The Cambria — Restaurant in London

I visited this place twice, second time to give it the benefit of the doubt. I just recently moved to the area and was really excited to have this pub as my local, as it looks beautiful and has so much potential.

Both times we were extremely disappointed and underwhelmed. We ordered on our first visit a jug of mojito which literally just tasted like soda water. For £24 a jug, that’s a rip off. It was served by a youngish looking fella who looked new to the job (as he had to look at the ingredients) and was extremely introverted and shy. So we put it down to experience and ordered G&T instead.

Second visit, we ordered a jug of Pimms, from a black female staff (I purposefully avoided the younger looking boy). She honestly appeared so low and sad it sucked the energy out of us. Again, the jug tasted like flavoured soda water. Again, for £24, that’s a rip off. So this time, I mentioned it to her and she was again just so flat and apathic (I don’t know, maybe she had just woken up or something). She gave us another jug which was much better cause we had to instruct her ourselves to put less soda in it.

Honest message to the owner: I genuinely think it might be helpful for you to observe your staff and taste these cocktail jugs. Also from a business point of view, you might want to wonder why the pub looks so empty on weekend afternoons.

Perhaps it’s not the wisest decision to put a 16 year old introverted/shy boy with zero hospitality experience/skill and an apathetic bar lady as the main front staff of the bar over...

I think 3 stars is more than fair and probably generous. I am giving the stars due to the friendliness of the barman, quality of the Guinness, and the outside area.

Had dinner for 3 and was disappointed by a number of things.

1. Waiting by bar for 10 mins to be seated for a pre booking
2. 2 steaks were ordered - one medium another medium rare. The server didn’t know which was which when we got our food and never clarified
3. we ordered on bone marrow jus and one peppercorn sauce but were served 2 peppercorn sauce
4. mashed potato was disappointing - seemed watery. Only had 2 bites of it
5. both steaks were cut in half when served. Just seemed odd - was the check checking if they were properly cooked
6. Chicken burger was a bit dry
7. after our meal was done our plates were left on our table for around 30 mins. I had to go to the bar to pay and then we left. We were never offered desert and spend the last 30 mins of our evening with our half eaten food in front of us
8. on top of all this - a service charge was put on top of our meal which I felt was as a bit cheeky. When I have to go to the bar to pay what service is that?

I’ll probably return to have some beers but not to eat. The barman was friendly and had good chat and poured a good Guinness but the food and service left a lot to be desired.

An attached picture of our table covered in uncollected drinks and plates is shown. Shouldn’t have to pay a service...

This seems to be a popular pub, with the locals. It has some nice big areas that you can hire privately, i.e. xmas function, which is free with a minimum spend. We used the garden room, which had games tables, and overlooked the garden. The downside to this was that the disgusting smell of smoke came in, and people were smoking cannabis too. There should be absolutely no smoking allowed, anywhere on the premises. The food was ok, but not great. It was a Christmas menu, with most of the dishes not homemade, so although edible, nothing to write home about. It came out luke warm, too, even the chocolate pudding that should have been served hot was straight from defrost. I haven't tried the daily menu, but im sure it's better and probably homemade to order. This seems to be a family run pub, and bless them, they worked really hard and were run off their feet, running from place to place and looking after a boisterous small child, that probably should have been in bed. They definitely need more staff to cope with the bigger functions, especially in the kitchen. Warm, wholesale food is not what I expected or wanted. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, and as mentioned, it seems to be a hit with the local trendies. Do not be put off by this review. Give it a try. My comments are meant as...