The Florence, Herne Hill

I used to espouse the excellence of this place to all who listened. Great food, good range of drinks, friendly crowd and dog friendly, however it now needs a sizeable boot up the jacksie (sp?).

The drinks are still good and the service willing if a little slow when the place gets rammed which is generally when the sun's out. Little Creatures pale ale is great, if somewhat expensive, and Erdinger on tap is always good. Wines on tap are also worth a look if your looking for a cheap but tasty enough glass to meet the standards of a good house wine. Being antipodean, I don't do ales so couldn't comment in this regard.

However, their food has taken a turn for the worse.

The steak burger is still juicy as heck, but the size of the hamburger has shruken to a point where it is enveloped wholly by the bun and would do better on a kiddies menu. The cod burger suffers a similar fate and has been this way for some time. The rest of the menu is uninspiring (chicken lasagne, completely unremarkable and has no place on a gastropub menu) and has largely remained the same for more than a year. The nibbles, foul, various forms of deep fried beige.

Of course this is a beer site, so perhaps these comments are out of whack, but The Florence passes itself off as a gastro pub, and one must judge it so, and it is currently failing on this point. Standards have slipped we went there last week and then haven't been for months before that such is the decline.

Was great, now only ok, looking forward to this plae recapturing some of its past glory.

26 Oct 2010 16:55