The Bridge House — Restaurant in London

IT COULD BE SO MUCH MORE...

The Bridge House in Little Venice, is emphatically a tourist trap, especially on the weekends.

It has a lovely beer garden, views over the canals and is seconds away from the array of canal barges, that attracts the tourists in the first place.

It has a theatre upstairs (which to my shame, I have yet to use) and performances get rave reviews.

I'd come in on an exceptionally busy day, a May Bank Holiday weekend having come down to visit the Annual Narrow Boat Festival, Canalway Cavalcade (2017).

I'd come in for a Sunday lunch (as I hadn't had one in eons) but it wasn't obvious how one would go about this. The far end of the pub appeared to have a restaurant feel about it, and appeared on the service, to be receiving waitress service.

Numerous attempts were made to attract the attention of this waitress, but all came to nought.

All the tables were busy, and empty glasses abounded everywhere so it was difficult to tell if people had just arrived to dirty tables or were just about to leave.

I finally noticed a couple leaving a table with oddly only one seat, secluded behind the main entrance door, which I immediately secured by placing my jacket over the back of, before heading back to the bar to figure out how to order.

The bar staff, were exceptionally slow in their delivery, not acknowledging customers as they came to the bar, to ensure which order to serve them in and generally chatting amongst themselves.

I was however impressed, when asking the barman that finally graced to serve me, which Beer was the strongest, that he replied instantaneously with "No Rest For Dancers at 6.2%" which I ordered.

The £5.35 price tag for a pint of it, did come as somewhat as a shock though.

I also ordered the Half-Chicken Sunday Roast, with all the trimmings, which at £12.50 was comensurate to general London prices for such an offering.

It took about 20 minutes to arrive, with condiments arriving, after requesting them.

And to be fair, it was a hearty offering and some very decently cooked food, a "boat" of bread-sauce was extremely appreciated too. The chicken was cooked well as too the Yorkshire Pudding and the Roast potatoes. So in all, no complaints about the food at all.

The ambience is course and loud and not for everyone, I couldn't tell if there was Muzak in the background, but everyone, appeared to need to shout to be heard and in a full house, that was a cacophony that became a little difficult to bear.

But overall, if you can find a reasonably priced pint on offer, here the Sunday Lunch at least is definitely worth a punt if you're in the area and it's a Sunny day to get best use of that Beer Garden or the Views from the front.

As an aside, they were doing a barbecue in the front garden, but for £7 for a burger, I would avoid that too.

Overall, this pub, with much better service could be a real destination venue, but as it stands, one hopes it looks after it's regulars but is definitely not a repeat venue...

Lovely traditional pub in Little Venice, however… the staff seem to have a slight bit of confusion over their menu One of our dining party decided to go for the healthier ‘Spiced Parsnip and Sweet Potato Soup’ over a main meal. Upon placing the order, we were made aware that there was none of the aforementioned soup left and that it would be mushroom soup. Fine, we said. That’s no bother. Myself now, I came across ‘Steak, Shin & Ale Pie’ “delightful” I thought! Placed my order and awaited eagerly for the savoury boozy beef pastry to be served. Once the meal came out, I cut into my pie only to notice that the cow meat was white in colour and was accompanied by some pig, white sauce and some leek… I called over the waiter who seemed a tad flustered before skipping off to confer with the chef about the animal inside the pie. He came back and told me it was indeed beef. I picked the meat apart and asked if he had ever seen white beef before. (Maybe the chicken that ended up in there was a bit confused which pie factory he was suppose to be attending on the day of the pie construction) We had a back and forth arguing about the fact that my pie was in fact chicken and not beef. I told him to take it to the chef and check. The chef then confirmed that it was not indeed the boozy beef pie I thought I was getting. I was told I could have 1/2 off of my meal at this point, which I argued and eventually got the meal for free. Turns out the menu is going to change next week and there had been a mix up with the pies. (Though, the customer is always right, right?) it appeared so in this case. All good, we cleared that one up! Remember back to that soup? Turns out the soup was not mushroom either and it was indeed the menu promised ground vegetable parsnip and sweet potato. All in all a confusing meal But apparently the fish was...

One of the disadvantages of going back to a place after a long absence is that I compare then with now. It's been 14 years and little had changed here (good sign). Covid has, however, changed everything, especially in this sector, and I accept that things need to evolve. Establishment was very quiet, where we'd just been was much busier, but the plus side was no door staff. My other personal choice is that if a pub needs door staff then it doesn't need my custom.

Service was good, advice given as to best offering that was quite specific, but here's the issue (for me):

Accepting card only payments is a management choice, nothing to do with hygiene. With the vaccine rollout this is a purely commercial decision, and not one I espouse.

Others will disagree, move with progress etc. I sadly am rooted in the need for choice. My companion had cash ready, but this was declined once the drinks had been procured. She didn't have her card, so I had to pay with mine. Our outing was a celebration and she was the celebrant. Not an issue, I'm not being a 'cash fascist', but further expenditure here was abrogated in favour of an establishment that did accept cash (and we found plenty elsewhere). Perhaps a more prominent notice indicating the establishment 'rule' would be helpful to save possible embarrassment? Apart from this, just as I remember when I used to come with fellow members of staff many years ago, after a hard evening dispensing wisdom to the children of others. As mentioned above, for me a positive sign.

If it ain't broke don't 'fix' it (and apologies if I'm sounding like Victor...