Old Bull & Bush Hampstead — Restaurant in London

Very disappointing experience today on my first visit. Very quiet when we arrived. 2 staff visible. We were shown through to the dining room at around 12.45. Orders for starters and mains taken. Started reasonably well. Crab sourdough was tasty if a little short on crab and heavy on mayonnaise. Balance was out but it was passable. Goats cheese was far too creamy and lacked in punch, which was needed to accompany the sweet pear and beetroot. The calamari was crispy but not very warm. That course was the highlight and then it was all downhill from there. Waited a while for 2 beef and malbec pies and crab, chili linguini with Scallops. Mash with pies was cold, brocoli overcooked to the point of being grey and the pies had little flavour and less meat. Linguini was very overcooked so we sent that all back. Fish and chips replacement was hot and fresh but the tartare was Awful and so were the peas. Seabass replacement was cooked with crispy skin, but was set on a bed of mushy mix of new potatoes, spinach and peas. Very gluey texture and although the saffron was evident in the yellow colour of the mush, no flavour came through at all.

Service was as awful as the food. Inattentive young inexperienced servers sadly didn't meet any needs at the table so we had to walk from the restaurant to the bar to ask for service several times.

Other diners rejected the idea of dessert there but I was hopeful so ordered the chocolate bomb. Looked the part and the globe melted pleasingly when the hot sauce was poured. Imaging my dismay to find that it was cheap and over sweet 'chocolate' sauce which had completely ruined the dessert. Inedible.

Manager understood he had some serious issues and we ended up not paying for mains and dessert. Fair, considering our poor experience. The whole experience was in excess of 3 hours because of delays and lack of service. We had expected to dine in under 1.5 hours. 2 at a push. Beautiful location let down by all other aspects. Will not be...

I had lunch at The Old Bull and Bush last Saturday and it was a rather disappointing experience. I had been already once with a friend and we had enjoyed it and I thought on bringing a friend that was visiting from abroad. We went for a walk on Hampstead Heath and booked a table to have lunch at this country pub. The reception guy was very pleasant and took us to our table. We ordered our food and paid and our drinks were served very quick. However, the main course took a good 25 min. and I had to ask get up and check with the waiter. My friend asked for sea bass and she was very happy with the food. The presentation was spotless. I ordered the British half rotisserie chicken that was really awful. The chicken meat was really hard and it tasted as if it had been reheated. I must say, I didn't complain at the time. However, we had a little accident and part of my friend's drink fell on the table. I asked the waiter at the bar to help us and he approached the table with some paper towels and left it with us. No interest in cleaning the table. We had to clean it ourselves and leave a bunch of paper towels on the floor.

I felt the customer service was very poor and the waiters didn't care about what was going on in the bar. I must say, the Pub is dog friendly, which is great, but at some point there were so many dogs in a small space and some of them were barking, which was not pleasant.

I really hope that this Pub looks at improving their customer service, The Old Bull and Bush is a lovely Pub, impeccable decoration, but the customer service does not match the decor and the quality of the food needs to be monitored because it is not...

I revisited this pub after a long gap, having been frequently with friends, around and before COVID-19 lockdown. We were a group of 5 Asian friends, visiting after a long walk through Hampstead heath, looking to order food and drink.

It was disappointing as the staff seemed racist without being overtly so. When we requested a table, we were asked if we had booked. I replied, that I hadn't and that we didnt mind sitting outdoors, the lady at the reception asked us to wait, went in, seemingly half distracted, returned and asked us to take any available table outdoors. All tables had food plates and used glasses left over by previous customers. No one came to clear our table even after we went in to order food at the bar. We asked for drinking water and were asked to fetch it ourselves from the bar. When I got to the bar, there were bottles with empty glasses nearby and as I approached to pick them up, the man at the bar said to me in an angry tone to not touch them as these were for cocktails.

It seemed that the earlier instructions for getting water from the bar and subsequent telling off were a set up to humiliate us. Also, we noticed the same man from the bar being very friendly to some other people sitting next to our table.

We ordered food and drink and then wanted to also order desserts and coffee but after the experience we had, we changed our mind to stay back .

BELOW IS MY PREVIOUS REVIEW WHICH I REVOKE.

Post COVID-19 Review year 2022 The tables are well placed with plenty of social distancing Positions were smaller than expected for the prices Very good service,friendly staff. Sunday roast...