Hope & Anchor — Restaurant in London

I arrived, only to be told by the bouncer that it was bookings only that night. This was a complete lie, it was just another Friday night and 20 of my friends had already gone inside without incident or prior booking. When my friends came outside to get me and it became clear that the bookings only narrative was unsustainable the bouncer changed tack and said he couldn't let me in because he suspected I was on Ecstasy. I asked him why he thought that and he replied "because I saw you move your mouth in a strange way when you were queuing." I was stone cold sober, and had food stuck in my teeth.

When i started laughing at the suggestion that I was high, his brutish colleague got right in my face and hissed "you think something is funny?". Meanwhile my friends were remonstrating with the manager who came out to take a look at me. "Do i seem high to you?" I asked. "No, not really". This led to a heated discussion between the bouncer and manager which lasted a good ten minutes, following which the bouncer came over, tail between his legs and said if I go away and have a sandwich (to sober me up), and come back in 15 minutes, he would let me back in. I decided to humour him for the sake of celebrating my friend's birthday and went away.

Upon finally getting in, a good hour after I originally arrived, it took a good half an hour of queuing at the bar before actually being served. After two drinks I had to leave to catch the last train. Verdict: Great layout but hire more staff and sack...

Jesus, what can I say. Turned up at 9:50pm for a friends birthday, bouncers had stopped letting people in which is the earliest I've ever heard of it happening. We were told they weren't letting anymore people on until 10:30 when the garden closed and they could do a crowd count.

Once we got in (which cost a tenner) it was absolutely dead, there must have been about 30 of us queuing and there was enough room for 100 easily. So we'd basically been made to stand outside just so they could act like it was a decent place.

The bar staff were hopeless. They were understaffed but waiting 20-30 minutes (avg time for myself and all my friends) for a drink and constantly ignored just comes down to bad training.

The music/DJ whatever they were using was awful. I was in there 20 minutes and had already heard the same bieber and Ed Sheran track twice. Which basically continued throughout the night in a kind of twisted UK top 10 Spotify playlist set on repeat. I mean seriously, after 90 minutes I wondered if it was some kind of joke to see if they could create the deadest night in Brixton and still charge people a tenner for it.

All in all it was just bad, bad service, bad atmosphere, bad music (repetition for days), overpriced for what it is. My advice, go early to use the garden and to avoid paying then leave straight after (we only stayed 2 hours) and head to dogstarr, or somewhere like that. It'll cost less for entry and at the very least you'll get...

What better way to get over the Post-Christmas blues than to tuck in to a tasty roast dinner on a Sunday afternoon at the Hope & Anchor in Brixton! A quirky yet traditional pub, we were welcomed by the friendly bar staff and ushered into a cosy booth in the corner of the pub.

We chose the roast beef and the nut roast and thoroughly enjoyed them served with roasted potatoes and veg, including kale which is one my new favourites. The roast beef itself wasn’t the most flavoursome beef ever tried, but was tender all the same and thinly sliced with a nice pinkish middle but the nut roast was amazing – really rated it.

Not only will I be coming back here to try some of the sourdough pizzas on the menu, but I also want to come back to enjoy the beer garden in the summer – not that you can really call it a “beer garden” as it’s more like a little Thai themed village with lots of cute little huts you can hire out for a deposit of £50 on a Friday and at a cost of £50 on a Saturday. If you’re a summer baby then this should definitely be a real contender for your birthday drinks!

Whatever your mood this great pub can cater for you. Come here for a lazy Sunday afternoon like we did and enjoy a peaceful atmosphere listening to the DJ playing some great mood music and tucking into a Sunday roast. Or head down on a Friday or Saturday night for some great music and dancing, or a gorgeous summers day to unwind with a cocktail in a cute...