The Silver Cross, Whitehall

I cannot condemn this pub strongly enough.

I am not a pub connoisseur, but I have eaten at enough to know what constitutes good food and service and nothing here even came close to that.

The staff member who dealt with us was rude and disinterested, to the extent that our order was taken incorrectly despite it having been read back to her more than once.

Upon receiving a barely warm starter (at the same time as one of our two main courses arrived), we began to eat and found ourselves picking around undercooked sausage and prawns that could only be described as 'suspect'.

When the second main arrived - a scampi and chips for my girlfriend - it looked suspiciously indentical to the cheese burger and chips that had been cooling on my plate for the last five minutes. After sending it back we were confronted by the same charming member of staff who had already undermined her earlier (baffling) arrogance by incorrectly entering a quite simple order.

We were tutted at and it was suggested that it was somehow our own fault that she had been unable to take our order properly. We asked if we could just have what we ordered - her response was 'not really', as it was 'too late'. We asked for a refund of the dish and were grudgingly obliged - although not without what had beome the customary tutting.

For our order to be incorrectly processed and the response not to be 'I am sorry, I will make sure you have your food as soon as possible' is bad enough, but to be treated like a nuisance for expecting the food that we paid for is nothing short of astonishing.

I would advise anyone in the area to give this pub a very wide berth, and if the management happen to see this perhaps you should look for staff who have the temperament and wherewithal to do their job properly.

2 Jan 2008 10:59