The Abercorn Arms — Restaurant in London

My first experience at the Abercon Arms and I came specifically to try the roast as the pictures in the reviews looked promising. Ultimately, I will return to try the meal again as it showed promise, however, there's plenty of room for improvement from my visit which I feel could have been a few one-off disappointments.

The venue seems homely enough, drink options are decent being a Big Smoke pub and staff behind the bar were largely friendly and well meaning. We asked for a table we could watch the football on but that seemed to mean we received no table service, more on that later.

The good: the portion sizes were very generous and the "trio of roasts" option is really good value for money as it's big plate and you get to sample 3 of the 4 meats on offer. The pork belly was the best thing on the plate, the chicken was very good, however, the beef was served well done, which was disappointing and not like the pictures in the reviews - the gent who took our order didn't ask how we wanted it cooked nor did we remember to tell them so the blame is shared and likely to do with it being a 3 meat dish. The gravy was excellent, flavourful, might be a little thin for some but did wonders to improve the more bland items on the plate.

The bad: given how well the meat was cooked, the veg was overall underwhelming. Veg is what it is with most roast dinners. I was enticed by the cabbage and tenderstem broccoli offering in the photos. We received plain boiled cabbage and al dente broccoli florets. Root vegetables were passable, carrots were fine, but as far as the most sought after veg on a plate of roast the potatoes were a bit of a let down. We were given a good portion of potatoes as we didn't want cauliflower cheese (since when has that started to appear as an accompaniment to British roast dinner) but the potatoes weren't crispy or seasoned but some may prefer them this way.

The ugly: the Yorkshire pudding. There is no excuse for what I was served. Inedible, cardboard-like and left on the plate. The dog next to me wouldn't have eaten it. I'd have asked for another but the service was non-existent. That could be down to where we asked to be sat, a corner table that didn't seem to be in the main dining area.

Upon walking in at 4pm, we had to find our own reserved table, then seek out staff for menu and to order a drink, then again to order the meal after a 25 min wait (at least we didn't have to go to that kitchen to get our food). During our meals we went to the bar twice to get further rounds, then sat for 20 minutes with empty plates in front of us. The young staff seemed friendly and willing to help when asked but with all of them rotating around serving and waiting, it seems completely disorganised and in need of improvement OR just don't sit by the TVs.

I'm hopeful my next visit...

We booked a table for 13 for our Christmas 'Do', here are some thoughts from those who attended; '

'I thought the food was good; the chocolate tart was very tasty, not sure you need a Yorkshire puddings with roast turkey', The food in the Abercorn Arms was perfect – the portion of roast pumpkin was too large and although I was perturbed by the Yorkshire pudding being served with turkey, I managed to eat most of it! I thought the dessert portion was small (cheese platter) and it worked out to be the perfect size as I still had room to continue drinking'

'It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere where we could chat animatedly and they called our names when serving the dishes which helped us to not have to remember what we’d ordered – even after you’d considerately emailed us with our meal choice!'

'It was a very good venue that I would visit again – requesting not to sit next to the sticky front door in winter'

'The vegan wellington main was delicious and so rare that something like that can be made gluten free. Really enjoyed all three courses, so thank you'

'The winter mess was tasty but lacking berries'

'Staff were friendly & attentive, but not so they were overly so, the booking process, selecting menu options and paying a deposit was made easy'

Thank you The...

Highly recommend this pub. We visited on Thursday lunchtime with quite a large group of adults and kids. The food was excellent and the staff were very accommodating to the chaos we brought. Beer selection is excellent. The blue cheese burger I had (BB Burger) was top tier and all the food my friends had looked great and feedback was it tasted great too. They do half price mains during the day here and have special offers on specific food Monday to Friday. E.g Burger Mondays. There was some confusion when we came to pay about the half price mains offer not being available until the 5th of Jan despite it being on all the menu's and website but the manager did allow it as we explained we had been told multiple times by staff that it was an option and some of our group had already paid with the discount applied. I'm glad common sense was applied as we were literally the only people in the pub for 90 mins from when we arrived, we spent a decent amount of money and had we been denied the discount which was basically used to get the older kids an adult meal instead of a kids meal I don't think we would have planned to come back and the reviews left would have been about a negative experience instead of a positive one. If you live locally do yourself a favour and pay...