The Grove — Restaurant in London

This is a great pub with a fantastic atmosphere and added bonus of a shuffle board - if you don't know what it is, I'd just recommend you come and try it!

I was skeptical (as my previous fave pub in Ealing) when they had the make over (over a year ago) from traditional old man's (comfy sofas and big high back leather arm chairs) to a more modern bistro style but I quickly adapted and is still my fave pub for drinking

We fiance and I decided to eat (for the first time) in the restaurant last Saturday afternoon. HUGE mention to Victoria who was waiting at our table - she was brilliant at her job and a huge asset to The Grove. The food was a bit of a let down - my chicken looked a little pink and was sent back - however when it came back. It was cooked to perfection. My fiance had the ribeye steak - it was £27. I did question his choice considering this isn't a steak house and quite pricey vs what you would pay in an actual steak house. It came with butter dripped all over it - in addition to the sauce on the side. I felt this was overpriced for this steak regardless of the butter smothered on top of it. It was unfortunately also sent back. My fiance instead opted for a (safe) chicken burger - which turned up watery and tasteless vs my cooked chicken (2nd time round). Victoria brought out a mushroom croquette style dish as a complimentary order while we waited. I have to say, it was delicious.

I'm not sure if it was just one of those days - or there's certain dishes which are excellent and others which aren't great ... but I want to call out Victoria once again as her customer service was excellent.

One star knocked off for the hit and miss food. I really do love this pub, so I just hope there are some tweaks made on...

Only my second restaurant meal inside in a year (like everyone else). It was the first day of 're opening'.

I was so impressed by the politeness and helpfulness of the front of house team. At one point I left my table to go outside for a cigarette and was, incredibly politely, challenged about not wearing a mask. I had simply relaxed and not remembered. I rushed back to my table to grab my mask. My fault, not theirs.

We both had the burgers. To be honest, if the review was based on a normal restaurant review it would have been 3 stars. The food was mediocre. I am allowing for problems with the food chain and just getting everyone back up to speed.

You had to order not just food but also drinks via the app. That's fine. The problem is that I was sat at a least desirable table. Since we booked late that's fine but the WiFi kept dropping out at our table. It also seems like the system couldn't cope with the demand as I spent over 5 minutes waiting for the system to accept an order. I overheard similar issues from other customers. In my case I was lucky enough to get the attention of a staff member so cancelled my online order and was able to pay by card machine (PDQ).

It should be remembered that this is the first night that indoor dining was possible. The tech issues can be fixed. The food issue needs monitoring but the venue should celebrate their front...

A few years back pre-COVID The Grove had a great chef cooking fresh food. Sadly Metropolitan has killed this pub by stamping out its centrally purchased, standardised menu that it puts into all its mainstream pubs.

Pre-cooked Sunday lunch reheated is not good food. How do you take a piece of sirloin and ruin it? You pre-cook it then reheat it so it’s dry, tough, chewy and over-cooked. All the food was luke warm. The Yorkshire pudding had been hanging around under a heat lamp for so long it was dry and crunchy along with being pretty much black. We won’t be back for food here given what Metropolitan have done.

The staff are on the whole lovely and do their best. The manager checked in given our food food, he was polite and helpful. It’s not the staff’s fault a huge pub company has ruined another formerly good gastropub. Now that the big pubcos own the majority of our pubs, there are very few good pubs to eat at. They’re fine if you like pre-cooked, frozen, unimaginative food. Not good if you appreciate fresh, interesting and tasty. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs. I hope something triggers a renaissance of the independent pub with owners who care about more than...