The Rake, London Bridge

Great selection of beers, good rotation of draft offerings - but best avoided Thursday / Friday evenings unless you like a crush. Pleasant outside deck, but if that's full you have to stand out in the car park.
Re the 'smell' issue - it was in the air when we were there and I'm quite sure it came from the bar toilet, which I later heard was filthy and had no loo paper. The male loos are apparently maintained [or not] by the market as part of the deal with the bar, because there was no space to build one of their own. There's a new loo block being built next to the deck.
Unfortunately, on our visit the staff seemed a generally miserable bunch and more interested in chatting to each other - the american girl who served us could not be bothered with a please or thank you. In fact, the service standard is much the same in their market shop. We got the distinct impression from the large ginger chap there [the manager?] that unless you could talk to him on a similar level of knowledge, it was beneath him to spend any time with you. I also observed him joking with another guy there about a female customer who had [presumably] asked what he considered a daft question. C'mon guys - we don't all have extensive beer knowledge and this is a great chance to educate people and maybe make them regulars rather than scare them off by your superior attitude and snide comments.

17 Apr 2009 13:54