Sir John Balcombe Marylebone — Restaurant in London

I've been to this pub many times after work with my colleagues and we choose it for evening drinks after events. The place is great and we always have a great time. Today we visited again around 5:30pm to have drinks as it was one of our colleagues last day at work. At some point while I was standing and holding my beer, the pint glass (the tall Peroni glass) just broke in half and literally I was left holding half of the glass while the rest of it was shattered on the floor. After I made sure everyone was alright and we had no injuries, I went by the bar, handed the pieces I was holding and let them know of the incident. The waitress (it was a brunette girl, maybe bartender, not sure) took the glasses and brought a broom to swipe and clean the area. While she had almost finished swiping, I saw a big piece of glass two tables away that was not very visible and mentioned it to her in case she had missed it. Her reply was "Yes I know, you don't have to show me. Can you move away and let me finish?". I said to her that I just wanted to help and she replied "If you want to help, maybe take the broom and clean this mess you made". I explained that I didn't break the glass intentionally, but it literally broke in half while I was holding it, and her reply was "maybe you need to learn how to hold a glass then". I just said thank you and turned my back on her as I didn't want to ruin the evening for my team. I was shocked and mad. I didn't understand what initiated this rude behaviour. I said nothing to her apart from pointing out that broken glass. I've worked in the past as a waiter and bartender for 8 years. I know how tough the shift can be, but this behaviour is unacceptable. Good manners and patience is what differentiates us from the crowd. Maybe she could use this approach next time. A rude waiter is the worst thing for a restaurant. I hope she understands her mistake and improves. I have decided to edit my rating because it's not fair for one person to ruin the publicity of a restaurant/pub and mainly because the place is indeed a nice place. Thank you for your reply Peter. I appreciate you having the awareness...

I booked this pub for lunch for four people. I had multiple issues with my visit. Firstly, I tried to call to change my booking to 2 people, and I was told it was too late to change the booking. I asked if they had vegan options available, at which point I was told you can ask when you arrive. I'd called to check in advance so I wouldn't have to leave if there were no options. When I arrived, every table was taken. As the staff found my booking, they told me they hadn't reserved any tables because they "didn't think it would be busy", despite it being a Saturday lunch time in central London and Liverpool playing, with the pub showing sport. The staff eventually offered me a raised bench sat in between two other parties. I asked if I could wait for a proper table instead, as I didn't want to be in between people during COVID. After another wait, we were sat on a small table underneath the main TV, so we had loud people watching the football above our heads. We ordered the food. It took 45 minutes for the food to arrive, there was no apology for this. I ordered the vegan burger. It was very small and came with "nachos" which consisted of a small number of tortilla chips, avocado and tomato. The burger itself was completely burnt, clearly extremely overdone. So I had to send it back - again there was no apology or even explanation that a new one was being made for me. This is for a dish that costs £11.50. Had we not paid at the start, I would have asked them to not bother and left, but as we had paid, we stayed while my friend finished his food. Once he was almost finished, I received a new burger - again no apology whatsoever - which was cooked fine this time. I was disbelieving that the service and food could be so poor, and throughout with no acknowledgement of the extremely poor experience we had. I am usually accommodating for mistakes, especially if staff are helpful and kind when trying to rectify it, but I did not receive this. I feel writing a review like this is my only option, to advise others to avoid this...

This is a pretty little pub in a great spot, however I need to make mention of the slightly rude landlady / manager and staff.

Once they realised we were en route to attending a football game at Wembley, it was made pretty clear to us that we were not welcome - with lots of vocal complaining about the high numbers of customers they had had through on their way to football at Wembley in the past few days.

They also opened their doors later than their Google listing read, yet we and several other customers who had gathered there at the expected opening time were given a bit of a telling off for ‘loitering’ outside the pub due to resident properties nearby, though of course we would have rather been inside.

While we appreciate not all football fans are easy customers, as a bunch of friendly pensioners and their children in their late thirties on a family day out we expected to be met with friendliness in return.

It may be worth the owner and staff reminding themselves that while thousands of pubs are going our of business across the country every year, we are nice people who want to come and enjoy their business (and give it our money!).

Additionally, a lot of the menu was off (which we forgave assuming this might be due to the high numbers of customers they had had over the weekend).

We put most of this poor experience down to landlady & staff stress after a full on period, and would consider visiting again in the hope of being met with a smile rather than a grumble about our being there!

It is otherwise a great little pub with...