Crown Tavern — Restaurant in London

Our family decided to book here for our Christmas get together. We all haven’t been together since 2019, so wanted it to be special. Half of us are local so we’ve been here a few times before in smaller groups and enjoyed it. So made sense to book here. We booked a paid the deposit of £180 for 18 people and told we’d be seated in an area called the snug, which holds 20 people and preordered our food as requested and was told all our food would come out together.

Upon arrival there were other people sitting in the ‘snug’ a group of 8-9 people (drinking not ordering food), so we didn’t have enough space for our family to sit. (They were on little lower coffee tables) . We raised this with the staff and was told there was nothing they could do as the person who took the booking wasn’t in and we could have the rest of the space when they left. That group left around 2hr 1/2 later. We asked the staff if they could help us move tables so we could sit together. Well that was like the blind leading the blind and ending up doing it ourselves finding appropriate dining tables in the restaurant and brought them to the snug along with more chairs.

When our food came out, it was lukewarm and dry. Not sure if it had been sitting out under heat lamps for 2hrs or what? But wasn’t impressed to say the least. Most of us ordered roasts, some of us had red cabbage, some of us had carrots, some of us had one carrot and some none despite all having roast dinners and some of us had one potato or none. We also ordered sides pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese half of those didn’t arrive. & The children’s roasts… I would have thought they would have made the more ‘child friendly’ a roast with broccoli & peas, roast potatoes and carrots perhaps. Not a sliver of carrot which was burnt, leeks and red cabbage which had a liquorice taste to it. My children aren’t really fussy with food and did try all the food but weren’t really keen especially as the beef was like chewing an old boot. I ended up giving them most of my dinner Which was chicken and then my potatoes as they didn’t have any. You might ask why we never raised this with the staff? We did, and nothing was resolved or fixed just a few confused teenagers (half dressed in tracksuits) looking lost for words. No one checked on us during our meal to see if everything was ok but brought sauces out when we had all finished. But that point was we defeated, fed up, hangry and really disappointed as this was meant to be our first time together since 2019 and first time all being together sadly without my Dad (who had passed this time last year).

My aunt (5-6 months pregnant) who arranged this meal was actually quite upset and stressed about the whole experience of the meal. After the meal she raised everything with the manager about how disappointed we all were in the service and how some dishes were missing as well as the quality of the food. He took no responsibility and said it wasn’t his fault and also told us we had all the food there and even stormed over searching for the bowls for the pigs in blankets, aggressively telling us his staff brought them over. Why would we lie about it? It was incredibly unprofessional and rude of him to accuse us of lying.

So safe to say they ruined our family get together and it was complete shambles and none of us will be returning again or recommending to anyone.

So if you are thinking of booking here with a group size over 7+ I would steer clear because you’ll be disappointed. Perhaps try the Lord Northbrook on...

I’m really indifferent writing this review because this is our local pub across the road from us & we absolutely love going there for food & footie. Usually it’s super great that’s why we decided to host our little girl’s birthday party there! We mainly needed the space. Their menu didn’t cater for kids and they were super flexible with that which was great. There were some set up issues (tables, chairs, linen) in the morning that I had to sort out myself despite be in a leg boot! But again the staff were accommodating & friendly but not so helpful! But my biggest disappointment of the evening had to be the below photo of £180 worth of food for 10people. I may be wrong and please correct me if I’m but that would mean a plate of a couple of square triangles, 1 chicken goujon, 1 fish bite, 1 thin slice of sausage roll (if that) and a bit of chips for £18pp. I did speak to the manager and he did send some more chips and sandwiches up but that wasn’t what was agreed nor paid for! Infact we agreed double portion of sausage rolls upon booking instead of the brownie bites! All in all it was soooo embarrassing to even have to speak to him about something like that! Soooo very disappointed and feel really let down and ripped off!

Edit: I’ve attached an email confirmation of the booking which was also agreed face to face. Can you please tell me exactly what more expensive substitutes there was? As it was never highlighted at any point nor does it justify this awful display of food on the day! The food you brought up later was 1x small plate of egg mayo sandwiches and 1 x bowl of chips! Still not worth the £180 for 10people.

It’d be nice to just apologies and take responsibility for this and the lack of setup and cleanliness on the day. Please don’t tell customers the room is available from 11 when it isn’t and you don’t have the staff to help! We were very low maintenance on the day & didn’t require heating, staff so as an establishment you’ve made quite a bit of savings on our booking already!

TBH an apology or even a gesture of goodwill would have just resolved this! But this is what we get for being good people & not even disputing paying the outstanding balance on the night!

Terrible service & management!...

We were so excited about the reopening of this pub last year as it is right at the top of our road, so perfect for drinks and weekend lunches, we hoped. Without going into lots of lots of detail, after our third visit, by which time we had established that the staff were in need of some training and experience, the drinks were massively over priced (think West End prices) and the food, was good, not great or amazing but also expensive we, despite all this, booked to go for dinner. Long story short, they were to able to serve us due to numerous issues in the restaurant which they did not manage well. I complained and we were offered a return to the restaurant for them to "make good". Again the food was good ... not amazing (chocolate pudding aside), but then came the bill, with no mention from the Manger who was by now standing outside smoking of the offer to comp the meal by way of apology for the previous issues. We have not been back since, and today (not for the first time) walked past the pub to go to the other gastro pub down by Lee Station. What has prompted this review after so long was seeing only one table busy in the restaurant at half one this afternoon (Sunday) and a very quiet bar tells us that we are not the only ones to now give this pub a miss. i really wanted this to be our local. We eat out most weekends and have not once, considered a return to the Crown, going further afield to Greenwich or Blackheath. Lower your prices, sort out the staff and then try to get the locals back in! Our daughter goes to a local school and I know from talking to other parents that we are not the only ones to feel that is over priced and that the staff are in need of some...