The Freemasons Arms, Hampstead

I suppose in order to get this review posted, one should say that the location of this pub is unbeatable. It has the kind of indoor and outdoor space which most pubs (and beach resorts) could aspire to in a fantasy carve up of the heath.

You can delete this paragraph but it would render the first paragraph nonsense. I stop off here on the odd meander to the Heath.... once every couple of months. Each time, I convince myself that the conceit of this place must be thanks to the misfortune of employing barstaff whose torpitude is some kind of redeeming feature over their inability to recognise the basic building blocks of customer service. Unfortunately it seems to be a pre-requisite requirement.

Patrons stand like straggling extras in Shaun of the Dead waiting for the barstaff to serve them. My will to wait had almost ebbed into the bottom of the glass, when I got a refill. Perhaps that is why so many people were ordering pitchers.

This is customer service at the bottom of a barrel. Please dispatch the beer police and have them all detained.

I tried to

30 Jul 2008 23:02