Old Ship — Restaurant in London

Me along with my 2 colleagues went along to the pub this evening on the 19th of April. We arrived, and although it smelled of smoke and the tables were instantly sticky, we decided to stay and discuss our weekly performances. We ordered a couple of drinks from a frankly unresponsive female bartender, and then left for a cigarette out the front, expecting to return to resume our conversation and endulge in the drinks and hospitality that we had already paid for. When we attempted to come back in, we were met with refusal, and that the pub was ‘shut’ (it was 10:30pm and the pub closes at 12am). When we asked as to why we were refused entry back in to finish our drinks, we were told by a rather kind and sympathetic male security guard who let us in earlier, ‘the owner said no’. Another female security guard completely blanked us in comparison. A more senior member of staff came out and told us to wait 15 minutes outside in the cold so that the owner could come out and ‘speek to us’. After 20 minutes of waiting, no one came to acknowledge us. Peeping through the window, we witnessed the owner, IAN G, talking with bartenders and laughing at us through the window. After waiting for an eternity to simply resume our meeting and drink our drinks, we decided to call the pub via phone to see if we would get a quicker response. We witnessed the manager inside through the window completely ignore our phone call. We were left to conclude that we were discriminated against by the owner, IAN G, as we had no problem minding our own business before we left for a cigarette break. We are a young, yet professional group of 3 that only showed complete and yet yet respect towards the unfortunate pub, & we didn’t deserve such treatment. We left the scene feeling extremely discriminated against, and deflated, with no show from the owner Ian, who refused us entry via his security team, after we paid for the pub’s hospitality and drinks. This feeling was further confirmed when bartenders inside the pub intentionally caught eye contact with us just to laugh at our situation. Overall, the attitude demonstrated by this pub is extremely volatile. After settling in calmly the first time, we were refused entry back in after paying for drinks. Extremely unprofessional and not impressed at all. I would like the owner, Ian, to contact me as soon as possible. Considering our most recent interactions, I will surprised to receive a response as that’s in line with their unprofessionalism. I look forward to an explanation. Pictured are the bartenders who felt it was appropriate to laugh at our situation, aswell as the owner with the manager together in another picture. I would advise to stay away from this pub, unprofessional, smelly, sticky, and discriminatory. Avoid...

UPDATE February 16/25 Management at Old Ship contacted us and offered to make things right and today we had an amazing Sunday Roast at the Old Ship! Service provided by Callum was amazing and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience! Most places won’t have even responded but the Management did and we are very impressed! Thank you for a lovely family roast/afternoon! We will be back!!

Worst pub experience we have had in 17 years of visiting the UK! Our daughter/SIL travelled from North London to have walk and roast with us yesterday and we were delighted to have a reservation at The Old Ship. When we got seated we were told…”OH no roasts left…NONE not even vegetarian”. But you can order off our mains menu. Now knowing it is 345 now on a beautiful Sunday in Richmond, we decided to stay and order off main menu. Then it came “we actually only have Fish/chips and beef burger left on our mains menu” Two of the four of us cannot eat fish so we had one choice! Meals came and apparently the fish/chips were good. We could continually see people arriving for their reservations and then getting up to leave when everyone found out no food left….. at 4pm!

The waitress brought us pudding menu and then announced they only had crumble and ice cream left. We waited over 20 minutes for her to come see if we wanted pudding and she never came! What a waste of money and time. This is not a situation of them being overrun with orders…this is a situation of mismanagement of kitchen/supplies. Pub was half empty. We had been to Old Ship once before for pints/chips and loved the atmosphere . So disappointed. At least management could have done was walk around and speak to customers so your wait staff weren't the only ones...

We ventured from far into Richmond, in search of a Sunday Roast and found ourselves at the Old Ship. I was enchanted by the view of the high street and had thoughts of how pleasant it must be in the summer with the window open and the sounds of the street bustling by... Highlight of the afternoon was the Irish Coffee's that are not very well known here in UK. Thanks to the dude from Benoni😎 The menu was fabulous and we could not decide. A friend ordered the roast beef and loved everything on her plate. My other dining buddy was craving pork crackling but it was sadly more like rubber. It is just how it is served there. It is the chefs perogative at the end of the day. I selected the vegetarian oprion that featured spinach and beetroot Wellington with veg, yorkshire pud and gravy. Unfortunately a mushroom wellie arrived and I just do not do mushrooms at all. I did eat around all the fungi and ordered extra gravy and really enjoyed what was left. We managed to get a few crispy roasties from the kitchen as ours were not roasted all round. Our waiter, was so lovely. I felt bad. I am not one to complain but I think our expectations were aligned with what we consider a traditional roast dinner to be. Traditional is maybe not the norm anymore. The sticky toffee pudding was a treat. Extra sauce was provided by a different staff member. Our waiter was working the bar when we left. I hope it was not something I said😹 I must say that everything else I saw coming out of the kitchen looked spectacular. If I find myself in Richmond in the future I will eat...