BITE user comments - theStickler
Comments by theStickler
The Filo (First In Last Out), Hastings
What with the brewing and that you'd expect a little bit more of a welcome, but forget it stranger. Don't show any interest either, you won't be rewarded. Maybe the brews'd taste better if the pub conveyed some pride in what it does. Smells a bit, too.
3 Mar 2007 01:14
Please don't let the big guys take this pub away. Proper South London back street drinking hole.
15 Feb 2007 02:24
Dodgy scum mix with other people. Folks drink here coz it exists and it's open. Been the same since it was The George Canning.
This pub is on a bad ley line, man.
15 Feb 2007 02:16
It's nicer than you'd think. Lovely mad landlady plus what everyone else here's saying.
15 Feb 2007 02:09
Really good. Only go to there eat but definitely go. All good.
15 Feb 2007 01:57
Great little boozer. Best used during quieter periods. Doesn't get friendlier when busy, just territorial. Also E. European staff not labouring under misapprehension that smiling is punishable by death, for a change.
15 Feb 2007 01:54
Also note great big smelly bin handily located outside front door for extra panache.
15 Feb 2007 01:46
Staff are friendly but know nothing and have been taught nothing about working in a London pub. Food's up and down but mediocre to start with. Ale's indifferently kept. Great tiled wall that was uncovered during refurb is a nice feature but hardly due to good management.. Wooden walled 'conseratory' at back of pub reminds one of a Nazi death train, not nice.
15 Feb 2007 01:44
No pool tables (that makes 0 in the whole of WC2), they were removed 3 months or so ago according to the disinterested barmaid. The beers on offer are the usual fodder, plus one guest, served up to look like foaming dishwater gone flat at just above room temperature in a fairly warm room.
Punting itself as a late 18th century tavern is cheap considering most evidence of this has been ripped out and replaced with pony old bits of trim.
Also, it's not too much to bid your punters goodbye when the pub's 90% empty and there's no one to serve, is it?
15 Feb 2007 01:29
Sunday (evenings) a good time to go. Live music, inexplicably the far superior band's on earlier than the other one. Even more inexplicably the place is full of Irish folk. Beer's in good nick. Young staff are shy but polite. But like someone said, "all chains are evil."
15 Feb 2007 01:12
The Coach and Horses, Covent Garden
You can't knock it. Polished copper pipes in the bogs says it all.
26 Jan 2007 02:44
Great pub. Sandra's alright, always been kind to me. Great juke box, often topped up by Sandra. Beer in good nick, fresh flowers everywhere and loads of silly looking wallybags to point at and discuss loudly and openly without fear of assault.
26 Jan 2007 02:38
Not sure this place should be reviewed as a pub. The whole shebang is set up as an eatery with very little space for leaning and drinking. Once found a hair in my food and they pretended it wasn't there.
Nice people, though.
The pub opposite's much worse.
26 Jan 2007 02:29
The ales are incredibly well kept, the food is home made, reasonably priced and available all day. The guvnor runs a tight ship and the staff don't leave every five minutes (always a good sign).
The only down side is the place gets jam packed with suits for a lot of the day, but this is Westminster after all.
19 Oct 2006 13:42
Nice friendly family run pub, the most instantly appealling of the three that ply for trade on the main drag. Four of us ate lunch to mixed feelings. We tried two starters, both delicious but very stingy portions at (almost) London prices. For mains there was a whole crab salad and John Dory that did what they said on the tin. The other two weren't that impressive. Our wretched vegetarian friend was presented with an unappetising small portion of white beans in a weak tomato sauce and no one when ordering grilled sea bass expects ONE fillet on top of twenty odd cherry toms all cooked to varying degrees.
The local ales are kept in tip top condition, there's Addlestone's cloudy cider on draught and even a local white wine on the list.
The staff are attentive and warm but imagine my horror on hearing that I'd missed last orders at 2.30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. I was just getting up a thirst and would have happily parted with my lolly in exchange for sweet, sweet beer for a while longer.
18 Oct 2006 11:31
The Lamb and Flag, Covent Garden
Another fine looking pub with plenty of history and little architectural quirks.
Unfortunately the ales are kept in appaling condition and the prices are a rip-off. �2 for a soda water, anyone? The staff are divided between strident yet poorly informed young foreigners and misery guts, old lag Covent Garden curmudgeons.
Me and a mate left our warm, unpleasant unfinished pints. If the staff aren't even aware that they're serving up slops in the first place you'll only upset yourself more if you try to complain. Oh, and despite the cash that pours over the bar, the pavement alongside is divided from the drinkers outside by a dirty old length of washing line, undetectable to the untrained eye and positioned at the ideal height to send one sprawling onto the cobbles. No doubt breaking one's hip or jaw.
18 Oct 2006 10:57
The Seven Stars, Chancery Lane
This is one of my favourite places. The beer is kept in excellent nick though rarely if ever served in the appropriate branded glass (this is my only criticsm, ok, and bangers and mash without gravy). The food is nearly always good, it's better in the winter and any complaints are always seen to. So what if the service is a little idiosyncratic, I've never witnessed a member of staff be rude without provocation. If you want obeisence you've come to the wrong place, bubba. If you don't like yer pub packed then go at two in the afternoon or at the weekend when you're pretty much guaranteed a table. Go alone and one invariably ends up chatting to really interesting people. Once I ended up engrossed in a WW11 bomb map an American Londoner just happened to have on him.
frankblack, I couldn't agree less, Roxy is a predictable drunk. Bringing cheer to those of that persuasion and short shrift for rude, miserable or stuffy gits (see ianfreeman). ianfreeman, being employed as a journalist (oh, noble profession) does not qualify anyone as an expert in banter and repartee (in fact the opposite , having time to consider and refine what they wish to say).
I am a regular and a local and treated accordingly. Roxy has no need to 'surround herself with cliquey types", people gravitate towards her naturally, there's nothing to be scared of. I've never seen so many spiteful opinions about such a great pub. If one would prefer a boozer where the proprieter is never seen and the staff are as bland as a steamed pollack, they are situated throughout London in great abundance.
This is a cracking pub.
I am not a member of the legal trade nor am I a close relative of the owners.
18 Oct 2006 10:30
Been going here for 15 years. Same management now as then. Great looking pub inside and out. Huge, reasonably priced lunches all with cheese on them, it would seem. A predictable selection of poorly kept warm ales and, if it's busy all the bottled beer is nice and warm too. This boozer is often understaffed by disinterested, unsupervised agency folk or indolent goldbricks (although the cleaners do a good job on the brass . That said, there's a good mix of local residents, wide boys, workers and your more adventurous tourist. If you grab yourselves a table and are fortunate enough to collar a barman/maid who knows how to pour a stout, you can have yourself a decent evening and maybe make new friends with a Norwegian pub enthusiast. Nice little function room upstairs too, usually hired out by very unfit looking masons covered in fag ash.
18 Oct 2006 09:05
The Ship and Shovell, Charing Cross
Great beer here. Two pubs for the price of one. If you like beer, stop in The Ship and Shovel and have some.
3 Mar 2007 01:22