The Commercial — Restaurant in London

The picture of the “mojito” speaks for itself ..£8.95 for a mojito out of a can, which also tasted exactly the same as the overly sweet lidl canned mojito, was not even poured to the top, with dead withered rotting mint. I would have been embarrassed to serve this to a customer, the mint looked as unbothered as (some) of the staff. As it wasn’t filled to a reasonable level in the glass, it looks like they used one can to fill 2 glasses and they charged £17.90 for that. Some (not all) of the staff looked like they were really sad being there, not sure if they just should not be in a customer facing role or whether higher management are making them hate their job. This kind of environment sets the tone for the pub. I thought that maybe the freshly made drinks would be better, nope! The gin tasted like it had been open for years. I have the same gin at home and it tasted nothing like it. When gin has been opened for a while it loses its flavour including colour in some cases, any one working at a bar should know that. The prices they charged were extortionate considering the poor quality of the drinks. No one I was with had a good drink, and we all left after the second one as we all had enough. I am frustrated I spent the amount I did on drinks that were not even proper drinks. Hands down the worst pub I have ever been to. Plenty of better choices in herne hill!!!

Update: from this review, I have received the following response from general management. This is a completely inaccurate and absurd accusation. The gaslighting is unbelievable and I can only assume this gaslighting behaviour from management is the reason the staff looked as miserable as they did when I visited. I did not ask once for free drinks, nor have I asked on multiple occasions. I also didn’t ask for a refund we just walked out and left. Who in their right mind would ask for free drinks at a pub? How would that conversation even go? “Hi can I have a free drink please” of course not! I also did not ask for a discount of any kind. I ordered on the app/QR code and had no interaction with the bar staff while ordering, and definitely did not ask for free drinks. General management have the audacity to say that this does not accurately reflect what happened when they had made up everything in their comment. Prices at your venue would be reasonable yes if you didn’t give me a mojito out of a can with dead mint or if you didn’t give me old gin that had lost its colour and flavour.

Again, I do not know who you are talking about in your response as you may be thinking of someone else as this seems like a regular occurrence if you’re mixing me up with another customer. But the staff didn’t even acknowledge me I ordered via QR code as they were so miserable I did not even want to ask for a replacement or a refund, but in hindsight I should have. Instead I ordered gin and a mixer thinking it would be better as it wouldn’t be out of a can and it wasn’t. We left at this stage as nothing would have improved.

On a lighter note, I have attended this venue again with my friends as I live local and had a beer and a much better experience there and better customer service. So this incident was clearly a one off but it did happen as I had described. Now that I’ve seen the disgusting false accusations from management this will not be my spot of choice...

Thanks for your comments as the owner. You've not read my review carefully enough. My whole point was we didn't have two hours notice that the table was reserved. No notice was on the table. Only after two hours did the a bar member, wordlessly, put the sign on. I'm sorry but the staff were not polite, the other bar staff member pushed back when we complained, rather than sympathising and offering to help. I gave a suggestion in my review about how they could have dealt with the situation more sympathetically, but didn't. Please don't be defensive, I can understand you defending your staff, but you weren't there - please accept that customers might have legitimate complaints. Also if I wish to complain about the quality of a musician I am effectively paying to listen to (that was a previous review incidentallyfrom 2 years ago), then I am quite entitled to and it is not disrespectful. The musician was simply not of sufficient quality. My review attempted to be humorous. As it was 2 years ago the quality of musicians may well have improved since. Kind regards.

Was in the Commercial again on Friday night 15th August 25. Sitting happily in the bar for several hours from 4.45 till about 6.45 with two pals, spent around £100 on beers, if not more. Bar person then comes up and plonks a sign on table saying 'reserved from 7.30', bar person doesn't say a word. We continue drinking. Another bar person comes up after a bit and says we'll have to move. We say we have been there for several hours and the table wasn't reserved. Bar person says "but it's booked from 7.30 and they have specifically asked for this table". Bar person exudes zero charm or empathy. We protest, but he says it's the management's policy.

Look fellas, it ain't a restaurant, even if you serve food - first come first served in pubs. We'd given you plenty of revenue and custom until that point. Even if the table was booked before 4.45 you should have put a sign on it before we sat there so we would have known. And so what if the people who booked liked that table - we liked it too and we were sitting there first! Also your bar staff need to work on their customer care skills. First bar person should have said something when he plonked the sign down. Second bar person should have said "sorry fellas, let's see if we can find another table you'd like". This is basic stuff about hospitality and how to serve people and get them on your side rather than antagonise them, which was what the outcome was that evening. You got it wrong on several levels. We left and walked across the road to the Half Moon. As with my comment on my first review - don't drive your customers to your competitors. It's a nice pub but terrible live music in there tonight. Basically a busker who murdered 'No Woman No Cry' swiftly followed by 'Hotel California' . I was tempted to call the police to report a musical crime scene. He couldn't hit the notes and it was painful. London is brimful of musicians, why oh why drag in a no hoper when there is so much talent out there? Perhaps a friend of the bar staff. Given hospitality is so fraught at the moment, the manager of the Commercial needs to make better choices about the live music. We left and went to the Half Moon across the road. Don't drive your clientele to the...

We visited on Sunday afternoon (16 Aug 2020) . Waited by the door as instructed due to COVID-19, staff walked past but didn't acknowledge us waiting and the pub was very quiet.

When we were eventually seated, we waited around 15 mins to order a drink and food, I had to get the attention of the barman who'd served 2 other parties that had arrived after us.

Food arrived, salad was missing the bacon, chips instead of fries. We didn't bother flagging this as the waiter seemed disinterested from the start., he'd hardly said a word to us. After a bite out of my burger which was dry I realised it was missing cheese and a hashbrown. I decided this was worth mentioning. Burger was taken away and 10 mins later it came back, same burger with the bite mark in it but now it included the cheese and hashbrown. I decided that I'd rather not eat it as it was now cold and had been taken for a tour around the pub and kitchen which is a bit off putting at the best of times let alone during COVID, I had expected a fresh one.

I pointed this problem out to a different member of staff who apologised and removed the burger from the bill plus she gave us 20% off the whole bill, which was appreciated. When everyone had finished their food and as we'd not been asked if we wanted any more drinks since the 1st order we decided to leave. I had to ask the same person for the bill twice, it was then dumped on our table without a thank you and the guy walked off he didn't bring the card reader over despite it being card payment only. The bill didn't include the full discount and as the guy had disappeared, I had to go and find the person who had originally dealt with our complaint and get that sorted out. Bit annoying as it defeats the point of social distancing if you have to walk around the pub looking for staff.

A disappointing experience throughout. From a business perspective it seemed crazy that after our initial order we were never asked if we wanted any more drinks, we ended up moving on to another pub and for 2 more rounds, which we would have had in The Commercial if the service was any good. Decor wise it was a nice pub and the beer was good too, food was average.

Also I want to point out that we weren't in some mad rush but as the pub was so empty it was frustrating that we just seemed to be ignored, nobody acknowledged we were there and said 'I'll be with you in 5 mins' every interaction had to be...