Golden Lion — Restaurant in London

Had a horrible experience here today! We arrived at 1pm and the place was very quiet, only a handful of people in the bar and one table of people upstairs. We ordered straight away - my partner ordered steak but was told there may not be any left so ordered gammon steak instead and I ordered a toastie. It took about 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive but then we waited and waited and no sign of food - no sign of the waitress. About an hour in the waitress finally came back upstairs and we asked her how much longer it would be and all she said was "it's coming, we are busy" no apology for the wait at all (still only a handful of people there!) When the food finally arrived, to say we were disappointed is an understatement! My partner's "gammon steak" was 3 tiny pieces of dried up off cuts that looked more like beef jerky than gammon with barely a handful of chips and an undercooked egg. We complained to the waitress again who had no idea what to do and went to get the manager. We were so hungry by this stage that we attempted a few bites but all of it was just disgusting! My toastie was dry and cold and the chips and onion rings were oily and over-cooked. When we then complained to the manager, he started getting annoyed and told us that they were so busy with lots of tickets and refused to listen or understand why we were angry! He just walked away so we decided to leave. We went downstairs and spoke to the guy at the bar (waitress had disappeared again) and he said that the manager was busy "stock taking" and to just not pay. He was the only one to take us seriously and was apologetic. The useless manager came into the bar again at that stage but was still being really argumentative and refusing to understand why we were so angry! Couldn't get any sense out of him so we just walked out. Overall the whole experience ruined the end of our weekend in London to celebrate...

I thought carefully about my 5 star rating. I’m a guy who likes a really good beer pub, and usually reserve 5 star ratings for craft beer places with incredible drinks on tap. Technically this place should probably get 4 stars because there’s a lot that is basic, average, normal. The food and drink is normal. The music is - eugh, average poppy low level rubbish.

On tap you have the average Amstel, Peroni, Guinness. Better still Timothy Taylor, Green King IPA, Yardbird Pale Ale. Even better Ice Breaker Pale Ale (Green King), Gamma Ray and Neck Oil from Beavertown. Also Brewdog Punk and Camden Pale and Hells. Nothing hugely special but all drinkable.

The reason I like it is a combination of the decor, intimate feel, high stools, and the food which is classic British pub grub, without the inflated prices that many pubs have, and with food that I always seem to rave about after eating. I’m a bit of a whinger when it comes to pub food - always overpriced and decidedly average, but here it is definitely not so.

The steak and ale pie I ate just now was absolutely superb, they bothered to present it with a quarter braised cabbage which looked lovely on the plate and tasted great. Gravy was actually something to write home about. The pie was just floury enough and not sloppy, with huge depth of flavour.

Service is average (but nice) - I mean, the bar guy wears a lanyard … atmosphere is lovely (apart from the loud beep that comes from the serving hatch) and always happy when I leave.

And where else near Piccadilly gives you a feeling of a relaxed pub with reasonable prices and food that you actually enjoy?

So yeh - that’s why I...

This is a nice little pub quite near where I stay over in London.

Had had a drink here but never dined here before but saw an update on Google maps and the website that said kitchen was now open until 10pm on weekdays. When I arrived at 8.45 I was told the kitchen had taken last ordered. As soon as I showed the evidence the young man behind the bar profusely apologised and phoned the chef to explain and ask him to stay on, which he did especially for me. As of writing this review the later kitchen opening times are still live but staff hadn't known anything about it on Monday earlier this week.

I ordered one of the specials on the board, the chicken pie. It was enormous, well cooked and very tasty. An extremely generous portion for a London pub and the chips were tasty too. The carrots in the accompanying sauce could have been softer but it was a late night pub meal to no complaints.

Unfortunately didn't get the name of the young man behind the bar but he was definately a asset to the place, very friendly, ineffably polite.

Downstairs is very compact, as you'd expect for such a place tucked in the middle of St James but the theatre bar upstairs is a lovely place to grab a pub meal, plenty of space, comfortable seating and on a very hot day very comfortable due to the AC running. Will certainly come back again once I've doubled checked the kitchen opening times because the food was tasty, great value for central London and...