The Black Horse — Restaurant in London

Further to our family "Christmas Day dinner" at the Black Horse. We arrived at the time of seating at 12.30pm. The restaurant/pub seating area was tastefully decorated and with the open fire burning. Gave a warm welcome to a Christmas Day dinner. Which myself and family were really looking forward to. There appeared to be enough staff in attendance and carrying out various duties. Now having said all of this I went to the bar and ordered drinks. I forgot to mention on entering the premises and waiting to be seated. I was told that a server would attend to give us our starters. Which we had already ordered in advance. Now having been seated for some twenty five/thirty minutes. I then politely enquired when our starters would be arriving. Only to be told it would be arriving shortly. Now looking around, I found several other guests at various tables asking the same question.

Okay with this being said, our starters arrived some forty minutes later. Now after eating our starters which were nice. This is where it all starts to go totally down hill. I then noticed that other guests at various tables.  Were starting to ask where there main dinners were. One particular older gentleman, explained to his waitress that he had been here since 12.00 noon and it was 2.45pm and he and his wife were still waiting for their Christmas dinners. This started to alarm me.

Now I am reasonably patient person, but myself and my family waited for well over two hours to get our Christmas Dinner. Which on receiving the dinner was definitely not upto par as being a Christmas Day dinner! one would expect to receive in front of you . Especially considering the cost per head of each meal. Firstly the meats of Turkey and gammon were not of good quality. The turkey was just a couple of pieces of meat and the gammon was of a extremely poor quality and texture. The roast potatoes were just part cut small roast potatoes. Which were of a rubbery texture and lacking in crunchiness, that you would expect from roast potatoes. The brussel spouts were aladante, when trying to cut into were extremely undercooked.

The pigs in blankets, consisted of a couple cocktail sausages with chard streaky bacon clinging on to them. The Yorkshire puddings were soft and not crisp, I also ordered additional sides of Yorkshire puddings as well as wrapped stuffed bacon rolls. Which seemed somewhat lacking in quality and put together with extremely stodgy stuffing on the inside of the bacon rolls. The gravey was extremely runny and had no substance to it. To further add further insult to injury there were no accompanying sauces. Such as cranberry, horseradish, bread, mint or mustard sauce.

Now having waited so long for this Christmas dinner to arrive. It definitely spoilt my Christmas day, as I was soo very much looking forward to this day. As for having to wait again for my desert, I asked my wife to have it made as a takeaway and I then excused myself from the table.. Where I then went back to my car and waited outside. For my family family family to join me.

Having been to this pub on many occasions, having celebrated my 60th birthday there, my wife's brothers after funeral reception there. Plus eating there on many various occasions and general dining. I now find myself having to write this email. As this was a very upsetting experience. As to what should have been a happy joyous and good experience. Fell far short, of what I have experienced in the past and to what I have received today of all days on...

Fall From Grace -

Over the years my family and I visited this restaurant on many occasions to celebrate birthdays and get togethers. Unfortunately, during a recent visit we have an awful experience. At first it appears ok but when you start to order food and expect to relive that’s lovely it evenings, you realise that’s no longer possible. You now can only order food at the bar or from your table due to only having two staff members working, managing an entire restaurant. When going up to the bar, our order for 9 people was read out in order of each person, clearly with only minor adjustments like change chips for mash etc.

Initially, there wasn’t any problems with this and were went back to our expecting a lovely meal. After a while we received our starters, which was only two dishes. The team came over and collected our empty dishes. So time then passed, roughly 40 mins and we started to get concerned. None of the staff had returned with our food or to check in. We went up to the bar to investigate when we would receive our main dishes at which point what appeared to be the Manager stated you must tell me when you’re ready. This was never explain to us and we then disappointedly returned to our table. With 2 mins, we then started to re your mains, we asked how they were ready so quick which they stated the dishes had been ready in kitchen waiting for us. Obviously, without checking we knew this meant, most likely they would be cold. We were correct but after already waiting so long we decided to eat them anyway as it was already getting late.

After two dishes coming out the next followed. They weren’t what we ordered so we informed the waitress. We explained what we ordered so she returned to see what had gone wrong. She then returned with the same dish, but added peas which was still not what we ordered. Moving forward past the cold food, non edible steak meal, lack of communication and disappointing service we decided to leave.

When ask for the bill which was incorrect. There were items on there that weren’t ordered and well as being inputted incorrectly regardless set menu and prices.

One of our party even went to explain to the manager how to input this into system due to previously working in a similar venue. They was happy with this but after getting the bill wrong again turned on my wife, telling her we needed to pay the bill and leave right away.

We paid and left.

This evening has to be one of the most disappointing and frustrating nights. We were there to celebrate an amazing ladies 88 birthday who has attended this venue her entire life. She even blamed herself for picking this venue for that night. Such a shame that once a lovely venue and well run venue has ended up like this. I don’t think we’ll being returning...

It is disappointing to have to write this. As a family we have been coming here for years for all celebrations and a cheeky lunch now and then. It is a firm favourite of my grandparents so has also been their first choice. Last night there was 9 of us celebrating my nans 88th birthday. Food was ordered by myself at the bar, which I had written down for ease (luckily I did) the food started to come out and a few things were wrong. My daughter’s sausage and mash came out as sausage and chips, we had to send it away twice as it kept coming back as sausage and chips. My son got his main before her starter. Nachos had to be returned as they were stale. Please note our family have never sent back food, we are not those people usually. The steak came out and was unfortunately not edible. When it came to paying the bill (luckily opened a tab) the lady in charge kindly advised she would remove the steak, and we decided to cancel the desserts. She also offered us 10% off for the inconvenience. The bill came and was wrong as she hadn’t added that 4 of us had the evening set menu. After over an hour helping her and using my written down order to get the right bill, the lady in charge became very frustrated. She gave us the bill with no 10% as promised. When we questioned her she laughed and said no, you have made this too complicated and it’s your fault for not staying the order was from the evening set menu (even though we 100% did and I showed her the order I had written down to prove it) we paid the bill and just expressed we were really disappointed. The mains came out an hour after kids food and starters. She said that was my fault as I didn’t tell them we were ready. Drinks ordered on the QR code took over 20minutes and it was empty. I’d rather leave no review than a bad one, but the way we were treated was honestly terrible. Will not be returning and that manager really shouldn’t be...