please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
My recommendation is to visit any of the other bars on Northcote Road in preference to this one. Aside from it taking them one and half hours to bring a bowl of chips to our table, I then had the very unpleasant experience of one if the staff agressively telling me I had to pay for two glasses of wine which apparently somebody had ordered who was sitting at our table before i arrived. Certainly not customer friendly, I will be choosing to take my money elsewhere in the future.
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Food nice, but was quite frustrating because they seated us, gave us menus, took our drinks order, served our drinks and THEN decided to tell us they had no brunch items available when 5 of the party of 7 were wanting brunch. Had we known, we could have tried elsewhere, but time was pressing so we reordered. I was then told after a further 10 minutes they had no pork chipolatas (although oddly they did offer to go and buy some locally!). MInd you, I blame my friend, who then revealed he had been the day before and had received no black pudding on his breakfast and was not informed until he complained it was missing.
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Went there last night (a saturday) for dinner and drinks for seven of us. Got a table fairly easily as it was only about half full. It was our waiter's first day on the job, and to be fair to him it was obvious he hadn't been trained properly. I've only been there twice and I knew the menu better than he did. First of all the drinks order came back completely wrong. A pint of Starpromen came back as a pint of cider with ice, and he didn't know the difference. Taking the food order was a bit laborious for reasons I've said. When the food arrived, it was half of one person's meal, followed 5 minutes later by three burgers, one of which was one we hadn't ordered. Mine was fine but the other two were stone cold. Two more plates came out a few minutes later and were the right ones, leaving two of our party without any food. He took their order again and disappeared off to the kitchen. By this point we were pretty narked off and went to see the manager.
He was rude straight from the offset. He said if food was cold we shouldn't eat it and should send it right back. All well and good but we'd been waiting a long time and didn't want to trust them with getting that right, so the people with cold food ate their's. He was defensive and arrogant, not a good manager at all. He said he'd "sort something out" on the bill but was totally non-specific, and said he'd go off to chase the food. Some 15 minutes later the last two burgers arrived and the waiter said our drinks would be free. Unfortunately the food which had just arrived was also sub-par; the buns had clearly just come out of the freezer as they were very cold to the touch on the outside.
Anyway between that and the fact that one of our party had had her bag stolen there the previous week, we will not be going back. We paid for the drinks and left, to go and be treated much better at the Fine Line over the road. All Bar One = Abominable.
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Let's just say that you'd be better off visiting the Pitcher & Piano further down the road.
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Gents toilet smells like a portal to hell.
Hand-dryer in gents hasn't worked for three months. God knows where the staff dry their hands, presumably on their aprons.
Outside seating area ok, but on my last visit only one out of five heaters were working.
Perhaps it's closing down as they're certainly not spending any money on the place.
Avoid.
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Newsflash!
This All Bar One has had a spruce up, with a stripped floor and lighter coloured walls. Quite why they feel they need to print flyers telling you this, I don't know.
On the up side, a few of the bar staff have changed and can be surprisingly friendly.
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Every other pint needs topping up - by up to an inch, no exaggeration. Otherwise inoffensive. Ronseal AB1.
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big_fat_barsteward:
I'm afraid from a beer point of view ABO is the same as Fine Line or Pitcher and Piano and Babel and all the other pretentious places along Northcote Rd.
Antone in the know goes to the Eagle and gives all the tossers a wide berth
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Thanks, Stonch - for disagreeing then going on to make my point for me...
Yes, it's a chain but it is trying to stock some interesting beers... unlike the Fine Line opposite which is as predictably dull as you might expect..
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I ask you - how can somewhere be OK if it "boring", "soulless" and indeed a chain bar?
Mind you Northcote Road ain't too hot far bars and pubs so on a crawl round here you could do worse.
And that is saying something.
anonymous - 26 May 2006 17:59 |
For a boring, soulless chain bar is actually ok. Decent enough food and ok if you're with a group and making your own entertainment.
Perfunctory service in general - no real personality, other than Harry one of the managers who i met here a few weeks ago.
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One of a succession of bland bars along Northcote Rd. The only reason to go in here is to eat - food's good - but would not bother otherwise
The only other useful function this bar serves is to keep braying "Between the Commons" types out of decent boozers like the Eagle
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Well put jjsnotjj. Personally I agree entirely and nowadays wouldn't darken its doors. Gets very lively in here though so if you were on the pull you would inevitably pop in on an evening out in this styleless neighbourhood.
anonymous - 11 Jan 2006 22:27 |
YET ANOTHER characterless chain environment - the purpose of which is only to help the self-important rugga playing plummy types feel safe... and trick the aussies into thinking they're being 'classy'.
still, it's unashamedly a 'bar' and not a pub... so its pretensions only stretch so far.
it's over-priced too.
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unusally for an AB1, this is a swinging joint and the vibe is always on good times - full of yuppies but not in an overtly overbearing way.
Service is generally very good at this destination bar. Don't arrive late or you'll queue on a weekend.
evers - 29 Aug 2005 15:46 |
Inkeeping within the All bar one brand, this has all the usual which makes an all bar one an all bar one, a wide variety of wines from across the globe, a great selection of continential beers such as Erdinger, Leffe and bitburger with a great food menu, aimed at sharing almost tapas style. this bar is situated on one of the coolest roads across london with so many bars/ restaurants and markets on, its a must go see venue for the summer.
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Amazingly for a chain pub this has really good staff. Table service is a real bonus. I spilt my pint and instantly three staff cleared up the messs and got me another beer. I'm sure All Bar One never used to be like this - big improvement.
Phil - 10 Sep 2004 13:32 |
