The Kings Arms — Restaurant in London

Been coming to the Kings Arms for the last 10 years and usually get great food, beer and service, but unfortunately had a disappointing experience this evening. Having paid a £50 deposit for a private room, it was only made clear at the end of the night that this was supposed to be deducted from the bar bill, rather than the total food and drink bills (as they are operated by separate companies).

The manager suggested that in email correspondence and on payment of the deposit this was made clear. Our groups' recollection is different, and we understood it to be off the entire bill.

When we'd tried to open a tab earlier in the evening, a bar colleague had indicated that this was unusual and that it would be better if we paid separately. Despite it being a relatively quiet night, and obvious that our group was making multiple trips to pay for drinks separately, no staff flagged the issue.

Manager refused to refund the deposit, or transfer it to take it off the food bill. Ended up having to order £50 worth of drinks right at the end of the night where they weren't really wanted.

All felt a bit scammy to be honest. Been coming for years and never had a problem like this before. Unclear if recent change of ownership or just an...

After Thai Silk closed down in Waterloo we searched the area for another Thai eatery and stumbled across the Kings Arms. We have been several times since, most recently being yesterday for a friends birthday and cannot recommend this place enough!

The food is outstanding with my favourite dishes being the Thai fish cakes and green prawn curry. The flavours are spot on and the curry has a good kick to it.

The service from the waitress in the restaurant was friendly, efficient and catered for all our needs. The bar service was separate via scanning QR code and the drinks are delivered within a few minutes of ordering.

Overall I cannot recommend this place enough and just wish I had taken a few photos of the food to share with this review. We cannot wait for our next visit.

Update - Went again yesterday 29/10/2022 and what I said above still stands… food was AMAZING!

Also the bar side there was a friendly Irish barman who kept me company while waiting for my friends who were late. Great welcoming chap. We are coming again in two weeks to my favourite SE1 pub...

Went here with a friend on Friday night and had a drink in the pub which was great whilst we waited for our table in the Thai section. When our table was ready we were greeted by being told we had to give the table back in an hour without previously being told this. We said fine but we hadn’t been previously told and we were looked at like we were lying. Anyway, ordered our food and is was great, even though the wrong dish came for me which I mentioned to the staff that I was happy to keep what I had but it was the wrong one. I wasn’t given an apology. As soon as we’d finished our dishes we were presented with the bill and immediately followed up with someone standing over us with the card machine. No smile, no thanks, no small talk. We paid (within the hour) and my friend popped to the ladies before we planned to leave the table and I was greeted with a lady requesting us to leave our table as there were other customers waiting.

Good food but terrible service that ruins the experience....