The Jack Horner, Tottenham Court Road

I went into this pub twice last week (Nov 09) because I was staying in the Grafton on Tottenham Court Road. The first night I went in I had a pint of Discovery, which was okay, nothing fantastic. The second night I ordered another pint of Discovery. I was served by a bar manager called "Ernani" - judging by the name on the till. After serving me, Ernani disappeared. When I tried my pint it tasted like water. I called the barmaid "Clarissa" over and told her that the pint was no good. She asked if I wanted anything else and I asked for a pint of ESB, she went away around the other side of the bar, obviously to talk to Ernani. Ernani came round the bar and in full view of me, started pouring himself some Discovery and tasted it with a puzzled expression on his face. He then came over to me and proclaimed that he had tried it and could taste nothing wrong with it. I told him it tasted like water and did not taste like that the night before. He then started to argue that they had just put another barrel on. I said, well maybe you haven't pulled it through properly, what's wrong, don't you believe me? I was getting very annoyed by this stage. You expect bar staff to take your word for it, especially when they haven't got the experience of what a pint should taste like, as most of them drink Fosters. He then went off again and made a telephone call up stairs, then after finishing his call, started pulling off more Discovery. (I had been in the pub about 15-20 minutes by this stage and still hadn't got my pint. In the end I just accepted another pint that he poured which tasted only slightly better, as I was getting pretty sick and tired of the whole thing. He was determined that a was not getting a pint of something different, even though that was what I had asked Clarissa for. Presumably he didn't want a 10p differential in his till receipts at the end of the evening! I will not be setting foot in this pub again. Terrible bar staff.

14 Nov 2009 10:18