Mops & Brooms — Restaurant in Hertsmere

The vibe in this place was off the entire time, coming from a British Asian group. As soon as we parked up and entered from the beer garden area around the back, at around 5pm, we received constant stares from a white-dominant crowd. All the benches were taken so it was a full crowd. We went inside and got some drinks but continued to sit outside. We were all massively uncomfortable throughout this time. Just to point out, we were the only Asian group there at this time and so we felt as though we stood out. Our booking was for 5:30pm so we went inside at around 5:20pm. We approached a waitress who was quite rude, had massive attitude and behaved as if she was forced to serve us. When we approached her regarding our booking, she didn't even acknowledge us properly, she walked away and expected us to follow her to the nearest till at the bar where she demanded to know the name on the booking. She then again walked off without saying a word. We didn't know what to do so naturally followed her in which she then grabbed menus from a nearby table and then walked further away, without still having said a word. We literally kept following her until we landed at a table and she stood by it as if to say this is your table. The table was in the far corner of the restaurant. The same waitress continued to be quite passive aggressive in the way she was answering our questions. When we were placing our order for starters + mains together at about 5:40pm, at one point a person in our group said out loud to the rest of us "Is that everything?", only for the waitress to reply "Well I don't know do I?!". We were all taken aback. What was the need? There was no laughter, no ongoing banter of any sort, it was a dead serious reply to an already tense atmosphere. 10 minutes after ordering, another waitress returned to inform us they've run out of fish so there are no fish options available whatsoever, this ruled out one of our starters and mains. Fine, so we changed those. Only for another waitress to come back 5 minutes later and say they don't have the relevant burger buns for the burger meal someone in our group ordered. Fine, we changed that too. The starters arrived about 15 minutes later and were mediocre - nachos and chicken bites.

After finishing our starters around 30 minutes later, another waitress came to us asking "are you ready for your mains?". The way she said it felt as though they hadn't even stated cooking our mains yet! We waited some more then at around 6:45pm, so over an hour after placing the order, the mains then arrived via another waitress. Chips were very minimal on multiple meals. I got the Hunter Chicken and asked for no coleslaw and extra chips instead, only for my meal came with a handful of chips. The burger buns on a couple of meals were extremely dry. Now for the worst part of the entire evening. We ordered mash and sausages, with beans, for my 7 year old nephew. The two tiny sausages were rock hard to the point we couldn't even cut them, they were massively over burnt and the mash was completely dry. His meal was also served with peas when we asked for beans. The waitress scurried off after serving the food so she could get the gravy she forgot, for the mash and sausages. When she returned with the gravy, we flagged these issues to her. The whole experience until that point put us off ordering any desert. At the end of the meal, we got the attention of a different waitress and tried to ask for the bill, the waitress walked away and returned with the card machine instead, it was bizarre! We managed to ask that same waitress for the bill again, but then she disappeared. In the end after waiting 10 or so minutes a member of our group went up to pay instead. Upon exiting, we saw one of the waitresses and she just looked at us and looked away. Really bad service overall. I would not recommend this pub to anyone. Just for perspective, we were served by 5 different waitresses. There was no staff diversity at all. None of them gave us a welcoming, friendly or helpful service. We will not...

UPDATE:

After an extensive refurb the place is looking really good. Went here for dinner, got seated immediately, very very polite and quick service.

Food arrived quickly and you could tell it had just been cooked. It is pub fare more than gastro flare, but the prices are indicative of this which is totally acceptable.

The place was immaculate.

Will definitely be popping back in. Enjoyable and well priced.

For a pub that serves food this is as good as it gets! I went here for a late lunch on a Friday afternoon with a friend. The place had a decent amount of people sitting and eating, from couples, friends and parents with young children. I got served as soon as I walked in and they bought the drinks over to where we were sitting. They had their standard menu and were also running a specials menu for Mexican food; all of which was explained to us by our smiling waiter. We have veggie sharing nachos to start with, and these were top. Normally nachos can lack flavour / dressing / cheese etc., but these were spot on. Generous dollops of guacamole, sour cream, and salsa - which all tasted home made and not out of a jar. The cheese was yummy and full of flavour, and there was more than enough as a sharer between two. My friend is extremely fussy (and although I love her to bits) she can be a right pain and come across difficult, so when we ordered our mains, she asked for something that wasn't on the menu at all. Typical of her, almost cringe worthy, however, the waiter asked the chef and he did it no problem. The mains came out and I was genuinely impressed for the standard. I had a chilli beef burrito and I have to say that this is the best one that I have had in London for at least a year. The staff were attentive without being in your face, which was really good. Fussy friend asked if she could have a mint tea in about ten minutes, (which induced eye rolling in myself as she could have just asked in ten minutes for it), however, as we were sat there chatting away, the tea got delivered to our table, freshly made. I have to say, very rarely do I put pubs in a 5 star category, but I really loved this place and have already ear marked it for several lunches that I have coming it with family and work colleagues. From what I could see they havve quiz nights, Father's Days specials, and bouncy castles in the grounds. There is outside seating in the form of picnic benches and also high round tables with chairs. There is more than adequate parking. Free Wifi. Toilets were immaculate. I can't recommend this place...

Mops +Brooms used to be my go to place ( I lived in the Village for 23 years).. Anyway booked for a meal at 17.00 this afternoon .Yes its a family pub .. but it was mayhem kids everywhere no parental control -was very dangerous in the car park.. We came in nobody acknowledged us - eventually I interupted a server before he went into the kitchen area to say we had booked .. He seemed totally at a loss as where we should sit .. We took an internal table ( very wobbly) a young lady then came over took our drinks order and then said something to the effect that a lot of the meals were finished!! which meant we had the choice of either Gammon or the veggie option- They werent doing steak/gammon steak due to the heat ....My wifes wine when she sipped it tasted like watered down vinegar.. we had just come back from Crete and to be honest the wine over there was far superior.. Anyway back to the meals , when they turned up, we discovered that the gravy was luke warm the two yorkshire puddings had obviously been cooked a while because and re-heated my wifes's one was over cooked - The gravy itself was over salty and tasted like Bisto...and was not nice.. The roast potatoes were exceptionally poor in fact they were basically unedable , my wife tried one and spat it out . I had mine but felt again they had been cooked a while and re-heated . The Gammon itself was okay - I ate all mine my wife didnt as she had a lot of fat on her pieces.. The carrots and peas were fine.. There was absolutely no atmosphere in the pub.. Its a shame because I used to love to come to this eatery/pub in my lunch hours or as a treat for a Sunday lunch. WOULD I COME BACK? No definitely not we felt the food was probably one of the worst experiences we have...