The Oak — Restaurant in London

Very small portion of chicken with the roast dinner , normally get a quarter or even in most places half a chicken. Small portion of breast for the price was not justifiable at £16.50. The veg was mediocre and not enough there. Potatoes had no flavour and looked deep fried rather than roasted. No evidence of the thyme as stated on the menu. My partners meat came out cold so I had to eat my dinner on my own which ruined our dining experience, had I waited for his to come out before I started eating mine would have gone cold.

Grumpy teenage waitress took order for drinks straight away, my partners beer came after about 5 mins, I ordered a Bloody Mary which didn't arrive with his beer instead was told that the bar person didn't know how to make one and was looking it up .....not good! I mean what training did that bar person have that they don't know what a Bloody Mary is? Grumpy teenage waitress then brought my drink which wasn't good. To make matters worse the food arrived before my drink came so I didn't even get the chance to have a sip before I was tucking into my roast dinner which came approx. 10 mins after we arrived…...

There was no atmosphere whatsover, for a Sunday afternoon you'd expect a buzzing little vibe - but no - it was stale and boring. Piped music that was on very low so I could actually hear the couple opposite us. Oh I forgot to mention when our food was served we had to wait a further 5 minutes for grumpy teeenager to bring the cutlery. We noticed she did the same with the other clients, is this company policy? Don't bring cutlery until after food has been served? Never experienced that before! We used to come when it was under the previous management and we loved the roasts the buzzy atmosphere, it was always busy and customer service was exemplary ...maybe get in touch with the previous management teamj and...

We arrived on a rainy day hoping to grab a coffee as the cafe down the road was shut. The coffee machine was broken here with only hot chocolates and tea available. We got one of each. They were as expected.

The food however, was the real upset with our visit. We ordered the steak sandwich on focaccia and the fish and chips.

The steak sandwich was like chewing a rubber tire. My partner had asked for medium rare but it was well beyond well done and had many sinews and stringy bits with it. A bad cut I imagine. The focaccia was nice but I wouldn’t have said it was a proper focaccia as it was very soft.

I chose the fish and chips as I thought a pub classic may be easier to get right… the chips were incredible… but the fish. It was caked in lots of batter to the point where the fish was over cooked, but somehow there was still some batter which was uncooked and very very floury (you could feel the flour grains). The fish itself was dry as cardboard, as if it had never lived in water when it had been alive. The tar tar sauce was good though, homemade, and I usually don’t like tar tar sauce.

We were a bit distraught at the prices for these meals considering the quality. We may have been the first people to order from the kitchen as it was lunch time, but I feel that wouldn’t explain everything that was wrong with the food.

If you’re going for just a pint then you...

Disappointing Experience with Poor Service and Food Visited The Oak in Bromley tonight and had a very poor experience from start to finish. The food was awful and the service was disorganised and slow.

There were only two young waitresses working who were clearly overwhelmed, which meant they were unable to provide decent service. We waited a long time just to receive a kids’ menu. When food finally started arriving, the adults’ meals came out first, and both kids’ meals were delayed. One arrived a little later, but the second was significantly more delayed and had to be chased twice. We also had to chase twice more just to get some ketchup.

The nachos were burnt and tasted terrible. No one came to check if everything was okay. The kids’ fries were extremely salty, completely unsuitable for a child.

The manager spent most of the evening standing at a table chatting and appeared completely unaware of the poor service and the multiple issues guests were having. The table next to us had a similar problem, receiving their food well before their small child’s meal arrived.

While the waitresses were polite, they only did the bare minimum. They didn’t check in, offer any updates, or acknowledge the delays. Overall, the experience felt chaotic, poorly managed, and not worth repeating.

We won’t...