Prince Alfred — Restaurant in London

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Rude Manager and Poor Service

We visited on 24th September to celebrate my wife’s birthday, along with our daughter. Unfortunately, the evening was completely ruined due to the rude and unprofessional behaviour of the manager/barman.

There were no waiters, so we had to go to the bar to place our orders. We weren’t the only ones frustrated — several other customers left without ordering after waiting too long.

Here’s the timeline of our orders:

20:40 – Ordered food and drinks

20:44 – Ordered chips

20:54 – Ordered another drink

The food finally arrived at 21:25, and at that moment, we were told we had to eat quickly and leave, and that we couldn’t order any more drinks because we had a child with us. This was never mentioned before we ordered.

As a result, we paid for the food without eating and left, completely disappointed.

To make things worse, the manager was incredibly rude – he constantly interrupted when we tried to speak and even walked away mid-conversation, refusing to listen or show any willingness to resolve the issue.

What was supposed to be a special night for my wife’s birthday turned into a very upsetting experience.

When we asked why they took an order a few minuites before 9pm when a kid was present and they served it well after 9pm and asked us to leave without allowing us to order drinks so we can eat their answer was that they didnt see the kid which is a lie. I ordered from the manager and i showed him.the kid and he said they dont have fanta and he proposed another drink. Then the kid stood up walked to him and asked for a bottle of water. So how he is claiming not seeing the kid? We paid, we didnt eat and were asked to leave!

Absolutely not...

I have lived nearby for more than 20 years and find this pub to still be really rather average, despite the extensive renovations that took place in early 2016. In particular I think the beer selection is dreadful and totally lacks imagination, especially in an era when there are so many fabulous craft beers and real ales being produced in London and all across the country. I've walked in a number of times on my way home thinking I'll stop for a quick pint and that surely on this occasion they will have a decent beer to choose. But alas no, it's always the same drab selection with Fosters, Kronenburg, Guinness, etc..

The pub has plenty of potential but I think the management knows it will pull in plenty of tourists staying nearby who no doubt think they've stumbled across a proper English boozer full of local charm. They haven't!

To be fair, it does have a nice fire place, the room upstairs is pleasant, and they have good live music a couple of times a week. But no real effort is made to make it a special place. No effort is made to woo the locals. The quickest you will ever see the staff move is if someone walks in wearing a hat or brings in their dog - then they'll almost sprint over and tell you that you're not welcome. And obviously no effort whatsoever is made to dazzle the clientele with an interesting...

Staff offered us overpriced drinks that were a knock off the labels we asked, kept in the bottles of the original drinks. Were very rude when they demanded we remove our hats or leave the pub. We would have happily taken our hats off , and we did after they insisted. When we asked why we had to, at first they said wearing a hat in a pub is a sign of disrespect to British troops, even though the pub is only a local pub and not one run by any army organisations.

They later said to me that the reason they asked us to remove our hats was because it is illegal to wear a hat or head scarf in all English pubs. My parents were visiting London and the UK for the first time, so the staff heard their accents and decided to treat the family rudely and ignorantly.

I have been living in the UK for the past 6 years. No pub has ever asked me to remove my hat, nightclubs are different. This is a tourist trap. Not to mention that if they do have a "no hat or headscarf rule" as a pub rule, the should have clear signs stating so and letting people know at the door and not after they overpay for...