The Bitter End, Romford

I have loved this venue since I was able to get away with being served here in the mid -late 90's. It used to have a brilliant rock, punk and alternative vibe and a decent customer age mix.

However over the years people have walked away from this place due to chronically bad management, extortionate booze prices, and more recently, entry fees!

If you read through the previous posts the theme of the managers and staff being horrifically rude and discourteous to customers reigns supreme. It is utterly true.

Whichever Brewery owns this pub badly need to replace Andrea and Ray (the laughable 'management') as they simply do not have a clue, and clearly do not want to be there. Ray hides away upstairs and is rarely seen, and Andrea (the woman on the door as has been mentioned in other posts) is dour, miserable, negative, sour and bitchy. She also loves to tell off and berate customers like an old schoolmistress�and is not afraid over coming over to your table to do so - clearly she is in the wrong line of work! Showing such contempt openly has been a silver bullet for the majority of the regulars.

The price of the cheapest lager here is �3.20. Every pub in the area (the Golden Lion or The Bull) is considerably cheaper as well as cleaner and friendlier to boot! The quality of the beers here is also terrible. I have never heard about the taps or pipes being cleaned, and as there are so few customers the beer is stale and smells faintly of bad eggs...!

A pub which is failing as badly as this one needs to make sure that customers need to come back. Apart from maybe two or three die-hard regulars, the rest of the clientele are transient business who have one drink and will never return. The desertion of the business has led to people being rudely asked to leave way before 11pm, as Andrea has decided to �shut early�.

The juke box is good (The Sun, The Bull and The Golden Lion have exactly the same one though!) but made redundant by the bar staff lowering the volume so you cannot hear it, or depending on the time of night, turned off completely with little regard for how many songs people have paid for and yet to listen to. Simply put, if you want a jukebox and pool table go to The Bull 30 seconds walk away.

It should also be worth mentioning that there are no televisions in this venue so there is no scope for any sport being shown. Once again, go to The Bull or even The Lamb for this!

Simply put, if you walk into this place you will want to leave immediately. Everything about it is not what you would want in a pub. Being made to feel unwelcome by the staff, having to pay lots of money for appalling quality alcohol, and having to suffer terrible bands (they now advertise for groups as they are struggling to find anyone who wants to play to an empty room) is more than unreasonable.

This old dog might still have some life in it, but the owners will need to be shot!

12 Aug 2011 16:07