Duke of Wellington — Restaurant in London

I’ve been to the duke of wellington a few times. To eat, to watch football, generally thought it a nice place. This evening thought it the best option in Dalston to watch the Sheffield United v Manchester United football match with a few nice beers off the board. You come to expect as an estranged northerner watching football in London that not too many people are keen on Manchester United. For the away games you don’t have tickets for you select the “nicer pubs”, perhaps those you have to pay £6.50 for an ipa to avoid the football animosity. Alas, this evening, there were a remarkable number of folks from Sheffield in a Dalston bar. Taking great satisfaction in a result that clearly means a great deal to their football season. To be expected. What isn’t expected is that after an evening of paying £20 for three pints, the delightful bartender (bearded, long hair, admittedly hadn’t served me through the rest of the evening) sending me, a respectful patron, on my way with a lovely sarcastic comment about enjoying the rest of my evening. From other customers you obviously take this, from staff it isn’t acceptable. Whether you advertise as a football bar or not, it is pretty important for all staff to refrain from being rude to their customers. Pretty unimpressed. A review that isn’t going to make any difference I don’t think, but if you don’t call things out nothing changes.

Pretty...

I was recently splattered in ketchup by a busy member of staff. he got my coat, jeans and jumper. He apologised when I laid out my clothes on the bar to wipe them with tissue, but quickly blamed another guy he ran into. I wasn't offered so much as a free drink!

His more helpful colleague was nicer, she offered me a damp cloth. I've spent £20 getting all the stuff dry cleaned, the damage was a lot worse than I imagined! The friend I was sitting with has since discovered lots of ketchup stains on his clothes! It's not the spill which was the problem, it was the rudeness we were treated with right after.

The place is ok on a week night, but from Thurs - Sat is usually full of the essex crowd, ready to pop some pills in Dalston a few hours later. Expect tanked-up screaming chavs to crawl out of taxis every 20mins outside on a Friday.

The food has got better since the American-style popup moved in. Drinks remain...

The drinks are worth the visit but GOD do not come here for food. The fried squid comes in big flat slabs as if it's a fillet, and is so chewy that it slips out of the batter and requires the chewing power of a horse munching cud. Also, when you order something with a sauce - like the chicken wings with blue cheese sauce, it comes in a disregarded plop on the side like this (picture) - like something unsavoury that comes out of a man's nether regions. Also, we asked for cheese fries that arrived as normal fries. When we pointed out the issue, they reissued us the exact same fries re-cooked with artificial cheese liquid on top so they were like twiglets with wet cheese - it shows how the establishment treats its customers -...