The Mudlark — Restaurant in London

This venue felt more prison than pub.

We had to wait in a long queue as our host engaged in an unnecessarily long speech to every single person entering about the various Covid rules (all of which were obvious, such as wearing your mask when leaving your seat, and could have been summarised in many fewer words), all whilst his own mask was not covering his nose. When I asked if they had a paper version of track and trace, as I am unable to use QR codes on my phone, our host responded rudely, questioning why he would ever have a paper version. Many pubs I have been to recently do have paper track and trace forms - these are a vital lifeline to those without the required technology, including many elderly and vulnerable people. I managed to get in through my friend scanning the code and filling out my details.

We had booked a table for 5 inside and were given a table for 4 outside, though thankfully it had a heat lamp and cover. That said, it felt very uncomfortable getting up to put the heat lamp back on, as we continually felt we were being watched by staff and that we would be reprimanded for leaving our seats. The drinks were the usual expensive price one would expect in London Bridge (which I can forgive them for), though these were served in generic pint glasses.

Moreover, our friend who was joining late was stopped from entry because he had a 'bad attitude'. All he did was mistakenly go upstairs, having become lost as it isn't immediately clear where to go upon entry. We had to negotiate and apologise profusely to let him in.

Overall, there are plenty of pubs in the area that are more deserving of your time. This was easily the worst pub I have been to since the April reopening, with every other experience having been most pleasant. I'm sure majority of staff at the Mudlark are lovely people; I have no qualms with them, only the ridiculously rude middle manager who seemed to rule this pub with...

Failed in 2 out of 2 visits. On the first visit, a member of staff sold me a round of drinks shortly before 10pm. A few sips later he informed the pub was closing and we should leave. It turned out that on Wednesdays they closed early, at 10pm - a fact he did not bother to mention during my purchase. Most of my round of 4 drinks went down the drain. After all when entering a pub we all check first if they close before the usual 11pm, right? On another visit, I joined a group of 4 friends and we had a nice time chatting in the beer garden. Three hours into the visit, we decided to move inside the pub. I went to the toilet and after return I met only one member of the party. She informed me only that we were asked to leave the pub and had no more details to share. A waiter soon came up to us and said "One person from your group was found smoking a joint. Please leave the pub now.". It was like a bucket of cold water thrown at me, out of the blue. I had visited 100+ pubs in London, but had never faced this sort of situation, nor a request to leave, so I tried to ask who did it and where. Has the waiter taken a polite route to explain what happened and the company policy in this matter, I would have accepted the consequences and left. Instead he decided to keep reiterating the humiliating "Please leave the pub now", like a soleless robot. When manager joined I had a glimmer of hope for human interaction, however, despite his seniority and rank his soft skills appeared on a par with those of the waiter. This time leaving a fresh round of drinks for nearly £30, shared with a friend, was the least of my worries when exiting the pub. The worst experience in a...

Extremely confused and disappointed about a recent experience here. It's a nice enough place, but for some bizarre reason one of the staff came up to our table to complain that we had only ordered a cappuccino and six glasses of water, and refused us service. This would be understandable if that's all we ordered, but by this point we had already ordered 3 or 4 pints, a dessert, two pots of tea, and an orange juice, with another pot of tea and juice on the way, as well as some other snacks. The weather was absolutely miserable, and as a consequence the bar was half empty, so it's not like we were taking up valuable table space. We'd even moved to a smaller table to not take up too much space, and I was denied an additional chair when I joined late because "if someone comes to that other table later they'll have a missing chair". This also makes absolutely no sense to be because the table in question at that point was occupied by two gentlemen who clearly were not using the other four chairs.

I genuinely cannot understand why we were made to feel so unwelcome. It was a quiet afternoon, the bar was half empty, and we were definitely not hogging tables for the hordes of hungry customers outside. I left immediately after this incident, but it seems r manager found time to speak condescendingly to some of the other members of my party as they walked out, which doesn't improve matters much. Pity that this has permanently crossed such a nice-looking pub off my list. Thankfully there are tens of equivalent establishments round the corner where I've never encountered any such...