Crooked Billet, Iver Heath

We swung by this Pub today after a good session at the local Go Ape black park, and thought it looked OK for a late Lunch and a few beers.

After having to find and clear own own table, which did seem a bit odd, we hit the bar for a drink. The highlights were:

- 2 Pints of Guiness had to be returned because the "Keg was bad". The fact that they topped up the already half poured pints from the bad keg with the new one for another customer showed how much they cared.

- Being told that the substituted wine they selected for you was "Effectively the same", when one was white, and the other a Rose.

Unfortunately, we didnt cut our losses and leave, we stayed for a meal.

This is what we were served after an hour wait:

- Chicago Chicken - An absolutely annihilated breast of chicken in some form of herby ketchup. It was supposed to come with Bacon, but that never made the plate. It must have been with the Salad, because that too never showed.

- A medium-rare steak - It came out extremely well done with some vegetables that seemed like they had been under the heat lamps all week, it was promptly returned to the Kitchen. After 20 minutes waiting for another one, the order was cancelled. One of the fine waitresses came over when we were finalising the bill , wanting to know "Wot was wong wif the stake?", and grudgingly removed it from our bill.

- The sweet potato chips - Sounded delicious , maybe could have been if they ever turned up.

- The Teriyaki steak with Prawns - The only person in our party who had this, said "it wasnt that bad" , he's now at home with food poisoning like symptoms.

I've had some bad pub food in my time, but this, hands down is the worst.

Avoid at all costs.

30 May 2011 21:00

The Westbury, Kilburn

Up until last night we (a regular group of 6+ people in NW2) had night opinions of the Westbury and loved to head over there for a few beers in the afternnoon or a sneaky game of monopoly midweek.

Given the great times we have had there, we decided to book a set of couches for 7pm for 12+ people for a friends birthday, however we did have some specific requests, below is what was they provided to us as per our requests.

It is important to note that we booked a week and a half in advance and we have it in writing the confirmation of our exact request.

"We want to have Birthday drinks for 12+ people, however, we dont want to be in a pub that is showing the rugby"
- "Thats OK, we will not be showing the rugby", however, when we arrived we found the whole Pub had been setup for the rugby game, when we asked why they told us the rugby wasnt on, they said they had only decided that day to show the rugby.

"A set of couches for 12+ people from 7pm"
- We got a Table for 6 right in front of the bar, we challenged the reservation we made, and they didnt want to help us, even though there were couches booked out already for 8pm and those customers didnt show up until 9.30pm. 1/2 our party had to stand for the whole night.

In addition to these issues, we also had the following:

- The service was terrible, the cocktails were poorly mixed and it took us 25 minutes to have our tab paid.

- As it was a birthday, we brought a cake along, they said we couldnt store it in their fridge or kitchen prior to serving it.

- They permitted the smokers to congregate in front of the large open windows, filling the pub with smoke.

- Some members of the crowd were heavily intoxicated (women) and wandered throughout the pub for 2 hours groaping people until they were finally evicted around midnight.

After our experience last night, we wont go back.

14 Oct 2007 19:52