East Dulwich Tavern — Restaurant in London

The worst dining experience I have had in a long while. Booked to have a lovely Sunday roast. Our table was in the corner and we were trapped in as there was no room to get out once the table next to us was sat. We ordered starters and mains. The waiter even asked if we want the starters first, which we replied yes. We had our starters for less than 5 mins and our roasts arrived. We sent them back saying we wanted to enjoy the starters first. The waiter kept watching over us to see when he could deliver the mains that we watched sat on the pass for over 15 mins. No surprise that as soon as we finished the cold mains arrived, which we immediately sent back. When we received our food again, it hadn't even been attempted to be replated and looked like it had been microwaved as the gravy was now crusty around the edge, and saying that still luke warm The waiter never asked how our food was and we had no service what so ever. We wanted another drink but no one came. Perhaps because they couldn't physically get to our table with the other table blocking access. We sat with our plates for over half an hour until finally he sent someone else over as I guess we were now a problem table. We were still hungry as we didn't eat much of our cold food and were going to order a dessert but again were not offered any menus and decided to leave. We actually went up the road and had a lovely roast and dessert washed down with a nice bottle of wine. Save your money as you will be very disappointed. Plenty of better...

Tonight I came by to try the EDT's food for the first time as I'm a bit bored of my local's menu. I arrived at 21:50 and asked if the kitchen was still open, I was told it closes at 22:00. When I asked the blonde young lady for the sausages she said she didn't know if the kitchen was open, she approached the chef and after a brief chat she came back to tell me it was closed (21:52). When the young man with brown hair down to his shoulders saw me leaving disappointed, he approached me and asked me what happened, I replied I was denied service by the chef and his colleague, he was quite ashamed by their colleagues' misbehaviour so he went to the chef to try speak some sense into him as the kitchen was not closed yet, he wasn't successful. He sincerely apologised and offered ways to amend his colleagues' lack of professionalism, I did not want anything but the sausages so I left. That young man showed remarcable care for me as a customer and for the pub's standards, I think if he had more authority to demand the chef to do his job you would count with a new customer leaving happily tonight instead of one stating his disappointment...

21-07-21 Returned almost a year since the last visit - given how utterly awful that was. Very happy to say it has returned to what I remember and to the place I enjoyed visiting👍

This is the place you visit if you want to explore and taste different beers in this area - everywhere else is compared to EDT as this is the de facto standard.

Great selection of beers and wonderful atmosphere (a bit too much Thu and Fri evening but that’s most places I guess).

Update - 01-Sep-2020 Got a response from EDT. First thanks for your response. As indicated I have had many good times there but the treatment we received was particularly poor. First the staff in question implied that we were lying and we never placed the order, then the apathetic attitude when we asked him to check, and finally the terrible cold shoulder when we simply asked to settle the bill and leave (like some disgruntled teenager) left us in no doubt that we were not welcome. Perhaps he was just having a bad day, but he shouldn't take it out on the customers even if that...