BITE user comments - tonyandrachel
Comments by tonyandrachel
The Grouse and Claret, Belgravia
Sadly this pub is not only closed, but walked past yesterday and it had been demolished, so no hope of a reopening.
14 Apr 2011 09:58
The Top Of The Morning, Victoria Park
Quite nice interior and friendly staff but no real ales on, pretty much a Guinness or lager kind of place. Food was overpriced for what you get.
15 Jan 2011 15:05
Upmarket pub opposite Victoria Park. Had a very enjoyable couple of hours in here, but probably only because we managed to bag a couple of seats at the bar, where I was able to enjoy some lovely Redemption brewery beer. Another couple of ales were on too. Had we not got those stalls, though, I probably would have been disappointed. Much of the rest of the pub was turned over to high-priced table-service food, so there is little of a pub atmosphere and not much room for people seeking to just have a few beers.
15 Jan 2011 15:03
Love this pub. A survivor of the demolition of most of the neighbourhood to create Mile End Park, walking in you take a step back in time. Very friendly barstaff, good mixture of customers, 2 decent ales on. Live jazz Thur to Sun eves.
Only thing I would change is that food (sandwiches) are only sold Mon-Fri lunchtimes, would be great to be able to have a bite to eat other times.
15 Jan 2011 14:58
Small but perfectly formed. Plenty of space on the footway outside for drinking if the weather is OK. Busiest early evening when offices are chucking out
15 Jan 2011 14:53
Ha! Ha! Bar and Canteen, Victoria
Horrible place. Sadly I have been here numerous times owing to the fact I work in the building above so work colleagues with no taste often go there. They do at least serve London Pride now (originally there were no ales at all) but it is very poorly kept and served.
Service - awful. Staff seem to be rude, slow, stupid, and appear to be trained to serve seriously short measures. Have to get pints topped up about three times.
Prices - ridiculously expensive.
Toilet - seemingly about 5 minutes walk away.
Food - poor, overpriced.
Avoid it like the plague
15 Jan 2011 14:52
Dragged here by work colleagues; horrible place, no real beer, uncomfortable, expensive, full of obnoxious people drinking expensive lager
15 Jan 2011 14:46
Very very good range of beers, nice atmosphere, nice landlord. Well worth a visit. My only issue would be that the food doesn't appeal at all; it's fancy and pricey, I would prefer to see more basic and affordable food available.
15 Jan 2011 14:44
Great range of ales here, and friendly staff. Very much serves the local working population though so if possible best to avoid the early evening rush. Closed at weekends.
15 Jan 2011 14:41
Have been here twice, both times early on Friday evening; the first time it was moderately busy - could get a table but most filled, so good buzz without being a hassle. The second time it was totally rammed, at the same time. Not sure which is more representative! Beers were fine but on the second time the service was struggling to keep up. Didn't try the food but I like the idea of pizzas in pubs, will be back to try it.
15 Jan 2011 14:38
Nice little pub. Slightly odd in having so much of the floor given over to music but has a real buzz downstairs. There is a quieter room upstairs; a little too quiet at times but can also have a good buzz when it's busy. There's even a hippy corner where you can lounge at a very low table! Fun for a bit but not too long, there's a reason more pubs don't make you sit cross-legged on a rug!
15 Jan 2011 14:36
Very nice backstreet local, but welcoming to all; staff and punters all very friendly. Lovely old Trumans tiled on the outside, and cosy Victorian decor inside. Well worth visiting.
15 Jan 2011 14:33
The Charles Dickens, Southwark
I have only popped in a couple of times but have greatly enjoyed it when I have. All the ales I had were in very good condition.
15 Jan 2011 14:25
This pub is really much better than you would imagine from the street! Nicely appointed inside, a couple of ales on plus a huge whisky list if that is your thing, and good, friendly staff. Only real gripe is that the layout means it can get quite packed in front of the bar where groups prefer to stand to chat, even if there are plenty of tables free, so it can be slightly hard work getting through the pack to get to the toilets and back
15 Jan 2011 14:22
Large basement pub with a range of ales to match. Good atmosphere, can get busy at times but well worth a visit.
15 Jan 2011 14:17
The Boot and Flogger, Southwark
Quite an atmospheric place. As you can tell this is a wine bar so they have no draught beer, but they do sell a small range of bottles (including London Pride). Not the cheapest place but probably worth a try to see somewhere quite different from the typical watering hole. (It is also the place where Tory MP David Davis was famously overheard talking about the 'Brokeback coalition' last year)
15 Jan 2011 11:25
This should be my heaven, pub in Borough with good ales and serves proper curry. The first curry we had there was fantastic and though we'd found a real winner. Next couple of visits the food was fairly poor though. So decent pub, great concept of pub with proper curry house attached (they have their own restaurant upstairs but also serve food in the pub below) but hope they raise the quality of the curry. (Non-Indian food is also available)
15 Jan 2011 11:21
I last reviewed this pub 6 years ago and little has changed. Still a wonderful building with a (now larger) jetty over the Thames, with huge potential, but expensive, food is poor and very expensive, landlord miserable. Was closed over Christmas when a few of us did actually try to have a pint.
15 Jan 2011 11:16
As others have said, this is a large pub and is therefore difficult to create much of a buzz, but it is at least tastefully decorated, clean, and they have reasonable ales (usually now something to go with the standard IPA and Abbott). As to service, it isn't great, and they can be somewhat swamped if it turns out to be a nice day, because the terrace overlooking the Thames is wonderful, and everyone flocks there on a sunny weekend afternoon. I have found the Sunday carvery very good; not the cheapest around but it's good quality, and food standards seem much higher than a major carvery chain I recently visited.
15 Jan 2011 11:11
Very much a locals' pub - not necessarily a bad thing, it's probably a useful community pub if you live on the nearby estate, but not one to tick off for visitors. Its annual highlight is the London Marathon day when they lay on a good DJ on a scaffold overlooking the route, so a fun place to watch the runners go by with a drink in hand and some good banter. No ales though.
15 Jan 2011 11:06
The pub has now reopened since its extensive refurbishment!
The first bar you walk into is the public bar, and it feels a normal Bermondsey pub, busy this week despite being the very first few days of business for over a year. Walk to the rear of the pub though for more seclusion, and the view which makes this place very special. For seats on the terrace over the Thames go through the door on the left as you walk towards the back part of the pub.
Upstairs is a posher room with softer furnishings and, again, that view, but from a storey up. Definitely a place to sup on the walk between Rotherhithe and Tower Bridge, and worth the effort coming to visit- ideally at sunset for full effect, just don't all come at once and take my seat!
Still Sam Smiths brewery, so unfortunately no real ale, but Old Brewery Bitter is only �1.70 a pint, so I shouldn't complain!
Didn't see any evidence of food during the evening, cannot vouch for lunch or the weekends (sorry, didn't ask).
5 Jul 2005 22:29
Lovely pub; relatively recent conversion of old warehouse, but beautifully done.
Best time to visit is at dusk on a sunny day, when the sun bounces off the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf. Gorgeous.
16 Jan 2005 19:12
The Churchill Arms, Kensington
Nice and well run pub.
Only major problem is simply that it is a victim of its own success. The landlord has been rightly praised for getting it right, but unfortunately you will struggle for space if you go at anything like peak time. Suggest that it's one best visited at a quiet time of day.
16 Jan 2005 19:07
I am a real fan of historic old pubs, as any of my regular drinking conpanions could testify. But this pub, although a child of the 1990s, has been very well done; although I am sure it would be criticised architecturally as being a London warehouse/wild west saloon hybrid pastiche, I think it functions well as a pub.
It just seems to work, and it's a pleasant pub to drink in- there are lots of tables without being cramped, and as has been mentioned before, the pub really comes into its own on nice summer (or spring) days, when the riverside terrace fills up.
Unfortunately the food does let it down; haven't been bowled over having tried it several times, which is a shame, as it lets the pub down.
16 Jan 2005 17:53
Unfortunately I have to agree with many of the comments here. This should be one of London's best pubs; I used to visit when I lived miles away and it's one of the reasons I came to know Rotherhithe and now live here. It is steeped in history, has a prized interior, and has a jetty out over the River Thames.
But rarely do we go to the Mayflower, as the prices are sky-high, the ales are very poorly kept, and the food is not real pub food.
Please, change the management, serve a decent pint, serve pub food (not overpriced restauranty-food), and bring the prices down. I know that on the face of it that will reduce income but the pub has potential to pull in a much bigger crowd if only the pub offered people what they want, so I don't think it would actually harm profitability at all.
16 Jan 2005 17:39
The Windsor Castle, Kensington
Lovely pub, though as said before it is pricey, especially the food. But has to be done in summer, as the beer garden is the best for miles.
I don't understand how anyone can miss it, referring to some of the posters below; it's outside ;-)
Either go straight into it through the gate from the street on the side of the pub, or from inside go to the left of the bar (from the punter's perspective) and when you leave the last part of the bar continue straight on, past the gents on the left, and it's right in front of you. But please don't go there on sunny weekday lunchtimes, cos we don't get there till about 1 and it's difficult enough getting a table!
16 Jan 2005 17:29
Not bad... generally have decent range of ales on, and the food is very good (typical T&J Bernard menu).
On the minus side, looks and feels very much like a shop conversion, with the open plan layout taking away any sense of cosiness or atmosphere. Also very smoky unless you're sitting very near the door, in which case you'll get regular blasts of cold air (in winter) as the layout does not provide any shelter from the door into the pub's seating area.
16 Jan 2005 17:18
Have finally got round to trying this pub, which I have meant to for a while as I love the idea of a floating pub in the docks and I can just about walk there.
They have kitted out the boat well- I think they have done a good job; it's a shame there's no real ale, but I guess there are great difficulties in cellaring this on a boat, so the choice of IPA or Ruddles in the 'creamflow'-style isn't too bad for us bitter drinkers.
However I have to rate this pub a low score to account for the massive problem they have with smoke. I went there in the middle of a quiet afternoon when only about 1 in 4 tables was taken, and yet I can't describe how smoky it was.
I will not return until smoking is banned or they give some serious attention to their ventilation. (Or possibly in the summer, when you can sit outside.)
PS if you're disabled, I would treat the disabled-access noted above with caution; I wasn't looking out for this myself and only read that when I got back now, but from what I can remember there were steps to get in, a very sloping floor and extremely steep steps to the toilet. Now I'm not complaining- that's what you get for going on a small boat built long before disabled access was a consideration. But if you're in a wheelchair or unsteady on your feet a long trip to the pub could leave you disappointed.
16 Jan 2005 17:04
When it was open, absolutely fantastic view; I think sitting in there over a pint while you watch the sun set over Tower Bridge is just magic. Slight shame that the council estate next door might put off some visitors but it is a great stopoff if you're walking along the Thames Path.
It has closed for major refurb; shut in the Spring and currently (30/11/04) still looks a long way from completion. But they've had the roof off and the entire interior stripped, so they're doing a solid job on it, not just a bit of paint and rustic knick-knacks. They've also rebuilt the wooden balcony over the river which was shut as it was getting too rusty. So don't delete it yet!
30 Nov 2004 21:13
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Marie Lloyd, Hoxton
This pub is now closed. No idea if it will reopen
15 Jun 2011 18:50