One Over the Ait, Kew Bridge — Restaurant in London

Went to this bar yesterday (Sunday) after the London Irish match to celebrate our mates birthday. I booked in advance because it looked great and some of the reviews seemed good.

The food is great, although the Pork didn't have crackling as advertised, it tasted wonderful. It was strange that the starter and main course came at exactly the same time.

The thing that makes me give this place 1 star is the staff. We arrived greeted by a member of staff whose attitude was terrible. They confused us with an over abundance of information when all we needed was to be shown to the table we booked. We had to wander around up stairs to try and find a table and when we couldn't I returned to the host and was met once again by a really aggressive attitude, at one point I thought, what have I done to this person as they being so rude with no reason. They had made us feel so unwelcome right off the bat. They gave us no information about how to order or how things work there. I didn't want to ask them anything else so had to catch the eye of one of their colleagues.

Throughout the meal I could see the aggressive member of staff standing with their colleagues blatantly talking about us. It made us all feel as though we were in the wrong and very uneasy. I have never wanted to finish a meal as quickly as possible and leave in any restaurant before. I will not return to this bar, although the food was good and the location is really nice, that staff member just ruined it. I would love to make an excuse for them and say it was extremely busy or stressful but it just wasn't. This person should not be working in hospitality.

Just a word, the bar...

I was really disappointed by our first visit. Living locally, I pass this place all time but normally frequent one of the numerous other local pubs. With family visiting, we thought we’d try One Over the Ait for a change. Sadly, that became a regrettable decision.

The place seemed understaffed - we waited a good 10-15 minutes at the bar before being able to place a fairly simple order for three people. Our order was repeated back to us correctly but, after waiting over 45 minutes for the food to arrive, an incorrect order was delivered (this was after they had already tried to bring us another table’s kids meal). The waitress offered us free drinks to apologise, which was commendable, but after the huge delays we had to scoff and run to get home in time for our evening plans.

I’m loath to be a Debbie Downer and I’m sure I don’t know the first thing about running a pub, but as a patron you just want to have the food you ordered delivered in a timely fashion - and we experienced neither.

This was hard to explain because the place was busy but by no means packed; certainly not enough to justify the delays. It’s a real shame, because the location is good and the food was great; but the same is true of our other regular haunts, which manage to keep up efficient service under far busier conditions. There is fierce local competition which, based on my visit, this establishment is unable to match - and first impressions really count....

A fairy light can be deceptive ..

We were looking for somewhere close to home to celebrate a birthday and ‘One Over the Ait ’ came up in my Google search. The website looked good and the location pretty perfect. But that’s where the positives start and end.

When we turned up the restaurant was empty - ok, not a problem … no music no ambience. I was told that an ‘Aperol spritz’ is a cocktail and not available during match days (football match happening down the road, fans already left for the ground).

It didn’t get any better the service was sombre and lacking - 3 staff sitting at the bar complaining about their pay packets and not showing any interest in us as a party. We did eventually order and the food that turned up was, well, really bad. Greasy. Overcooked. Dried out.

We’d brought a birthday cake with us and they did at least light the candles for us. But didn’t give us plates or spoons until we asked.

We also asked for coffee and were told ‘we ain’t doing coffee’.

The bill. Wow. Expensive for shoddy food - and an £18 service charge, ridiculous considering that there really was no service. At all.

Unless you want a quick pint served by a moody 20 something before a match - avoid...