The Island — Restaurant in London

Had my partner's 50th Birthday celebration here. Lovely, cosy, and aesthetically pleasing independent pub, nice friendly mix of staff - nice location in a residential area. Our guests were a happy go lucky bunch - might go back for a Sunday roast still undecided.

Maybe tokens for large party gatherings for drinks could suffice and more guidance and communication from management for a party/gathering.

Little disappointed with arranging the party and solidifying any plans - dealing with two people regarding my party booking, all wires crossed lack guidance or suggestions from management- accommodating in the start became me chasing the pub for an update (a month of this) as if I was dealing with a huge establishment, when I did get an update it was pretty just willy nilly after that, still no clarification of a proposal for food or drink just emailed over some menus, platter menu changed a week before? due to wrong dates was like rolling a dice for weeks. Had a pointless phone-call from another member of management not the person I was dealing via email made me anxious for weeks, then a call a week before the party 😳 I did get a feeling at one point I was being deterred from having my party there presumptuous of maybe my shoestring budget but the end of the day regardless am still a paying customer, because hey what’s £500 nowadays?! Was a good buzzing atmosphere on the day we booked for a Sunday it was mental staff were running around like crazy - seemed really disappointed with canapés wasn’t even worth the amount I paid (only recognised one canape that was actually on the new canapes menu) very baffled by the new canapé menu and prices - still can’t justify the service charge because from the start I still didn’t get the service my partner agrees, we didn’t bother putting up a fight because by then we were drained dealing with any more issuses - we were attended to now and again to be fair but then pretty much had to do all the chasing for side plates, extra ordered wine, children's meals (nuggets were burnt) we had to ask for the kids juice boxes. I must of run up and down the stairs a few times myself. Maybe if there was more transparency in the beginning from the pub side or just said we can’t accommodate you from the start would of been appreciated that or maybe improve the logistics and management of the pub then maybe it would of worked. Also, just realised they pubs breeched customer rights when they’ve stated at the bottom of the menu in small print, there will be a 10% discretionary service charge to our bill! Service charge was just thrown...

When I moved into the area in 1989 both my wife and I were delighted to see there was a Public House at the end of our road....It was then called THE BUCCANEER. However our delight was short lived for when we got round to visiting the said establishment it turned out to be a dirty, dingy place with glasses and seating similarly nasty and unclean. We never discovered whether food was catered for due to our reluctance to stay very long in what subsequently turned out to be a magnet for low-life, drug dealing and the such. Then to our delight a new company took over the establishment, completely refurbished/transformed it into 'A Place To Be' renamed it THE ISLAND and proceeded to make a name for itself as a 'GASTRO PUB' serving delicious food with wide and varied menus....together with excellent Wine Lists and a wonderful ever-changing selection of Draught Beers/Lagers. It was a pleasure to visit and it naturally became our LOCAL and easily achieved a 5 STAR rating. Recently however the Restaurant has been disappointing in that items on Menus, whether the regular daily or evening menus or those advertised for for special occasions (eg Mother's Day, Father's Day) run out with monotonous regularity. So much so it becomes embarrassing to invite guests to lunch or dinner and one finds one self asking the waiting staff to tell us what is still available from the menu to offset being told "we're sorry but there's none of that left". Since this has been happening it has reduced its rating to 2/3 STAR. It would appear that not enough supplies are ordered in to guarantee the availability of the items on the menu and that is unforgivable and needs to be rectified quickly before THE ISLAND is turned into a standard local pub with nothing special to offer..and no rating at all! Please don't let...

Look I’m not one to leave bad reviews just because of a minor inconvenience, so if I’m telling you this service was bad trust me, it was bad.

Our party of six has been seated by a relatively crude waitress, which I’m not too fussed by, I don’t need fanfares for my arrival, it’s fine. Also after asking three times if we could order our food after waiting quite a bit (despite the place not being particularly busy) and the eye roll I got for it, I’d let that one slide. Even the wrong order half our table got brought to by the moody waitress is not the worst part of our experience tonight. Getting drenched by a fallen tray of beers was annoying but hey, accidents do happen, however at this point I would’ve expected a sincere apology and maybe an offer to compensate for the mishap but all we got was a roll of tissues. So when the full bill of 260£ arrived (service included) I asked if they could maybe spare us a round of digestives on the house, as a courtesy for showering me and my friend with beer. Before even bringing it, we’ve been presented with another bill for said round. When we explained we were expecting a courtesy for our beer soaked clothes the waitress with the foul attitude said the bar was closed and they could not serve the drinks they were going to charge us for a moment ago and she proceeded to storm off to the back until we left.

Despite the food being decent, I’ve left the place with a bitter taste in my mouth. This was one of the worst services I have ever experienced and it’s truly a shame that this location has to suffer from it. There’s no way I’m going back there and no way I could recommend the place to anyone unless something is being done about...