Crooked Billet — Restaurant in London

If you beat a path to the Crooked Billet you'll be rewarded by the discovery that, together with its nearby sister pub the Hand In Hand, it offers open space aplenty on the green in front, making social distancing much easier during this Covid-challenged period. This is where most customers opted to stay on the very warm summer's evening when I visited, allowing our party to sit inside without concern about crowding. It must be noted however that inclement weather conditions would make such health-protection measures more challenging, given the modest amount of internal space.

The staff were, without exception, friendly, helpful and accommodating. The Young's 'On Tap' app was simple to use, facilitating service at the table for both food and drinks without the need to approach the bar.

Just a few caveats. For someone who enjoys real ale, a visit to this tied (Young's) pub will leave you pretty underwhelmed. Furthermore, the unexciting menu is limited to standard pub fare, albeit well prepared.

My principle caveat, however, is cost. Having become accustomed to a modest outlay for food and drink under lockdown, this, my first outing to a pub since rules were relaxed, came as a genuine shock and made me question what added value the pub was providing for me. A space to sit down with friends to enjoy some food and drink, for sure; but was it better than I could do at home? As I cast my eyes across the socially isolated groups spread out over the green and on distanced tables inside, I lamented the absence of the pub community, that disparate group of people, coming together at random to enjoy an evening of conviviality, not just with friends, but with the others, thus far unknown. That was entirely absent, bringing the question of cost and value-for-money into sharp focus.

Of course, the same will be true of almost all hospitality venues at this time, not just the...

The Crooked Billet for many years has been a wonderful family-friendly village pub. We have visited many times over the 14 years we have lived in the area. Well Saturday 08th February 2025, we went to the pub and found a table. After we had made ourselves comfortable, we were met by one of the staff to say, sorry but children are no longer allowed in the pub area. Apparently a relatively new policy. There are some tables over there and he gestured toward the back. We walked to the back and there were no tables for 5 of us, not that he tried to help us find one after moving us. We then saw an empty booth table and as we were about to sit down another staff member rushed over and said sorry but this has just been reserved we were about to put sign and clean it.

I asked them, whether they could then please tell us where we can sit and where the pub began and ended (imaginery line) and they did not know and could not tell us (great I know) then went to find out from colleagues, they came back and said I have a table for you in the back of the restaurant area, which really does not have the same feel as sitting and having a nice drink at the local village pub on a Saturday afternoon.

We sat and had one drink but at that point felt so unwelcome that we said we would rather go next door to The Hand in Hand and so we left.

We were very welcomed at The Hand in Hand so will be going there instead in future.

By the way, this was on a Saturday afternoon, and believe from a friend that they encountered the same the day before on a Friday afternoon even when the pub was...

I had a booking yesterday but my friends were 50 minutes late, so I went in alone to wait for them at a table.

Arriving at 7.00pm, I waited in the tiny queue behind a couple for one of the waiters to seat me at the table I'd reserved. The couple was taken care of, but I waited another 15 minutes in front of the waiters without anyone looking after me.

I finally decide to ask to be placed at my table myself. It's now 7.15pm.

Once at my table, nobody asked me if I wanted water? A drink, or to order anything? No cutlery either. On the other hand, the tables around me were well served and emptied, and the waiters came to make sure the customers had everything they needed.

At 7.30pm, I decided to go and ask the waiter if I could have something to drink? I ordered a Ginger Ale. 7.40pm, I still have nothing to drink so I go ask again if I can have a Ginger Ale?

7.50pm, my Ginger Ale finally arrives (a carafe of water too), as do my friends.

I was the only non-white person, and the only one who was completely ignored by the waiters. Was it a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

I swallowed my drink in one gulp, and my friends and I decided to go to the pub next door rather than stay there. My heart wasn't in it at all... Before that, I wanted to let the Manager know why we'd decided to leave.

He apologized and didn't charge me for my drink. That was...