Golden Lion — Restaurant in London

Where to begin? It was Thursday and Quiz Night, as I was to be reminded multiple times in the course of the evening.

Went to the bar to order drinks and then sat down to order food on the app. The Greene King app said the waiting time for food was approx. 20 mins and I had no issue with that. After all I was only ordering 3 small starter plates part of their £14.50 deal; not complicated, what could go wrong?

Went to the bar again in the meantime to order a pint and stood there patiently. Two young lads came to the bar and were almost immediately served by the barman. When I interjected that I had in fact been waiting here longer than them the barman said that I hadn’t and that they had been waiting longer. Thankfully the young men corroborated what I was saying and he duly served me. I thought it was pretty rude of the barman to tell me I was lying, I mean who goes to the bar and pipes up about customers jumping the queue if that’s not the case???

45 mins after ordering the food it had still not arrived. I went to the bar to ask what was going on. “It’s quiz night” was the response. I am not sure what the correlation between quiz night and the kitchen has beyond they were busier than usual. Nevertheless it was healthy busy and not Friday or Saturday busy so the kitchen should have been expected to cope.

One hour after ordering 3 small starter plates the food turned up. When I questioned the server about why the app said food waiting times showed 20 mins but this had taken 3X longer than that he said the app waiting times are not accurate and it took a long time because of, you guessed it, quiz night. He said he would speak to his manager about my unhappiness and get them to speak to me. They never came over.

One of the bowls of food had what appeared to be mushy peas smeared all down the side of it which was not the expected accompaniment to halloumi fries. It just made me think the kitchen was chaotic or they didn’t wash the bowl properly.

You pay a premium at Greene King pubs for drinks and food but don’t get the service...

Still easily the best pub in Romford, if not anywhere east of Wapping/Limehouse!

Great atmosphere all the time, helpful, friendly staff, good food and great beers. Definitely can't go wrong!

All that wrapped up in a classic, authentic, characterful, period pub with buckets of history. Dog and children friendly, and there's a decent amount of space outside too, which is great in the summer.

Decent selection of ales, and loads of bottled cider, and in the summer a range of Lilly's ciders available. Great selection of lagers, a couple of crafts and definitely the best Guinness outside of central London (even then it's on par) - yes you're going to pay a bit more than some other places in Romford, but it's well worth it!

The quiz night on Thursdays is always a fun evening out, and all for a great cause! The bands and singers on sporadic weekends, but always worth going down for if you can as they're always a great show and a good night out. The Ceilidh band on for a few hours on a Monday evening are nice to hear too!

The new themed bottomless brunches at the end of each month always look like a great laugh, and there's usually gaming clubs upstairs throughout the week, as well as other groups that meet up, including a book club every other Wednesday, so plenty of stuff to come down and get involved with!

If you're looking for a bite to eat, the fish & chips and burgers are definitely worth trying, along with the Katsu and Salt & Pepper dishes, not exactly pub classics but still delicious! The changing burger and dishes of the month make a...

30 years ago on 16th October 1992, me and my husband had our wedding reception here. We had a great time. Today 30 years later, to the day, we chose to celebrate our anniversary here. I have to say I am so glad we did. I booked the table on line, (how technology has come on in all that time!) We arrived and were greeted by a young lady who just beamed a huge smile. She found our table for us and I was touched by the reserved label with my name and anniversary written on it. Another young lady (i think the manager) came to our table, again with a lovely beaming smile, and a candle, which she explained she had wanted to place on our table before we arrived. Another really sweet touch. She explained that there was no longer table service but she wanted to do table service for us. We felt really pampered. What a treat. We were looked after from start to finish, smiles all the time.. checking to make sure all was well. The food was lovely, the girls were wonderful, going above and beyond to make sure our anniversary was celebrated in style. We were most touched by being invited to have a look upstairs where we had our reception all those years ago! It was quite surreal, and I felt quite emotional. We would just like to say a huge thank you for such a wonderful, friendly, welcoming visit. 10/10 From...