The Bald Faced Stag — Restaurant in London

We went to the Bald Faced Stag with some friends for a spontaneous chill evening with some nice drinks and food.

Being located at a major road it's quick to get to and quite easily accessible. Also given it's on a busy road, the outside area is fairly calm and invites for a nice cool drink on a warm evening!

The bar staff war very nice, greeted us warmly and was quick to advise and serve.

We also had some food from the daily menus. It's definitely on the pricier side - paying about £20 for a pie is quite expensive! I've had the meat and bone marrow pie which was delicious! It comes with a big bone inside the pie - don't forget to mix in the marrow otherwise it's a bit awkward. It was nicely paired with mash potatoes and cabbage.

We also ordered some desserts. I tried to order the Peach Melba Knickerbocker glory - turns out they didn't have any crr left so couldn't serve it (odd one to not have on an early Friday evening - someone could just pop to the shop to get more cream?). My wife got the last one and the rare cream tasted a bit mouldy, so didn't miss anything! I got the tiramisu in the end. Sadly, the only similarity with a classic tiramisu is the name - it was somewhat a mixture of creme cheese, raspberry compote, dough and molasses? It ended up being wasted since I couldn't get myself to eat it - some classics shouldn't be tempered with!

Overall, nice pubs for drinks, sitting outside and having a savoury bite if you're not on a budget. Don't try the desert, it'll...

£40 down and still hungry!

We went home and warmed up some pasta.

ANALYSIS:

Starter: Quinoa salad: comical smallness notwithstanding, there's a major quinoa-to-salad ratio issue going on. I'm talking ONE EDAMAME BEAN PER SPOONFUL OF QUINOA. Yes, it comes with a few other bits and pieces. Tomatoes, for instance. ONE AND A HALF CHERRY TOMATOES.

We had high hopes because it looks mouthwatering on the menu. But yes, you are paying £8.50 for a plate of quinoa.

Main: Stuffed chicken. Looks lovely on the menu. Before you let your imagination run wild: it's not A chicken, it's SIX MOUTHFULS of chicken. Six. So let's see now, that's £2.60 PER BITE.

A comically small new potato would at least have been fitting, just so that we knew that the owner had some kind of warped sense of humour about the whole scam, but no! There is ZERO filler. You've just spend £16 on two pebbles of chicken sitting on a kind of leafy sludge.

We snuck out before they even had the chance to offer us a shot of ice cream for another tenner.

You can't make this stuff up. Classic case of expectation vs reality.

The tragedy is, this used to be a great pub! We've been regulars at the Stag since it had a pool hall and no two light fittings were the same. Really sad to be saying goodbye.

On the bright side, hello Old White Lion! Just down the road. It's a few quid cheaper, the food is wonderful and the...

This used to be a five stars, but after a recent experience, I’ve had to downgrade it to one star. My partner and I recently moved to the area, and this pub was our go-to spot because we loved the atmosphere and drinks. However, everything changed during our last visit. A few days ago, I arrived early with my dog to celebrate a special occasion. I ordered a drink while waiting for my partner and chose an empty table that didn’t have a “reserved” sign. After about 20 minutes, when my partner arrived and we were ready to order, a group of elder persons approached us, claiming the table was theirs due to a reservation and they indeed had the table next to us. They were quite rude and insisted we leave, even though they acknowledged they had more people than their reservation originally specified. We called the staff and they seemed overwhelmed, helpless and diminished in presence after the group of older persons became rude and very persuasive. They ultimately asked us to vacate the table. With no other tables available and it getting late, we had no choice but to leave and went to another pub instead. This experience was incredibly disappointing, especially given the lack of support from the staff. It felt as though we were dismissed without consideration. Luckily there are more pubs in the area with...