The Zetland Arms, South Kensington - pub details
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Address: 2 Bute Street, Kensington, London, SW7 3EX [map] [gmap]
Tel: 0871 951 1000 (ref 264) - calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras
South Kensington (0.1 miles), Gloucester Road (0.3 miles), Earl's Court (0.8 miles)
West Brompton (1 mile), London Victoria (1.5 miles), London Paddington (1.6 miles)
Pub facilities/features:
- TV, Big screen
- Pool table (1), Quiz machines (Millionaire)
- Food served, Real ale
- Smoking area
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> Current user rating: 3.8/10 (rated by 64 users)
> Hotels nearby: Search
> Local guide: London pub guide
other pubs nearby:
Janets Bar, South Kensington (0.0 miles), Norfolk Bar, South Kensington (0.1 miles), Kavanagh's Irish Bar, South Kensington (0.1 miles), Hoop and Toy, South Kensington (0.1 miles), Hereford Arms, South Kensington (0.2 miles) - see more nearby pubs
user reviews of the Zetland Arms, South Kensington
please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
5 most recent reviews of 74 shown - see all reviews
| What a fiasco on Easter Saturday night! (7 April). At 10.30pm the atmosphere was great. The pub was about half full. Everyone was relaxing, enjoying the Easter weekend and looking forward to an unhurried, convivial last few drinks to round off an excellent evening until the Zetland would as usual at midnight. As a steady flow of regulars and tourists started to arrive, so the lively and friendly ambience continued to grow. Then at 10.45pm, like a bolt out of the blue, with no warning, an agressive short East European barmaid started to slam the bell so hard we thought it was going to fall off the wall. What on earth was going on? Was there a fire? Had a nuclear bomb gone off? Was it free Easter drinks? No, this was a call (although they never shout 'Last Orders') for Last Orders - but the call was exactly one hour and five minutes early, as this pub is the only one in London to call time at 15 minutes to the hour, instead of the normal 10 minutes to the hour. But why was this fantastic customer experience being killed off one hour early - with no advance warning - when the pub was populated with numerous customer and more were constantly arriving? There was no logical answer. And bar staff were not prepared to speculate or even offer a half-logical answer. One regular customer asked the Duty Manager to tell him who had made the bizarre decision. The Duty Manager answered sarcastically that it was God who made the decision. A somewhat crass answer and potentially offensive to any Christians gathered to celebrate Easter, after participating in the Easter Vigil in nearby Brompton Oratory. The pleasant ambiance had been killed, as soon as the bespectacled barmaid had slammed the bell. A group of regular customers who had just arrived were astounded and felt badly let down. The bunches of tourists who'd just entered for a couple of drinks after dinner or a show were equally perplexed. They didn't know what to do or where to go. So what did the helpful Zetland crew advise them to do? Well they completely ignored the guests, as they were too busy cleaning, desperate to be out of the pub as quickly as possible. Instead it was several regular customers who apologised to the tourists for their unhappy experience and gave them directions to alternative pubs and bars in the area. The final straw and dramatic finale came when the aggressive Eastern European bell slammer harrassed a middle-aged couple, who were tourists, forcing them to leave their drinks and get out of the pub. The couple understandably told her "You are so rude". Miss Europe surprinsingly retaliated "No, you're the ones who so rude!". The other barstaff hung their heads in shame and embarrassment. It was just a normal night in the Zetland. Britain's rudest pub! And still no representative of the Zetland has been abe to offer any explanation for the early closing, which ruined Easter for so many peaceful, law-abiding, paying customers. Natasha_P - 12 Apr 2012 17:34 |
| Boring but tasteful decor and comfortable chesterfield corner seating marred by overpriced drinks even by the standards of the area. Decent real ales though but watch out for stingy measures poured by inexperienced barmaids. Average. Richard_ReadingFC - 13 Feb 2012 14:04 |
| Turned out this pub was a pleasant surprise. I remember it as a dirty little boozer where it took an age to get served but it is smarter and cleaner and the bar staff most of whom seemed to speak English as a first language were fast and efficient. The ales were good and the fish and chips were excellent. It is a couple of years since I worked in Sth Ken but the Zetland is 100% better than it was. kfloyd - 12 Aug 2011 17:35 |
| This is the kind of pub you wander into by accident. Awful staff who seem baffled by simple requests and you never recognise a face when you wander in. So many better gaffs, why bother? HRHMICKEY - 27 Feb 2011 15:24 |
| I was in the South Ken area and fancied a pub lunch. Externally the Zetland Arms looked inviting and having put my head through the door I could see a wide mix of clientele, from builders to business suits to tourists. It was noisy, lively and bustling - this I mistakenly took for a good sign as why would all these people be in the pub if it wasn't good. I can only Imagine that the customers I saw were a transient bunch who like myself were just passing through South Ken as I discovered no-one would use the pub as a regular after my food experience. I ordered a plain steak sandwich on white bread leaving out the tomato and chutney that came with it on the menu - the barman stared at the till looking to see how he might overcome the options printed on the computerised till to omit the chutney and toms. Eventually I ordered, paid and sat down with my pint of Guinness and awaited with expectation for the sandwich to arrive. Twenty minutes later the sandwich arrived - it had the tomato and chutney with it that I did not want. I pressed on removing the chutney and tomato but discovered when I opened the second half of the sandwich that it contained the smallest piece of steak you could imagine without it being just bread and butter. I politely complained at the bar and was ordered a replacement sandwich and was promised a steak sandwich with onions. Twenty minutes later after much harrying my sandwich arrived. It came with chutney and tomato but worse still it came on brown whole grain bread. It took me nearly an hour to reach this point at which I got a refund; of course this did not compensate for a ruined lunch and rubbish experience. There seemed to be plenty of focus on taking money at the bar but little care what happened after that. I can see from the ratings this pub has (if only I'd read them before using it) that this is a poor pub with poor management who don't seem to care about repeat business but rely on a passing trade of mostly one timers. papaspec - 24 Dec 2010 18:48 |
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