Spread Eagle — Restaurant in London

In a bygone era, my hansom cab would have drawn up alongside the River Wandle, and I’d have been welcomed by the innkeeper under the wrought iron and burgundy glass canopy at the entrance to The Spread Eagle Inn & Saloon. Today the river is diverted underneath a shopping centre and a myriad of cars, busses, trucks, bicycles, and people crowd the busy A205 intersection. But the beautiful wrought iron canopy is still there. Inside, I like to believe that the honey colour oak wall panels and bar festooned with gleaming draught taps have been here since day one. But I know it was renovated about two years ago, so it may be wishful thinking. The renovation has been sympathetically completed and a rather handsome annex built across a narrow courtyard that will provide a glorious sun-trap in summer. Today, however, I’m escorted into the dining room to meet a friend seated beside a roaring open log-fire. We aren’t hungry enough for starters despite very tempting pork cheek croquettes and Shropshire chicken & leek terrine appearing on the menu. Just as well because our main courses are meant not only to feed, but definitely fatten! My companion opted for the braised beef rump & mushroom pie. A golden short-crust pie, the size of a bread plate arrived on a mountain of crushed root vegetable mash with a magnificent traditional gravy sloshing around in the bowl, which should be more accurately described as a soup terrine such was its size. This is pie-making at its finest! Mouth melting hunks of rump and silky chestnut mushrooms stuffed into a snug home of crisp shortcrust pastry. I too, went for a comforting Guinness braised short-rib of beef with heritage carrots, celeriac puree and more of the wonderful gravy. A glistening door-stopper size of short-rib filled my soup terrine bowl, falling off the bone as I looked on. This is everything I needed on what was the coldest day of winter so far. The portions are huge, so we had a break midway, determined not to waste any of the chef’s talent & dedication to his craft. The pudding menu, by comparison, was a little disappointing. We did however partake in a sticky toffee pudding with vanilla milk ice cream and a chocolate ganache tart with brandy butter ice cream. Both expertly made and a sumptuous end to the afternoon. The Spread Eagle is highly recommended! Starters and pudding around £8 and mains at £20. A decent selection of wine by the glass and some great...

Review I hate leaving bad reviews on places, however after seeing this being recommended so highly I’m genuinely so disappointed I feel I have to leave a review.

I’ll start of with the good points, the pork belly was the best pork belly I’ve ever had and the gravy was also the best I’ve ever had. Unfortunately the positives end there.

We waited 40 minutes for our roast to arrive and when it arrived it was stone cold, on the plate there was one rock solid and cold carrot and one soft and chewy (and cold) parsnip. I was really looking forward to the roast potatoes as had previously seen someone on Instagram saying they were the best potatoes they ever had, ours unfortunately were extremely pale and soft with absolutely no crunch and hard on the inside. We asked if there was any way we could have our food heated as it was genuinely cold, they took it away and microwaved it no bother. However the microwave had caused the gravy to dry up and weren’t offered any extra, we did ask for more which we were given after a short wait.

I understand Sundays are a busy day, however there seemed to be a lot of staff walking around that were extremely inattentive, we waited 15 minutes after we had clearly finished and no one came to clear our plates, even trying to catch the eye of a few waiters none of which responded, despite seeing a couple see our finished plates, I then managed to catch someone’s eye to ask for bill and plates were still on our table after we’d paid and left.

For the pice we paid and the £12 service fee I feel really disappointed and the lack of service and poor quality the food came out. I’m all for dogs in pubs and restaurants but the woman next to me had her dog up on the bench we were sat on meaning I had a dog sat right next to me while I ate my lunch which isn’t to my liking, there were other dogs happily on blankets on the floor.

I’d planned to come back for supper clubs I’d, again, seen be recommended so highly but I’ll not be back, which is disappointing as I had...

Wow what a visit we had, Starters of the cheddar nuggets delicous, server came and cleared our plates, asked for a glass of Pinot noir, got a bottle instead, no worries we was in the classic long Sunday afternoon, My pork came out like sandpaper, sent back, it retuned with out half the vegetables, tried to waive down staff but they where to busy tending to a vip table by the tv screen, forget if you order a bigger meal you get better service, oh wait the two chaps in front of us with a portion of chips, where getting service to hmmmm. So I waited and waited, still no service or eye contact ohhh the rugby was on so lots of attention from team to that too. Also my second plate of food arrived 10mins after without a knife and fork, I tried to grab someone’s attention but felt like I was being ignored. Another customer actually tapped someone behind the bar and said they are waiting. To which they replied oohhh so sorry. To my right was my partner who was chatting away and oblivious to the raw meal he had in front of him, I noticed and pushed away from him. Finally got someone’s attention, who apologised and said, don’t worry guys, come back another time and we will rectify, cool. Went to pay our bill, reminded him and he was oh yeah just write your deets here, still haven’t heard anything. Our visit to the spread eagle was a long overdue date day for me and my partner, ruined and he spent the next day fixed to our bathroom with some unsightly noises from the Sunday lunch/ We won’t be back and told friends who had a rugby bash there next Sunday not to come either. Disappointed as pub looks great and the TikTok’s and insta tell a...