please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
A tale of declining standards and wastes a tremendous location cheek by jowl to London Fields. The ales were poorly kept and mediocre and after taking back a half of porter to the bar, the initial reaction was mistrust (always a no, no). The music was the kind of wallpaper funk that was the scourge of bars in the mid nineties and it's attempting to attract a youthful, hipster clientele for whom other places do it better. Not terrible but a shadow of what it was.
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It's lovely but for the price - £4/ale - it ought to keep up with the quality from the rbewers doing open days under the railways arches. Had a pint of Truman's Lazarus, tasted like squash...
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Went here for a couple of drinks the other night, had a really great time. its changed soooooooo much! cant wait for the sun to come out so me and my friends can enjoy the outside decking, its definitely one of my fav pubs now! really yummy food too! So happy that its finally been taken over by some one who obviously cares about the place.
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Probable plants
katejoy 6 Jul 2010
and kjchapman 9 Jul 2010
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Good food, Good Beer, Great service, Adnams in an Adnams glass. Good pub. A tad pricey, but overall, good.
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Much improved after new management! Have been an infrequent and critical visitor to this pub over the last few years with frustratingly slow,careless and unfriendly service characterising this pub which has a great location overlooking London Fields. Prior to this welcome change, many would say it's been living off this over the last couple of years and missed a BIG trick. I've just had a chat with the barman who says that changes are in full swing and i noted that the service has improved 1000pc which for people who know what i mean is not an exaggeration! Vastly improved food menu and the kitchen is actually open! Lets hope they get the toilets sorted soon... Keep up the good work.
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I work 3 days a week in london and after being sent off to hackney (for the first time) i looked for somewhere to grab some food, and i stumbled across Pub on the Park. Food was great, Service was prompt and all the staff were really friendly and Chatty. Defiantely would go there again!
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Bloke behind the bar told me they are starting the BBQs up again which - if you remember how good they used to be - is a good thing. Seemed to be a bit of shake up in the kitchen too though looking at the menu it's going to be pub food not any fancy stuff thank god. Football was on last weekend which meant there was a good atmosphere, hope they can keep it in the winter as I'd definitely want to go back. Fed up of snobby pubs!
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Pub itself is okay. The service is dreadful and possibly the worst I have experienced.
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London Fields CC still drink in Pub On The Park and have enjoyed many a good evening, and daytime in there for decades, and long may that continue.
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Could be such a great place with its location right on London Fields and close to the station, but sadly it's tarnished by the terrible and rude service. I was ordering a pretty big round but the barman didn't acknowledge any of what I said, so I repeated the last drink I ordered and he looked at me agressively and said "Yes, I heard". Yeah, so why didn't you acknoledge what I said, then? On top of that they're really really slow and unhurried, no matter how busy the place is. If it wasn't for the location (it's even visible from the train) this place wouldn't BE busy. Resting on it's laurels.
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If you've not visited for a year or two, don't bother!
One of Hackney's finest pubs has descended into a dreadful state. The ale is ineptly kept, and the staff are the rudest around, with a sadly inflated view of their own importance.
Also, the toilets are a disgrace.
Even the loyalist of punters, the London Fields Cricket Club, have now taken their post match refuelling to the recently reinvigorated The London Fields, where 'customer service' is not considered an anathema by the management.
A sin, and a great shame!
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i agree with the post below, the bald guy is a total tool. very rude.
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I spent an agreeable afternoon in the garden bit a couple of weeks ago; beer was quite acceptable but a bit above what I'd expect to pay.
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I have noticed that the new regulars of this once wonderful pub are now morons. They are all skint socialists who like poncing cigarettes and discuss how to make the world a better place without contributing anything to it.
To all of these morons who have taken over hackney � go home you�re not wanted, your embarrassing.
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I have just returned from Australia and was a regular 18 years ago, Thursday 9 April I ordered a pint of London Pride and was charged 5.05p thinking that was odd and not fimiliar with beer pricing paid that amount.
The person who served me was a blonde Polish girl. The next pint was 3.05p and the person who served me was a male. Not wanting to ruin my night I didn't complain.
My way of complainig is not to ever use that pub again until it has new management.
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This could be a great pub. Instead they couldn't keep a decent beer if they tried. I've been in here few times over the last couple of years in order to meet friends when I'm down in London and every time I've had to complain about the beer. It's always been replaced by another, different pint but with a look of incomprehension, never with a smile. The locals are a strange lot too - right up themselves.
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9 months after my last disappointing visit to the pub I once called my favourite in London, I returned to meet friends in the Pub on the Park. I tried both the GK IPA and Adnam's Bitter, both were very poor, the former being a little winey and the latter like dish water (bearing in mind I'm a Suffolk lad). Service was OK but they now have a cash only policy which seems quite ridiculous in this day and age.
Dissapointed, again.
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Beer is shite... and Hoegaarden is over �4 a pint. I couldn't believe it, asked to see the bar tariff, baldy said there was none - that's illegal for a start.
With all the people drinking their beer on the park, my theory is they know everyone goes home with the glass, so they jack up the prices. We certainly did. No way I'm paying that price without something extra to show for it. Deal?
Otherwise, I could have left a bitter taste.
At the end of the day, look around you, bordered to west and south by a couple decent sized gangs...this pub isn't real life, it's like a small gated community the life tourists have built for themselves...just go somewhere with real people, real beer and real prices instead.
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Bar staff seem to only serve their friends even if your next in line and you stand patiently with a smile. Bah.
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I have to agree with the majority of reviewers about both the bar staff and the badly kept ale. There is very high turnover of staff, which is never a good sign. The ale is so average that it's better to stick to lager in there.
The setting is the making of the pub, and on sunny afternoon, it's a lovely place to relax on the decking or sit out in the park (although if you're doing that, you may as well just buy some tinnies). Weekends can be crazy there, although like all pubs, it's less busy since the smoking ban.
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Don't bring flowers into this pub - the barman will nick them.
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I visited this pub during the 2006 World Cup in which England looked good to reach the semi's (no luck though) and was really pleased by the service - even though it was packed to the rafters.
I thought the general location, weather, service and chatty punters made my day. In fact, it was one of the best times I've had around Hackney/Shoreditch as our group then visited a pub round the corner and ended up at the Light bar for a David Mancuso gig upstairs! Belter of a day out!
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I visited for the football when england went out of Euro 2008. They were doing match special fish and chips, as the previous comment mentions, they came wrapped up. It wasn't a fish and chip shop special, just a piece of warm translucent battered fish and thin chips. It was an experiment apparantly that hopefully won't be repeated, and not by me
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We went to the Pub and the Park recently, it was my favourite pub when I lived locally. I bought a pint of GK IPA, it was bad but I drank it. I bought a pint of Adnams, it was quite undrinkable. I asked to have a pint of Pride in replacement for the Adnams Bitter. The manager was called (bald headed geezer), he suggested that I was wrong about the condition of the beer, that the Adnams was good and had been selling well (please bear in mind that was born with the smell of the GK brewery in BSE and am V familiar with Adnams) He begrudgingly replaced the Adnams with a Pride. I was quite offended but held my tongue. Later that evening a friend ordered fish and ships. It came wrapped in paper, novel. It was more than 50% raw. The same manager came over and apologised saying that it was an experiment that I had gone awry. He offered my friend a half a pint of beer in compensation. My friend looked blankly. The manager offered a pint of beer. My friend agreed. It was a sad day as the Pub on the Park could be SO good. As a footnote I should like to say that I have never believed the food in this pub to be any good so have never eaten here.
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Great location. Err thats it. A great disappointment
anonymous - 1 Nov 2007 06:57 |
Folks, WHY WAIT SO LONG AT THE BAR WHEN YOU COULD BUY TINNIES on Mare Street, SIT YARDS AWAY AND STILL USE THE PUB LOOS (if necessary)? Never understood that about the Fields.
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I disagree entirely, I was in there last week and the barstaff couldnt help enough - one guy was at the other end of the pub, rushed over, got behind the bar and i had my pint in my hand in a couple of minutes
Great location, especially now the smoking ban is in place, near the tube, great beers and great ambience
Top marks.
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This pub really has prime loction for summer drinkers. However it is really let down by the bar staff serving there. Between four of them you'd think they'd be able to handle the number of customers waiting but no they couldn't! Not because it's impossible but because they just can't be bothered. I thought my date had abandoned me at one point but no it had actually taken him HALF AN HOUR to get served.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall during these guys interviews. Are they that rude & laid back even at the beginning or does the owner personally request these traits?
I was almost tempted, as a barmaid myself, to get behind there & sort it out.
anonymous - 4 Jun 2007 12:01 |
Yep, bar staff are the most disinterested lot I've had the misfortune to come across. The place is a licence to print money in the summer, but they're just not on top of their game.
And the toilets are, frankly, appalling.
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If it weren't for the terrible service I had here, I'd be here every weekend through summer! I love the setting, the large decking area and the fact they will serve take-away drinks so you can enjoy the park. The pub is pretty well maintained, clean, bright, well presented and has a good atmosphere. Toilets need seeing to, but for males at least, the situation isn't bad.
I went here over Easter to watch the cricket (another bonus as they have a big-screen). All was good until I wanted to have "a beer"..
Unbelievably I started my beer "hunt" at 1pm, not until 2pm did I find one. It took two attempts just to get to the bar and then once there about 30 minutes before I got service - thanks to the inexperienced bar staff.
Someone who seemed like the head barman had to keep "reminding" this "barman" how to patrol the bar and serve correctly... apparently he had a very short memory.
By the time I got my service it'd just gone 2pm, just in-time for them to tell me the kitchen was closed for lunch. Even though the kitchen was "closed", food continued to flow regularly for the next two hours, at which point we decided it was faster to walk across the park and buy beer from one of the Broadway Market pubs.
Disappointing, I hope they read these and do something about it.
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Gone well downhill. Hopefully Brendan will get in a decent bar manager this time and turn it back around.
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I have to agree with the below comments. Pub On The Park has possibly the rudest and most disinterested bar staff I've ever come across before. On our last visit there (last in all senses of the term), we waited at the bar for, literally, 15 minutes waiting to be served whilst other punters came and went all around us and the bar staff chatted amongst themselves. I don't quite know what it was that we did to offend them into ignoring us, as we had just stepped in off the street at 5pm of an afternoon, but obviously is was a heinous crime.
Also, whilst I'm here, they REALLY need to do something about the ladies toilets. No locks, pitch black (light bulbs are readily available from most corner shops), toilet paper being stored at the peak of hygiene (the wet floor) - overall an experience i don't wish to repeat.
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I was in Hackney and went to this Pub on the Park which is possible the worst pub I've ever been to. Not purely because of the cheap, nasty and fat bacon that looked as if it had been boiled, but ALL THREE staff members were so, so rude and they acted as though they couldn't even speak or understand plain English when I complained. I must say it is a real shame because what makes it a really horrible pub is the staff working there. This is because my friend ordered a BLT sandwich and chips, which came suspiciously quickly and there was a horrible curly hair on one of the tomatoes. The chips (�2.50) looked and tasted as though they had been soaked in fat and oil.
I thought this was really unacceptable especially with the sandwich having a curly looking hair in it...so I complained. I was very polite and approached the bar lady with this and she shouted at me saying 'go to the kitchen!' I thought ok someone it having a bad day and just carried on, this time tried to explain this to the older two ladies that were responsible for making the food and serving it. The lady with the lighter hair began shouting at me 'where's the hair' she removed it and continued to dismiss my complaint....also pretending that she could not understand me and even acknowledge why I was approaching them.
So I left the kitchen and that pub....it nearly ruined my whole day! I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be going to that pub again and I hope other people don't either....purely because of the staff. I would rather be shot then have to visit Pub on the Park in Hackney.
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It was ten years ago today that I started work at POTP. Back then Barry Roach was the licencee & Brendan (can't remeber his last name was the owner). Nyall McGuinnes was a fellow worker at this time and Simon (Chef) O'Connell was the kitchen guy. If anyone knows the whereabouts of any of the above (excluding Brendan) please pass on thier contact details. Bill.
kervo - 21 May 2006 02:44 |
Went there for the first time with a few mates on Easter Monday - seemed pretty lively; busy with decent atmosphere. Ordered some food, which arrived incredibly quickly - perhaps too quickly. My chips weren't cooked and were still hard in the middle - you could see this just by looking at their pale complexion. I immediately asked the waitress to help me with it but she walked away. My wife then took my plate to the kitchen and was given a huff and puff before having my plate swapped. Plate #2 was not much better - the burger was tiny and half-cooked. My friend's chicken burger seemed only half cooked, too. All of us hardly touched our food and when a different waitress came to collect our plates she asked if everything was OK. I replied 'No, the food was terrible.' She looked at me askance and asked if we wanted replacements. I said 'No, but a refund would be useful.' She took our plates and never returned. Just like we won't be returning to this pub.
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Nice pub. Friendly manager and staff, although sometimes under pressure when it gets busy. Good mix of drinkers, the new Hackneyites and some local piss heads. Good beers as well. The Guinness is well presented and the guest ales are usually very good (Old Bob being a recent decent). New jukebox is a bit of a let down. They should take an example from the Prince George up the road. Also need the acoustics sorting.
BigSi - 25 Nov 2005 09:58 |
First of all I have to say I have just seen the Pub on the Park on the news this evening (both ITV and CHANNEL 4)and it looks great. I think the owner has done the pub proud. Still the best pub in East London by far especially in the summer.
"Sad Pete" you are sad and your comments are irrelevant.
Regards
Hard Drinker
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went there yesterday and the red bob (or was it old bob?) was excellent. Shame I had to work this morning.
Way to smokey for kids though, and to ward off any potential abuse from blackboru, the crowd was convivial as well.
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Still good, but used to be much better. Can't understand why people buy lager in plastic glasses to drink on the grass in the park - the off licence is much quicker and cheaper!
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Yeah yeah yeah. So only 'new' Hackneyites have kids eh! Get a grip. A significant number of the kids running wild around Pub In the Park would scare you to shiite.
Anyway, the beer is good, the crowd convivial (though remind me to piss on your shoes in the toilet redrocket) and the potential large for a cheery/ balmy evening.
Did have a health and safety issue relating to the food a while back but they seem to have 'ceaned up' their act.
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Lovely pub for a warm summer evening. Occasionally spoiled by new-Hackneyites bringing along their screaming progeny
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Seems sad that not-so-very-long-ago this was perhaps the least assuming, best pub in London. Anyone with a memory and an interest in fringe-location drinking houses will remember the pre-facelift POTP, now all that seems to remain is the structure and the bar, even the old 'London Fields' station signage has vanished from behing the bar. I'm not one to stand in the way of progress (DKelly'll tell you), but a leather sofa in the POTP is akin to an Eames chair in the Wetherspoons on Bishopsgate! Roll on the summer is all I will say (at least the Summer Ale/Pride is still great!)
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Good all-rounder and great in the summer, although can get a bit manic as the effects of drinking all day in the sun kick in! Food is of the old school stodge and grease variety, order at your peril!
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Gorgeous pub on the edge of London Fields park. Superb in the summer when the large decking area is usable and you can even take your beer out into the park and watch the cricket (make sure you ask for a plastic cup though). Lovely big windows and a massive Black Eagle mirror from the Truman days.
A personal fave in London.
Dan - 29 Sep 2004 12:38 |
This is my favourite pub, great atmosphere great times has by all.
Dan Tobin - 8 Sep 2004 14:42 |
Absolutely appalling roast dinner on a Sunday. Unsure as to whether it was just a bad day but won't be returning for food as it was truly shocking!
Dave - 7 Jun 2004 07:36 |
I remember the Queen Eleanor when the Rockets used to play cricket outside, and Bobby Weekes,(Pauls father)was a medium paced left arm bowler.
JohnnyOG - 30 May 2004 11:06 |
this is a superb pub! everyone there puts in the work of trojans. ask any regular and they will tell you, potp is not just a pub but an extension of your favorite place. In a good pub, the beer is quality. In a great pub, the beer is good and the settings are pleasant. Potp has all this, plus the little things to make the experience the greatest there is. For an even better night, have a drink with Steven.
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Not a bad pub, bit pretentious but you kind of expect that these days in the East End. Absolutely appalling roast dinners so avoid them like the plague!
Phil - 17 May 2004 07:52 |
fist went to pub on the. in 1985, when it was the "QUEEN ELEANOR" nice old couple ran it,only 4 or 5 people in there at the most busiest,only thing left is the big mirror,no idea where barry's gone is the gallagher brothers still talking scottish shite in there? and is rocky still barred from the kid's paddlling pool? hope to return in near future all the best .scouse tommy xxx
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came in here the other night after some artsy/tacky birds showed me where it was, nice pub , fairly camp but not in a innapropriate fashion, music was good, serving staff very affable, probably will be a local of mine soon
kev - 11 Jan 2004 06:18 |
does anyone know the whereabouts of Barry Roach the manager of Pub On The Park.
Bill Kervin - 31 Dec 2003 00:58 |
I think it may have changed hands now so not sure if new owner is a nob jockey or not. The recent renovations are generally ill-conceived but the huge Truman mirror is still in place and the London Pride is still very good. Plus, I understand the ladies toilets are now fit for use. Continues to show football at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon via Scandinavian satellite channel which should be applauded given the price of an Arsenal season ticket.
ck - 12 Nov 2003 13:13 |
The renovations have made the place a bit poxy inside, the music is usually shite, but on occasion some music makers have started jamming - i remember a fiddler, an accordian all sorts, but it was a great night. Interesting mix of people, and it is the best place for a drink on a gorgeous summer day!
Locks - 19 Aug 2003 11:17 |
lovely pub but the ladies loos are boiling hot and last time i was there they had a power cut and you had to go to the loo in the dark - gros.
whys the owner a nob jockey
sad pete - 15 Aug 2003 17:35 |
excellent atmosphere, no hassle, good range of drinks and brilliant on a summer's evening. Only 5 minutes walk away from the stonking Dove as well.
toby - 30 May 2003 17:18 |
Lovely view & beer garden completely marred by the absence of good choice of beers, and the clientele are - well, you don't want pointlessly offensive comments so I will just say that I would say there's a golden opportunity here for people selling underarm deodorant.
James - 12 May 2003 11:53 |
Gorgeous pub on the edge of London Fields park. Superb in the summer when the large decking area is open and you can even take your beer out into the park and watch the cricket. Lovely big windows inside too.
My personal fave in London.
Dan - 18 Feb 2003 16:48 |
