Slug & Lettuce - Croydon — Restaurant in London

A real mixed bag of a review. Six of us booked for 5pm on Sunday as we were going to a show at Fairfield Halls that evening. Firstly, great cocktails, and always good to take advantage of the 2 for 1 deal on these. We ordered some nibbles to share whilst we decided on what to eat, and again, no problem with these (nachos, garlic mushrooms and the chicken and chorizo croquettes).

Having decided what we wanted we placed our order (five burgers, one scampi & chips) and about ten minutes after doing so one of the staff came over to the table to give us cutlery and condiments with a “food will be with you shortly” message. Close to 30 minutes later the food started to arrive. The sweet potato fries were over done, blackened and crispy. The beef burgers were burnt, hard, and dry, and some of the burger buns had been toasted too long and were burnt as well. We sent the food back and asked that they prepare it again. By this stage it was 6.20pm. We advised them that we would need to be out by 7pm, so it would be appreciated if they could turn the food round a little quicker. Having not received anything by 6.40pm we were getting a little concerned and enquired as to when the food would be likely to turn up. The staff were unable to provide a time for us. “It’s in the queue” was the response. With that we decided to cancel the order, and get a refund for the food, and the round of drinks that we had ordered about ten minutes previously. A full refund (it will take seven working days to be processed, as we used the S&L app) was agreed.

On asking what the problem was, or how food of such poor quality had been allowed to leave the kitchen, we were advised that they had a new chef who was still in their first week. Not the greatest of experiences, and we ended up heading over the road to the golden arches to get some food prior to the show.

Whilst the S&L may be okay to get a drink in, I doubt any of us would eat...

Booked afternoon tea for 3 here today as a little father's day treat, what a disaster. If it wasn't for the kind and friendly bar tender Jay who really did his best to make a bad situation less worse we would have walked out. We arrived at our allocated time of 5pm, didn't get any actual table service til 5.30pm. I did try ordering drinks at the bar but was told we would be served at the table and to wait there, so we remained with no drinks for half an hour. Then we were brought a sort of a leaflet which had just been copied to look over, though I knew what to expect from the website. Every few minutes we were told it should be coming soon, it's not much longer.... Then it hit 6.10pm and we were told they had a new chef who really didn't know what to do for an afternoon tea but he would put something together. We got 4 half sandwiches filled with lettuce and chicken, crusts all left on and served as if it was just made in a bakery for lunch. 4 full sized wrapped filled with just spinach and mayonnaise. 4 chocolate brownies, 4 cheesecakes and a plate of scones with a pot of cream that had turned into a runny oil and could be poured on! It was a total disaster so I do not recommend this for afternoon tea. We have had lunch here before and food from the menu has been good but this was awful, never again do not do afternoon tea here. Jay was so humble and apologetic and really embarrassed though none of this was his fault he did give us a £5.00 discount and a free drink but really it was so bad we shouldn't have been charged anything as it ruined our surprise Father's day outing. So slug and Lettuce you should be grateful you have Jay working for you otherwise we would have seriously gone mad and taken this further. Lesson learnt, no more afternoon teas here...

I would never come to this venue again for my Christmas work do. We booked for 30 and the private area upstairs with the buffet option B. We arrived to no upstairs area...we were told that although we booked it,there was no guarantee we would get it and they told us this once we arrived. They clearly tried to pack as many people in as possible on this night and over booked this area and could not be bothered to contact us regarding their mistake....considering we had booked it 6 weeks earlier and even visited the venue to make sure it was suitable for such a large number of people.

On arrival we were seated in the gang way but there was not enough room for us all to sit nor was there enough room for the food to be placed on the table. We could not even tell was that what and the servers didn't know either. We were handed the food and they simply walked away and left us standing around with platers in our hands. The beers and wine which can with the meal were the cheapest of the cheap along with the cheap, previously frozen Iceland menu. As I have said before I have no problem with Iceland's produce but when I'm paying over the odds for it.....it makes me angry. Nothing served was prepared in their kitchens, other than pouring the contents of plastic bags into an ovenproof dish and placed in the oven. I think once a year when your invited to let your hair down and party in an establishment that boasts great food and and service should at least try and make it impressionable so your customers want to come back again and again. This is not the place for such an experience. ....poor customer service and rubbish food with...