The Hop and Berry, Islington

This is the worst pub I have ever visited. Warning. Do not go.
You know how it is. You get a text from a friend saying they have just been to see a movie and are having a drink in a pub just around the corner, would you like to join them. You get a call from another friend asking what you're up to that evening so you tell them to meet you in the Barnsbury. Before you know it a small gathering has become a medium sized gathering of an enormous fifteen or so people, all buying drinks, some even buying bar snacks or chunky chips. Most pubs would be overjoyed at this level of custom. But not the Barnsbury. "Are you expecting any more guests?" we were asked as if we'd just fouled the carpet. "We don't allow big groups. If you come here again we won't give you a table." Now there were two empty table next to our group, there was no queue at the door, people weren't banging on the window demanding service, we weren't drinking heavily, shouting, carousing, raping or pillaging in fact some of our group were so crazy they were ordering cups of tea or bottles of overpriced coke because "they were driving!" Outrageous behaviour I hear you all cry. So what was our crime? "Not ordering food. Apparently, being a "gastropub" they make most of their money from food. Well at �7.50 for two unremarkable drinks I find that a bit hard to swallow. And if complaints about their absurd helpings are anything to go by the food is pretty hard to swallow as well. Now a quiet word in our ear or a polite sign on the door stating that they are a "gastropub" and prefer small groups who don't mind small helpings would have been acceptable, but to take our money and then interrupt and ruin our evening with rude, sniping, abrupt, curt and downright offensive comments is outrageous and I will never drink, eat or even breathe the air in this place again. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

23 Oct 2005 13:05