County Arms — Restaurant in London

I am not often one to spend time to write reviews, but I was extremely disappointed with my experience at The County Arms.

This is my new local pub and myself and 11 other friends had a terrible experience yesterday (Sunday 14th July) for the Euro's Final. I booked about 2.5 weeks before the Final to ensure I had a good seat with plenty of space for my friends, once we settled that and eventually people moved from our seats, we thought we could enjoy the rest of the evening... but we were wrong.

The TV outside simply was not working. It kept cutting out, the speakers weren't functioning properly and we noticed this from 18:30. Myself and 3 of my friends had to keep notifying staff of this issue but nobody ever came back to us nor sort it. I appreciated they were busy and swamped with customers, so was happy to leave it until KO at 20:00. It still wasn't sorted by then and many people were irate.

Then it got worse... The County Arms cannot take responsibility for England's dismal performance on the night, but they can take responsibility for not serving people beer.

The bar was absolutely packed and only 4 (extremely overwhelmed) bar staff were working. Food took over an hour and a half and I suspect that had something to do with one of the chefs constantly coming out of the kitchen to join their mates for a cheeky little vape, rather than cooking food as per their job description.

Getting service at the bar was taking about 35-40 minutes. Because I didn't want to miss the footy, from about 20:15, I decided to order via the Young's app directly to my table.

An hour passes, and still no drinks. In my party of 12 people, there were 4-5 simple orders of 2 pints, for example. We then went in to the bar to see their whereabouts and were told it was around an hour for the drinks... not ideal, but it is what it is.

At this point, 2.5 hours have passed and I have still not received my drinks. Nor have my friends.

Having worked in hospitality, I appreciate that sometimes things go wrong which are out of your control and the last thing you need are irate and rude customers making you feel rubbish. We were very careful to be empathetic to the situation, but staff really didn't seem to care about it. They were coming over and saying "who ordered 2 Guinness?" Random people on nearby tables were just claiming any drink that was mentioned - how about bar staff use common sense and say "I have 2 pints for table 100 in the name of John", rather than just putting them down on a random table and walking away?

Me and my friends estimate that we have lost out on near £100 because of this.

Many other people were nipping out to the Londis opposite the pub and buying beers from there because they didn't want to wait over 2 hours for a drink...

It was an utter shambles and you've lost out on north of £10,000 due to poor planning. You guys knew you'd be fully booked, so why not plan for this? It is so short-sighted and frankly ridiculous to not ensure you have enough bar staff on and chefs to plan for the demand.

The place was also filthy - glasses everywhere on every table inside and the toilets were an absolute mess, but that's more the fault of idiotic patrons than The County Arms.

I would not recommend watching live sports at The County Arms because you'll likely be very disappointed.

Many people were getting extremely angry and aggressive with the situation and I do not blame them.

As this is my new local pub, I have visited a dozen or so times, but doubt me and my friends will be revising any time soon.

If you're going to charge nearly £7.50 for a beer and nearly £20 for a dry burger and chips, you need to offer a decent standard of product and service.

I hope this review helps other customers make alternative arrangements - I would recommend The Roundhouse...

Worst Sunday lunch ever? Possibly. Zero stars (if possible). Having visited here pre-refurbishment (the pub used to be quite good) we booked the County Arms a week in advance for 5 children aged 1-6 and 4 adults. Upon arrival, we were directed through the pleasant surroundings of the main dining room (which appeared to have been hired out to a private party) into the extension at the back. This is a much more compact room with possible the worst acoustics of a dining room I've been in. There are no soft surfaces meaning that all the noise of the kids (there were possible 30 stuffed into the room) bounced off all the hard surfaces creating an un-heavenly din that the adults had to shout over to try to hear. 5 minutes in and our ears were ringing. We were shown to "our" table, which was actually someone else's...the pub booking system had failed and reservations were in chaos. The table did have the benefit of being right beside a fire exit onto the "garden" which allowed the cold air and tobacco smoke from the smokers outside to waft over us every time someone opened it. We decided it would be wise to order ASAP as none of the tables we were near had any food on them at all. This turned out to be a good call, as it took well over an hour for our food to appear, which was considerably quicker than those around us. As you can imagine, during that time, our kids had become beside themselves with hunger (as kids do). Stress levels were rising as we struggled to shout over the din to entertain them. When the food did appear, it was a relief, but also a BIG disappointment. All the food was lukewarm, the helpings were pathetic for the price and it was obvious the plates had been sitting for some time. We did complain immediately but were not willing to wait for yet another hour for replacement meals. We wouldn't have minded all of the above as much if the manager had been apologetic, but when we asked to speak to them we were told she "was busy in the kitchen and too busy to leave to speak to us". I thought that was EXACTLY what she was supposed to do - to make sure the customers were happy. In the end, we refused to pay for our food - we settled by paying for the drinks we'd had whilst we had waited. This might seem like a reasonable compromise but We left with ringing ears and feeling very disappointed that the meal we had looked forward to had been a total flop. Would I recommend the County Arms? No - I'd actively discourage anyone considering this as a place to eat. It was a stressful and totally unpleasant experience. The pub is totally out of control and obviously unable to...

We chose The County Arms for our wedding venue and we are soooo pleased that we did.

The team were amazing from start to finish. Mikey who met us the first day we visited was so welcoming and made us feel valued before we even said yes.

The venue itself is stunning with so much character and various options for how you can lay the space out. It has both gorgeous indoor and outdoor spaces that can also be combined depending on the size of your party and what you are looking for.

Clara, the Events Manager was an angel and helped us plan and prepare our special day and made us feel like anything was possible. Looking over options and spending time making you feel a sense of investment from her and the team in making the day everything we wanted it to be.

The entire team, both management and the team staff providing service throughout the put are magic. Our guest felt looked after and commented on how great everyone at the venue was.

The County Arms offers various different packages and options for food and drink for you event or party and we definitely felt there was something for everyone. The quality of the food was amazing. Again, our guests commented on how great the food was on the day.

Phil and Bradley ran the day perfectly and had everything in hand from start to finish. We can never thank you guys enough. We felt like we trusted you both and your team. This meant we could enjoy our special day.

We would throughly recommend the County Arms to anyone considering it as a venue to have your event and especially your wedding as the team shown through with experience and made it the best experience for us from when we first entered to see the venue to the wedding day itself.

It is very reasonably priced and we have to say even more so after you have had the day and see how much the team invest in making it special for you.

Thank you County Arms Team. You all smashed it and we are now loyal customers who will forever recommend you guys for the excellent service you provide and the gorgeous space you...