The Commercial, Herne Hill - pub details

Notice this pub on a few visits to Herne hill and thought we (Me & the girlfriend) would give it a try for a Sunday roast.

Good selection of drink (european lagers, real ales and cider) happy to see. very expensive.

The menu tries to lure you into a false sense of security with its Marks and spencer advert style descriptions of pretty standard dinners. We both went for the roast beef, came to £30 for 2 small cokes and 2 roast beefs. Quite pricey, hopefully the food will make up for it........

Out it came, 3 overcooked potatoes, pretty sure they hadnt been in a oven. they were mushy like they had been boiled?! The 3 slithers of beef where overcooked and had quite obviously been sitting on a hot plate for to long, yorkshire pudding was burnt, and the veg over boiled. Basically it was quite a tragic small and exspensive roast.

I did send it back, explained what was wrong and also asked for more. kindly it returned the same, with an extra mushy potato and some extra carrots!

I do not expect for much. A Roast dinner, is a pretty easy meal to get right.

there goes my hard earned cash in return for a stingy portoin of badly cooked food. I cant help feel slightly robbed.

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kieronrhys - 25 Sep 2011 18:17

I've eaten in this pub before and it's been good, but my meal there last night showed just how ungenerous the management is with their food. My £9 shepherd's pie was 95% mashed potatoe, with less than a centimetre of meat sauce at the bottom; in some places just mash and gravy with no meat at all. Plus a tiny portion of veg- a totally disappointing meal; just expensive mash.

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fipet - 20 Aug 2011 10:55

A great pub-with a few problems

Id been going to Herne hill for ages until I decided to give the Commercial a try-mainly down to my Herne Hill local other half having a chip on her shoulder about the place (she went in there once and they didnt have any ice) - and Im glad I did.
Until then I was a frequenter of either the Half Moon (cack range of beers decent local clinetelle) or the Florence (awesome range of beers braying posho clientelle)
The Commercial is the perfect combination of the 2 ..awesome selection of beers, ciders and spirits and a good mix of locals and slightly bohemian 'young professional' types. Its got real fires, sofas, the music is unobtrusive and in my experience the staff are always welcoming , courteous and sometimes suspicously unsteady on their feet.
The only downside is the hit & miss grub which can go from being brilliant one day ( usually when the place isnt busy) to be being utter crap (usually on a Sunday lunchtime) and I suspect this is due to the sheer amount of people ordering food and/or I suspect that the staff are at the booze themselves and are half cut by lunchtime
If you can get past the hit and miss food its, in my eyes anyway, a peach of a place.

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bigmeuprudeboy - 13 Jan 2011 09:10

A great pub-with a few problems

Id been going to Herne hill for ages until I decided to give the Commercial a try-mainly down to my Herne Hill local other half having a chip on her shoulder about the place because she went in there once and they didnt have any ice - and Im glad I did.
Until then I was a frequenter of either the Half Moon (cack range of beers decent local clinetelle) or the Florence (awesome range of beers braying posho clientelle)
The Commercial is the perfect combination of the 2 ..awesome selection of beers, ciders and spirits and a good mix of locals and slightly bohemian 'young professional' types. Its got real fires, sofas, the music is unobtrusive and in my experience the staff are always welcoming , courteous and sometimes suspicously unsteady on their feet.
The only downside is the hit & miss grub which can go from being brilliant one day ( usually when the place isnt busy) to be being utter crap (usually on a Sunday lunchtime) and I suspect this is due to the sheer amount of people ordering food and/or I suspect that the staff are at the booze themselves and are half cut by lunchtime
If you can get past the hit and miss food its, in my eyes anyway, a peach of a place.

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bigmeuprudeboy - 13 Jan 2011 09:10

Went here a couple of weeks ago as the menu looked good and its in a decent enough area.

That was a mistake.

Ordered a sunday dinner for my girlfiend and I which eventually turned up over an hour later (no apology) and was cold - not even luke warm. Sent it back and waited another 10 minutes for the microwave to do its work and when it was returned, half of it was still cold, and the other half semi-warm.

When the waitress came back to take away our partially touched plates and asked 'how was the meal?' we told her to which we received no comment or apology.

Probably one of the worst meals and service I've had in a long time and I certainly wouldn't go back.

Avoid.

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markyc - 26 Oct 2010 14:33

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