The Telegraph , Putney Heath

I live in Southfields and while this is a 20-25min walk from home it's easily the nearest good pub to me.

However, it could so easily be a lot better. While the pub itself is (layout and decor), the beer is good, the food of a consistently high standard, the clientelle tolerable, the service has been pretty abysmal the last 2 or 3 times I've been there. The aussie bar manager (I think she is) is great, always friendly and cheerful, the same cannot be said of her other staff. Service at the bar is often slack-jawed and sullen, and woe betide anyone who dares to ask for a hot chocolate before 4pm on a Sunday - that's "against the rules".

Last night me and my girlfriend ordered food slightly before our friends. Their hot food (the generally very good burger and chips) arrived but they were also served their ice-cream dessert at the same time! Not a good start. To cap it off OUR food - a sandwich and a salad arrived about 40 minutes later (after I asked the waiter). Not only did he not apologize, but he said if we had wanted our food to arrive at the same time we should have ordered it together! As it was, we hadn't wanted it to arrive together... we just didn't want to wait nearly an hour for a salad. The pub was quite busy, but that doesn't excuse the late arrival of a salad and it certainly doesn't excuse the attitude of the meat-head waiter.

My other major gripe is with the mens toilets. This is, or at least aspires to be, a very good pub with a pretty good class of customer. The gents toilets are more in keeping with a skanky provincial nightclub.

I hope the bar manager reads this because despite the above, we still go back to this pub because of its great setting, garden, food etc. The quiz (first Tues of every month) is also good fun if you don't like your quizzes to be too serious.

7 May 2008 11:01