Cutty Sark — Restaurant in London

Mr Dean Smith

Bromley

🤮🤮🤮AVOID THE CHRISTMAS LUNCH. ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MONEY ON A SPECIAL ENGLISH DAY. 😔😔😔

LETTER TO: The Cutty Sark Greenwich

To the manager, chef and brewery

I write this letter with despair.

Months ago we booked and paid for a Christmas Dinner for Christmas day - 25th December 2025.

On that day our experience was awful. It was not special in any way and should be a cause for concern for your establishment. We definitely will not return and we have already told many people of the poor experience - mostly because friends and family ask…”how was your Christmas dinner at the Cutty Sark pub?”

To be frank most of the problems came from the kitchen. We have eaten all over the world in backstreet diners to 3 Michlean stars. Your head chef or whoever was incharge of the kitchen Christmas day is arrogant, nonchalant and dispassionate. I am imagining they are not British and if they are they need to take cooking lessons in British and English food and the fantastic culture we enjoy.

In no particular order we have the following complaints:

The vegetarian main did not come with a yorkshire pudding. Most people were English in the Cutty Sark on Christmas Day and they expected a yorkshire pudding - not what the chef wants them to have or not to have. On your menu all mains come with a yorkshire pudding!

The timings were so long between courses except for the desert that came out 5 minutes after the main. This is the course where the timing should be longest between servings.

40 minutes for amuse bouche - 1hr 10 minutes for the starters - 2 hours for the main - desert 5 minutes after main - 45 minutes cheeseboard. Totally unacceptable.

The sorbet - which English people expect to be a frozen bitterish serving - was more like an apple sauce - apparently after enquiring with the waiter the chef wanted to give his version of it - very arrogant.

The potatoes and parsnips were soft and cold and I could have and have done them 10x better myself. The brussels were over cooked too.

The Christmas pudding was lame. Just a brown blob - no green leafs or set on fire or no added detail - a bit like the tired and lame decorations that were thrown up.

The ice cream with the Christmas Pudding was melted - I had to ask for another ice cream.

The sourdough toast was not toasted properly - probably a European version of toast - actually quite disgusting to have bread toasted for about 30 seconds.

All descriptions of the Amuse Bouche are plural - look at your own menu but only one of each came out - learn to manage expectations please. Or give what you offer on your menu.

The establishment you run must do so well off of tourists and passersby that you do not care about your British and English crowd.

We will never come back and will make sure this is copied into my google reviews as 1 star.

Nothing you can do will change our opinion, review or feedback to friends, family and extended family. It is a one off day and it was certainly off. Your head chef needs sacking and has caused you more damage than need be.  If I was not with my family I would have spoken with them directly - they are useless and very arrogant in their attitude towards what the customer wants.

We must add that Louis the waiter was excellent.

A copy of this will go to:

The head chef

The manager

Youngs Brewery

Yours...

Went on a Wednesday to catch up with friends, two of us knew the pub and loved it anyway so was nice to introduce no.3 though she got a bit stressed cos suddenly when she thought she knew where she was going, her map started sending her somewhere an hour away (neither of us knew there was another cutty sark! How dare they 😁🤪😆✨️) I was a little surprised that when I arrived at the bar (behind people) I couldn't see any youngs beers.. there were 2 and the original was perfect!) We had also intended to use the app but because one wasn't drinking she wanted soda and lime, that wasn't an option on the app.. tbh this was the first time the app had worked for me in my third youngs pub so kudos for that (there may have been an update involved).. We did have to wait a little while for mains but I wonder if that was because we had ordered a few small dishes including a sausage roll for me (not the tastiest I've had but not greasy which was definitely good); both the fish and burger were enjoyed though there was some surprise and possibly confusion at the nduja with the fish..this had also been described as nduja butter but was definitely a spoonful of pure nduja. We had been sitting outside by the river which was lovely until a quite 'lively' group came and sat next to us - had an issue with the umbrella then a glass fell on the floor spraying both contents and glass everywhere with only a very delayed apology from one of the party who then moved to the table on the other side of us.. after making sure that the glass was cleared away as its a public walkway with often dog walkers and children passing, we went indoors where they had a quiz going on. We found a space downstairs but as we were still chatting decided to head upstairs. It was busy and as we tried to head up to the top floor we were politely stopped and directed to some central tables as we were just having drinks and there was an 'event' upstairs... it was a lovely evening and I couldn't help but reminisce back to teenage years of regular Sunday visits to this wonderful pub.. it didn't disappoint! Will definitely not leave it so long before...

Probably not worth it. We went here on a recent trip to London because it was included on an outdated list of London classic pubs and because we were able to get a table at late notice even though many of the other pubs on the same list were booked out. The floor service upstairs was excellent, views very nice, staff attentive and friendly, food comes out quickly. Mushy peas definitely not mushy - dry. Fish pie didn’t have a lot of fish in it. On leaving I took a photo of two serves of fish and chips on the service bar between the kitchen and floor and a slurring bar tender with food and spittle around his mouth accused me of taking a photo of the waitress. I was initially confused by what he was inferring and passing him off as an oddity I continued to the bathroom. On coming out from the bathroom there was quite a small leprechaun like man in a chefs outfit standing near the kitchen who told me I needed to delete the photo. I said “are you kidding me, I took a photo of your fish and chips” and he told me I needed to ask permission to do so. I laughed at him because his demeanor was one of a small angry and confused man with no purpose who was trying to flex in front of the waitress like some kind of tiny gladiator so I sent him back to the kitchen and told him to get on with his work and perhaps focus on mashing the peas properly. What would have been an overall great experience was tarnished by some faux bravado on behalf of a couple of guys trying to impress their female colleague. This pub was half empty for evening service and we were able to get a late booking but now I realise that there was good...