meal had clearly been lying around for a long time. My companions had the same trouble. Other customers walked out complaining they had been waiting an hour an a half. Adnams beer was ok though if a little expensive.
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I have been going to pubs for 23 years & have to say that this is one of the worst. Whilst the Staropramen may be perfectly chilled, the staff are not! In particular the elderly woman who served us our food could not have been more rude even if she tried. Most of the staff seem to have had no training whatsoever in how to deal with customers or even pull pints. Each question is met with a sigh or scoff. No one would take responsibilty for errors in food orders or preperation. Avoid at all costs.
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This is a dark and dingy Chef & Brewer pub with the emphasise on chef. There is a patio garden at the rear, but I think that the seating at the front of the pub would be much nicer, especially if there was a cricket match on.
Once I had been redirected to the side door to gain entry I was confronted visually and nasally by an eccentric old albino grandmother’s house (potpourri, no light, crinklies everywhere). I searched out the lone barman who was doubling as a waiter and stood for a while at the bar. I then drank my drink and left before all of the life was sucked out of me.
Butcombe Blonde, Abbot Ale and Outlaw Wildmule were the beers on offer alongside Fosters etc.
I think that I’ll stick to the Greyhound in future.
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This feels more like a restaurant with a bar than a pub that does food so, as a drinker, it's not really my scene. Worth popping into if you are doing a tour of the Green (like I did) but if you are just going out for a drink there are better options nearby.
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2 hey?
Well thats the majority of the Kew locals accounted for then.
*rolls eyes*
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I'll hold my hands up to a bit of sweeping generalisation there then slacker but seeing two seperate incidents in the course of a Sunday evening where barbour-coated "gents" went out of their way to visibly upset teenage bar staff for minor service infractions got my goat. I'm all for expecting a level of quality when paying to eat out but these cases were unnecessary for what is at the end of the day, pub food.
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Haha not at all, I never go there. I live in the area hence I was little peeved by the swipe at the locals.
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Oh my god is this place for real all i can say is lucky they get tourists.came to watch the cricket and get a bite to a eat.It is great cricket gos on for 6 hours,food order took well over 1 hour and then when asked about dessert got told had to look inside at blackboard.Cricket was good but do not think i will be coming back to run of the mill chain pub.Looks like slacker will keep them going though.
anonymous - 19 Aug 2007 18:50 |
Fantastic pub, great location overlooking the cricket pitch. 1 hour wait for a roast meal and a salad was unacceptable, the food looked great and sadly tasted disgusting. The beef was tough as old boots and very very fatty, the vegetables tasted of fish, it came with roast potatoes... and mashed potato that tasted like instant "smash" A great pub for beer and crisps!!
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If you don't like the locals why don't you fuck off somewhere else?
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I like the place. Fantastic comment Random ranger!
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Let's put things into a bit of perspective here - you want Michellin-starred food, go to a michellin-starred restaurant and pay michellin-starred prices. It's a PUB FFS and a very nice little one too. I won't disagree that the staff are a bit green (I cracked up when the lad taking our food order - first day on the job - asked if I wanted my chocolate desert with cream, ice-cream or mustard!) and the food service is a bit hit-and-miss - my fiancé ordered lamb off the specials and got the lamb off the menu - but this was changed with a minimum of drama but at least they try their best and are friendly which is more than can be said for some of the locals - a more pretentious and objectionable bunch of city-banking and yummy-mummy cunts you will stuggle to find - who truth be told scarcely deserve a pub like this on their dooorsteps.
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I have been to this pub on numerous occasions and I think it has the potential to be a great pub. The service has been a bit slow when I have been there but on the whole the atmosphere is ok,the locals are friendly and the food can be great.
I do think the staff could do with a bit more training and more staff could be used on busy days instead of having one poor soul manning a bar with 15 Customers around him/her. The Manager is friendly but can be a little too forthcoming with personal information.
Not a bad little pub and the location is fantastic.
Gerro - 29 Mar 2007 14:35 |
Must agree with previous comments. Took my mother and father in law for late sunday lunch (6.30). Food is reasonable if over priced but service is a problem. Waited almost an hour for meals. Nice in summer when garden is open.
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Great location, fantastic ambience e.g. log fires, on first arrival, mmm v nice. After which rapidly goes down hill, with rubbish over priced / over cooked food, Local Management blaming their management 4 fucking up with portion control etc, a real pity. Could be good if concentrated, or specialised on a few dishes, rather than going over board with boil in the bag, micro heated meals. Really testing the the chefs skills - not!
OK 4 a beer DO not eat here with family looking 4 a good meal or value 4 money.
No management control
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Absolute gem of a place. Fantastic food, friendly service and a great atmosphere.
Slightly manic over weekends, though through that testifying to it's charm. Will definately be going again, and definately recommending it to people.
anonymous - 13 Dec 2006 13:06 |
Have had some good evenings here - food is good and service generally reasonable. it might be mock Tudor, but i like the layout with its hidden corners. can get a bit overwhelmed at weekends
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Went here for lunch on saturday. Food was ok, nothing to write home about, but I must also mirror what other people have said about the amount of time it took for the food to arrive. 45 minutes for two steaks and a salad is bordering on unacceptable in my book...
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More a restaurant than a pub really, i.e. you wouldn't just pop in here for a pint. But a good place for a meal out - the menu has some unusual dishes reasonably priced, food quality was good and service was quick and pleasant. One yuppie-type woman was shouting her business into her mobile phone throughout the meal, but the pub can't be blamed for that. Cask ales available including a monthly guest. The good thing is the pub's open and serving food all day every day (unlike the nearby Express Tavern who shut most afternoons and only serve food when it suits them).
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Not impressed by this pub. Dingy and dark inside, filled with bankers and their spoilt families, service was poor. Nice location but that is about it. Guinness was pants in here as well.
TheGP - 26 Mar 2006 20:35 |
So-so beer and the sandwich-y lunch was OK when it eventually arrived. But it took blooming ages and only fabulous food is worth the wait. The most praise I can offer is that that the ladies loos were spotless and smelt nice.
Won't come back here when there are far better pubs a short walk in all directions.
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Personally I far preferred it before they put in the extra low ceilings and the whole 'mock tudor' effect. It just ends up making it feel all rather claustrophobic. Plus they used to have a darts board. I like darts.
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I thought the menu was pretty extensive and the food good. Nice wine list. A few benches overlooking the green for the summer. Very cosy in the winter. A fairly traditional pub. Good place to take your folks for Sunday lunch.
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Abysmal service, polite enough but abysmal. Waitresses and bar staff that don’t speak enough English to get the food order right (elusive chips that were steak chips anyway despite my being assured they were French fries), zero communication between the kitchen and the bar – we were told at about the time we should’ve been served our dinner (25 mins after ordering) that the dish my friend had ordered had sold out and, to top it all off, flat, short beer. We had to ask for a top up (which to be fair was readily given) and by the time the second round had made its short journey from the bar to the table, both pints were easily half an inch short as the heads had ostensibly got lost somewhere en route. The food took a whopping 45 minutes to arrive (it wasn’t even busy) and I have to say was delicious but, sadly, incomplete.
A neighbouring couple complained to the (new) manager about the service and the food so I grabbed the poor bloke on his way back and shared our experience. He did refund two drinks and the elusive chips and was very apologetic, he’s only been here a couple of months and is trying with the place.
The location is excellent and the pub itself is lovely so if they were to invest a little bit more money on employing staff that actually understand the customers’ requests and on kitchen staff that know how to run a kitchen, the extra expenditure would pay for itself. I’m all for a cosmopolitan society and there are plenty of foreign people living here with an excellent command of the English language – you see it in pubs everywhere – so why this place can’t find them is beyond me.
I don’t want to write this place off as it's great to stop for a drink and watch the cricket and the manager is very new so I’d like to go back in a couple of months in the hope that the service had improved dramatically. In the meantime, unless you speak Polish/Czech and have plenty of time to wait for your meal and don’t mind a flat pint, avoid for a while.
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Excellent location, stopped off here last summer on a bike ride and watched the cricket on the green with a pint.
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Average food really. Shame, location is superb.
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Its happened before at pubs in the area......
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Someone will nick them?
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I really like this pub, as the poster below says - in the summer you can't beat a day sitting outside quaffing ale and watching the cricket. I haven't eaten there but the food looks great, and it is always completely rammed on weekend lunchtimes so that has to say something. One negative is that the wooden chairs/benches outside are screwed down - this is Kew Green not Peckham, what's the worst that could happen?!
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Since the refurb this in now more of a restaurant than a pub.Nevertheless for the summer months there may not be a better place for spending a Sat/Sun afternoon than sitting outside watching the cricket.Beer is good and the food is excellent(restaurant prices though).Not very children friendly which is always a bonus.
squatter - 14 Apr 2004 11:04 |
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