The Furze Wren - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in London

Is this establishment really suitable for vegans?

At first glance, you would think so. Offering a variety of options to choose from a fully vegan menu. However the complete lack of care and vigilance from the kitchen staff, combined with the fact that the staff do not enquire about any allergies or intolerances (which should be standard practice in any restaurant) you are at risk of consuming animal products.

After ordering the only vegan dessert on the menu (a torte with coconut ice cream) and the waitress specifically confirmed it was a ‘vegan torte’ when serving it, I had no doubt that it met my dietary requirements. However, after just one bite of what I believed was coconut ice cream, I knew that it didn’t. After 8 years of being vegan, I had just eaten dairy because of someone else’s incompetence.

I promptly made it to the bathroom and vomited, and continued doing so the rest of the night at home.

Luckily for me, I follow this diet for ethical reasons rather than allergies. Unfortunately that is not the case for many people. My experience resulted in an upset stomach, but it could have been fatal for someone else.

After informing a manager, she merely offered a round of drinks, which was the last thing I wanted. Still extremely upset, I did not want to leave without some kind of justice. That is when we found the absolute GEM that is Lewis.

Lewis was completely understanding and professional. He proceeded to provide us with a full refund and assured us that he would personally take care of us if we were to visit again. His sheer kindness and professionalism salvaged an otherwise disastrous evening. If it was up to me, he would be promoted to manager.

While Lewis’s actions were commendable, the overall experience was alarming. The Furze Wren needs to significantly improve its practices and staff training to ensure the safety and satisfaction of its customers, especially those with dietary restrictions. Until then, I cannot recommend this restaurant to vegans or anyone with specific...

I've frequented Furze Wren in the last one year and what comes to mind is that this place has the "home effect" on most of its customers. It's excellently located, right in the mesh of London bus stations at Bexleyheath and the nearby shopping mall has adequate parking for your car.

The ambience gives you the feel that people who visit here have come to live it over the years as it has a rustic feel to it and many of its patrons appear to "feel at home" here. I must say that whilst I like the safe and warm feel it gives, the restaurant regularly feels overcrowded and could get noise during peak periods. Whilst you'd see some "work from anywhere" patrons tapping away on their keyboards, I've struggled to settle in work the way I would at a usual cafe, despite the comfortable furniture.

One primary review point for me when visiting restaurants and pubs remains the condition of their bathroom. I just say that they get a 5 star 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟 for this. I've never had reson to complain or to be put off by their facilities, despite the customer traffic.

A second lookout for me is the customer experience extended by the staff. Nothing to complain about and nothing exceptional either. They do their jobs quite well.

A third is the food. I must admit I've not had too many meals here but the experience doesn't set it apart from the regular "British Pub". Decent enough to make you order again but you're most likely not going to make it a point to visit. Going by the volumes of regular patrons, I guess most have had a better experience than I have and the experience seems to have grown on them.

In all, I'm happy to hand out here occasionally with a fiend, have a quick drink before I'm done with shopping or engage in brief small-talk with a friendly stranger. It's a good place to be when you want to be around people and it's very...

Popular at weekends, large spoons pub with two small outside areas to sit in. Friendly helpfully staff, great choice of drinks and cocktails at a very reasonable price. Food is what you would expect from a spoons, decent size portions served in 10 minutes to your table buy friendly and happy to help staff. Pub was very busy when we visited with our hevily disabled friend and children, the door staff opened the doors and helped our disabled mate in while being patient and respectful of there independance, bar and waiting staff were very patient and attentive despite his speech issues and taking a small eternity to get his order out (pretty much deaf as a post and struggles to talk when in loud and crowded places with a very strong stutter) Left happy after several of hours, food, deserts and many many drinks. Staff 10/10 good kind and polite Cleanliness 10/10 toilets were clean and tables were cleared, mess was picked up periodically when noticed and bar was not sticky. Atmosphere 10/10 Mix of young and old, family's and groups of friends. No sign of drunks, beer fued stupidness or gobby teenage turnips. Well worth a visit with the family if in the area, parking is not so great around the pub for low mobility or elderly people as we had to park in asda 300m away (were not from the area so there may be closer places to park but pub had no parking that we saw but that is expected in a high street pub. Keep up the good work. See...