The Express Tavern — Restaurant in London

I had a really bad experience with one of the bar staff who would not even begin to consider that she might have made a simple mistake even when I was willing to put it behind us.

When I first arrived they said there was a problem in the kitchen and they could not serve food until it was resolved but we could order now and once the issue was resolved they'll start making the food. I didn't mind that too much, it happens.

I order a margherita pizza and a meal for my girlfriend as well as a few drinks for the table. The woman who served me keeps on getting distracted in the middle of my order and I keep having to try to get her attention again to finish my order.

Again still not too worried at this stage, we sit down and wait patiently and eventually my girlfriends meal comes out, I assume this means the issue in the kitchen was resolved and I assume my pizza won't be far behind, my girlfriend finishes her meal and my pizza still hasn't arrived so my girlfriend asks one of the servers about the pizza. The server apologises and shortly after he brings a peperoni pizza out to us. Not the pizza I ordered but I'm not one to complain and I just eat the pizza.

A little while later the woman at the bar who I ordered from says that my order did not contain a pizza and that I had eaten someone else's pizza. At this stage I'm pretty sure I did order a pizza but I decided to be diplomatic and I say that I very well could have forgotten to order the pizza so I'll come up and pay for the pizza that got sent out even though it was more expensive and not what I wanted. This is not enough for the woman who insists that this must be my fault and refuses to even acknowledge that she could also have made a mistake. She insists that if I had ordered a pizza it would have been put on the system as if she was an infallible human incapable of making mistakes.

My girlfriend later confirmed to me that she's sure I did in fact order the pizza and that she would have corrected me if I had not. She's much better at remembering that sort of thing than me so I'm inclined to believe that over what either I or the woman at the bar say. Either way neither of us know for sure which one of us made the mistake but I can't imagine being so delusional that I'd be unwilling to admit that it's a possibility I could have made a mistake.

My recommendation is to go to "One Over the Ait" over the road instead, the food is great, it's a good pub for a pint and I've never had an issue like this there and I'm sure if I did they would handle it much...

Went on Sunday for a family dinner. The outside area is really nice. Will break my review into parts: Ordering Ordering food via the website was fine until the payment page. The website said they sometimes had issues on the payment but to keep trying and it'll work. Tried for 20 minutes on 3 different phones, to no avail. After 25 mins we flagged someone down and he explained we had to just keep trying, though he did notice that we didn't even have drinks so he Kindly put them through manually for us, but couldn't help with food. We eventually ordered food after around 40 mins. Not their fault but they didnt really offer any solutions except the drinks! Food Food took around 45 mins to come (pitta and 3 different mains), fine for a Sunday lunch though would've been nice if they sent the pittas first as a starter. My mum had a mushroom wellington roast that looked amazing, was so reasonable and she rated very highly (and she's quite fussy). My dad had the Californian burger, he said it was nice though he prefers his burgers cooked well done instead of medium but not a huge issue. I had the jackfruit vegan burger and it was really gross, kinda stale bun, weird flavour and all round just not nice. Disappointing think I just chose badly. Drinks Had our first pimm's of the year, delicious. Needed some mint but delicious nonetheless! Covid restrictions Some staff wearing masks, some not. All the staff carrying food/drinks were as far as I could see, though. Didn't bother me but if I was really covid-cautious I probably wouldn't have felt the most safe. Overall experience The outside is really nicely done, though people are allowed to smoke even in the busy restaurant under the canopy where everyone is eating - they even provide ashtrays. I would really suggest discouraging people from smoking where everyone is eating especially as the tables are close together. Rated a 4 for the overall experience, though based off my personal meal it would've been a 2*! Will defo be back for a roast when I can order not via...

Very slow service, although our dinner was pre-booked (Dec 24th, 17.00h). 45 minutes until our starters arrived. The wine list indicated 175ml as the smallest glass, but my friend got 125ml only. No serving spoons for the vegetable sides. The pub inside was busy, but outside within the extension area and the garden were more or less empty. Lights went on and off ... Although I had informed the pub 3x about my 2 dogs when I booked, chose the menu and confirmed on the day, I wasn't informed about a 'pub cat' on the premises. Although I asked twice for a bowl of water for my dogs, they didn't get a bowl of water. And finally two utmost rude female staff members harassed my friend and me after I asked why I wasn't informed about a cat on the premises. My dogs had been sleeping nicely underneath the table until the cat came up. Then they barked briefly until I calmed them down. A simple apology would have been enough, but no, one female staff member started to argue and shout at me. Another female staff member harassed my friend while I was inside the pub to ask for the bill and our deserts being packed for take-away since we definitely didn't feel comfortable anymore. No hospitality but negligence and hostility. --- Looking at the Google reviews, 53 of 5-star reviews were written by 'local guides' within the last 6 months and especially after 1-star reviews. 53 'local guides' visiting the pub in Brentford??? How real is this? I give this pub 0-star and...