The Forester, Ealing — Restaurant in London

Stayed here for a night, not as good as I expected. They did absolutely well on some points, but the weaknesses were huge enough to call it a small disappointment.

Following the map, the place was easy to find. The customer service was good, no complain. The check-in process was efficient, I got to my room within 3 minutes.

As you could see in the photos, the bedroom was a bit small. All the essential stuff were there to make it a good basic level room, but a fair distance away from an average hotel. The bathroom was relatively spacious, again with key items only.

The O2 WiFi provided was miserable and just not acceptable. It took me more than 3 minutes to get linked. Afterwards, very unstable and the speed was way below average. The moment when I was typing these comments, I tested the speed. Ping 1076 ms, Download Speed 3.75 Mbps and Upload Speed 0.54 Mbps. No excuses, those numbers should not appear anywhere in London in 2023. Yeah it was free, but it was only better than nothing. Even for this reason alone, I will think twice before I book another night here.

Not far from West Ealing Station nor Northfields Station, meanwhile located in a fairly quiet place. But for me, the quietness is not good enough. The building is bit old, I could easily hear sounds from somewhere else in the building. What's more, because Heathrow Airport is only several stations away, the airplane sound is frequent and annoying. Honestly I am very sensitive to sounds, so my standard on this one is always high. Maybe others are fine with the quietness, not sure.

I ordered a Sirloin Steak for my dinner. Asked for Medium Rare, but the steak turned out to be way Well Done so it was really tough. Expected a sauce for the steak, but only had a variety of condiment. The beer was great, overall not bad.

In the evening, less frequent than the daytime, but the airplane sound was still hearable. As a bonus, I could hear regular snores from downstairs! With the help of my ear plugs, the night went better than I thought.

The Continental Breakfast is served as default. The Hot Breakfast is always available, but you have to ask them personally. A variety of choices are presented, I appreciate the freshness and quality of the foods. The check-out process was as good...

🚇 Northfields 🍺 £6.25 Amstel

The Forester is located in a quiet residential street in Northfields, Ealing, West London. The nearest Tube is Northfields.

This stunning Edwardian pub was built in 1909 and designed by notable architect Thomas Henry Nowell Parr. It is Grade II listed and features a distinctive exterior with columned porticoes, green-glazed brickwork, and prominent gables. It is operated and run by Fuller’s.

The interior is as striking as the exterior and retains much of its original Edwardian character, including a four-room layout. The Public Bar is situated on the right-hand side of the pub and features a beautiful curved servery that stretches the length of the bar. The middle bar has beautiful Tudor arches, Edwardian fireplaces with green tilework, floral Art Nouveau–style stained glass, and rich mahogany wall panels. Just off the middle bar is another room set aside for dining. At the rear of the pub is a sizeable beer garden with covered booths and a large marquee area.

The beer selection offers something for everyone and includes an impressive six cask ales. I opted for an Amstel — my pint was great, price point was a gnat’s above average. The food menu is predominantly Thai, although some pub classics are available, along with a carvery on Sundays. The food was very reasonably priced by comparison.

I arrived at 11 a.m. on an overcast Saturday morning in August. I was the first one through the door, as the pub had just opened. As you can imagine, the atmosphere was calm and relaxed, the build-up to the early kick-off was showing on the many screens dotted around the pub. The service was top notch, there were two friendly lads on duty, getting the pub ready for the day’s trade.

I have visited many gorgeous looking pubs across London, and The Forester has to be up there with the best of them. Not only does it offer an exquisite place for a pint, there’s plenty to keep you entertained too, with live sport, pub quizzes and live music. Absolutely loved it here, this is a must visit London pub.

Follow @theforester_w13 for updates.

📅 16th August 2025

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My family & I just had a carvery this afternoon at the Foresters. The food were OK, nothing special, although the staff serving the food were very polite & helpful.

The bar staff however really didn't know they're bar well, my daughter asked for a very popular drink which the bar tender claimed she didn't know only for it to be all over the other bar in the restaurant area.

Even though we had booked a table when we arrived I mentioned this to the bar tender, but we were told we had to just go around to the restaurant and see if we could find a table, which I didn't find very helpful when I had made a point of booking the day before. The only table available was right in front of the bar, at the time we thought nothing of it until we were constantly surrounded by people queuing at the bar around our table while we were trying to eat. I were getting pushed and shoved by people coming & going and I were actually shoved 3 times by the same man at one point that were stood with his backside in my face for a good while as I were trying to eat my food but was still managing to push and shove me which totally put me off my dinner. I ended up leaving most of my food as it was not only very uncomfortable trying to eat with so many people surrounding us, but it also felt extremely covid vulnerable being so close to that many people packed around our table trying to get to the bar while we were eating and not wearing our masks as we were trying to eat and 90% of the customers queing to get to the bar that were surrounding us wasn't wearing face masks.

So we felt a little bit like sitting ducks at that table to be honest.

A suggestion to the management that the table right under the bar in the restaurant area should be removed to make more space for people to que and make it less uncomfortable for paying customers trying to eat they're food.

Needless to say we will not be...