The Hercules, Lambeth — Restaurant in London

As a local resident for the last 17 years I was intrigued to see this place open as a Fullers pub, if that is indeed what it is because the standard does not suggest so, unless Fullers’ standards have dropped considerably. Maybe they have now that the brewery has sold out. First, this is more like a restaurant than a pub: tables are laid out like a restaurant. There are few if any bench seats as one would normally find in a pub. But worst of all, the beer is poor and the food is too. And yet very highly priced. £15 for fish and chips and I have had much better in a regular take away style chip shop. This was tasteless and greasy. And it’s not a one off. I came here a month ago and thought I would give it a second chance. But it was exactly the same. And yet the place seems very popular. I just cannot imagine why as it has no real ambience either. Actually maybe it has a little. All in all a great disappointment. Massively overpriced for what it is. But regardless of price, the quality of food and drink is poor/very poor respectively. I have never tasted London Pride as poor as this. I can only assume there is no one here who knows how to keep and serve beer, which is pretty alarming given how they sell themselves as a tap room type establishment. There seem to be lots of staff wizzing around, although none of them look like they have any pride or interest in the quality of the product they are serving up. Very disappointing. I think this place must barely survive on (a) tourists in nearby hotels who want to experience a pub meal and like the relative newness of the place (terrible advertisement for English pub experience in that case: sorry tourists but you can get way, way better than this - in fact there are pubs around Britain - England, Scotland and Wales - that sell some amazing food and excellent British ales - this is NOT one of them!) and (b) local office workers who are perhaps desperate for a pub lunch and hope (I would think in vain) that their experience might be better than the last. If Asahi own or licence this place where is Japanese excellence? This place is like some nightmare vision of a British pub. I remember visiting an “English” pub in Kyoto in 1996. It was a kind of slight plasticky recreation of an English pub and was largely populated by expat Americans and Australians and their Japanese work colleagues. I would say that Kyoto pub was closer to a real English pub experience than this place. It pains me to say this about my “local” but this establishment should be avoided. If you want a more authentic London pub experience try one of the others nearby. A massive opportunity missed. My advice: drop all the fancy ales and focus on a hand full that are properly kept and presented and taste good (I hope Fullers still produce decent ale but coming here you have to wonder), get rid of the restaurant style seating and service, get some staff who are passionate about and understand what an English pub should be about and sort out the kitchen so that good quality and TASTY pub food is served up at the quite high prices that you no doubt need to charge to turn a profit. I am astonished that this place has managed to achieve so many positive reviews. Either there are some fake reviews out there or the place is a complete lottery food and drink wise. But for me it’s not just about the food and drink: the whole experience is pretty grim, sadly and is not at all representative of English, or British, pubs as they should be and are in many towns and cities around our great nation. Good pubs are harder to find in a London than outside. But there are some excellent pubs in London. There are also quite a few like this one, unfortunately. If you want to experience a real London pub with excellent ales and great food, try the Edgar Wallace in...

Can't say enough about the quality of service at this place. From the personable staff to the drinks and food, this was one of my favorite spots to come visit during my trip to London. We stayed at the Park Plaza London Waterloo and the Hercules is located directly across the street. It seems like they're open all the time, which is amazing when you're hungry or wanting to hang back with friends and having a drink.

I got the pleasure of being served two nights in a row by a bartender named Tom. He was very informative when asking about drink selections as well as spots to hit up in the city for various things like shopping/sights. He gave excellent directions for easy transport to SOHO, Tom is that dude, go chop it up with him at night while having some drinks.

In the morning, my family and friends went there for breakfast. I believe it was Jason and Layla (please correct me if I got the names wrong), who served us breakfast. The place has a great ambiance and food to boot. I had the full English breakfast which was phenomenal. They are so amazingly friendly here, I was overly blown away by how accommodating they were. I have a 5-year-old who is quite picky, and Jason worked with us to find something that was just right for her to eat, despite the menu options. Everything was fresh and delicious.

I highly recommend you visiting this spot when you're in the area. Keep up the amazing work Hercules, we'll be visiting you...

I really really wanted to like this place. I live locally and am trying out all the breakfast places in my area. This one was the next on my list and looks promising from the outside. But it went quickly downhill as soon as we entered.

The staff are kind but look overworked. this resulted in a 20 minute delay in being able to even give my order. That's problem number one.

Problem number 2? The price. No part of me can condone charging £2.80 for a small amount of orange juice poured out of a carton. We paid £30 for two people for our breakfast. There are cheaper options literally everywhere else. If I pay that much I want something special..

Which brings me to problem number 3, the quality. When our food came out it was cold. We had ordered eggs Benedict and what we got was cold stale muffin topped with ok ham topped with a badly poached egg and a congealed sauce that only mildly resembled hollandaise in appearance.

I feel quite cheated by this place. The sad thing is that they are taking advantage of the many tourists coming from...