The Old White Lion — Restaurant in London

I visited The Old White Lion on 11/03/25 with my friend at 7:30pm. We didn’t have a reservation but were hoping to grab a bite. When we arrived, the waiter, Justin, informed us that the restaurant was busy and there might not be any space. We enquired about a free table that we could see, and he handed us the menus. However, he didn’t show us to the table, so we found a spot ourselves.

45 minutes passed, and no one came to check on us. We asked other diners if they had seen any waitstaff, but they hadn’t either. By this time, the dining area was much emptier as people had finished their meals. Finally, Justin walked by, and we informed him we had been waiting for nearly 50 minutes. He starting explaining he was the only one working and was very busy. He told us to give him four minutes, and he'd return. It was only 30% full at that point.

Another 10 minutes passed, and when he did return, he suggested we go to the bar to place our order. I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn’t told us that from the start instead of making us wait for over an hour. As my friend went to the bar to order, Justin immediately then went to another table and took their order, apologising to them in the process. Not once did he offer an apology to us, even though we had been trying to be understanding the entire time.

I later confronted Justin, asking why he had been dismissive and why the service had been so poor, especially considering my previous experiences here had always been great. He said he had been busy, and that other customers had been waiting longer, but I pointed out that no one had been told to go to the bar like we were, and by that point, the dining area had cleared out. Justin didn’t seem apologetic and appeared eager to end the conversation.

I spoke to the staff behind the bar about the situation, but at that point, no one had yet made an effort to take our order, and their response was equally dismissive. There was a sense that we didn’t quite fit in with the usual crowd at the pub, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were treated differently.

As we were leaving, the staff behind the bar stared at us, and Justin, when he saw us, simply turned back to the kitchen. No one seemed interested in providing help or acknowledging us further. It's disappointing when a place you’ve visited before with good experiences becomes a place of poor service and neglect.

If you're willing to wait an hour for no one to take your order, this might be the place for you. But for me, it's clear that something was off and I can say I’ll that I will not be returning...

I visited the Old White Lion for a roast with my husband and daughter. We’ve been many times before, and on the whole the food has always been fairly decent. We’ve been for Christmas dinner in the past and I also had held my baby shower there.

However, today it was such a disappointment. Upon arrival we were immediately told that there was no roast beef. (Not completely unexpected as it was just after 6pm). So my husband and I ordered the roast pork and a kids chicken roast. When they arrived we immediately felt we’d made the wrong choice in going there. The plates looked sad, everything on the plate was either over done or looked like it had been sitting around for hours. There were 3 (VERY small) roast potatoes at the most. My daughter’s chicken roast came with an inedible piece of stuffing that was like a brick, and a pig in blanket that looked like charcoal. The veg on all the plates looked lifeless and shriveled, the gravy was tasteless/cold and the pork almost solid.

We immediately complained about the stuffing and pig in blanket on our child’s plate to our waitress (who seemed agitated since arrival). She notified the chef and came back and said they were “fully aware of the issue and the whole batch was the same”, she offered chips as a replacement which seemed a bizarre offer for a roast, so we declined. We were confused as to why you would even serve inedible ingredients knowingly. There was no reduction on the bill or an attempt to make good other than the chips offer. We weren’t asked how our meal was at the end, if anything we felt an attitude that made it pointless in even providing our feedback on the meal as whole. We only ate ours because we were starving.

For £21 a roast (an average price for a roast out) I would most definitely not recommend. It was far below average. We have had many Sunday roasts out and this was unfortunately the worst in a long time. Such a shame as we had previously liked this pub but both the food and waitress that served us today has meant we are unlikely to...

I booked a table for 9 people last Sunday. The place was empty and yet the food took an hour. Sunday Roasts were the only thing on the menu, so why the long wait? It was only after we had paid did anyone tell us of the components that were missing from each dish that day too. After waiting an hour for our food (that came at different times) we were disappointed to find it was all overcooked. Is that what the hour long wait is for, to make sure it's overcooked? The squid was like fishy toenail clippings and the whitebait were like burnt matchsticks. Our mains came halfway through our starters, again at differing times. The manager then turned on the TV that was behind us for the Rugby. Why on earth did they stick us under the TV when they knew a match would be starting an hour later? We were told to move if we didn't like it, with no help from the staff. This is not easy, especially with two kids. Needless to say our meals were cold. Didn't matter anyway, the roast dinner put in front of me was the saddest plate of food I have ever seen. We complained to the Manager and he couldn't care less. We got refunds on our meal but no apology. The other staff were embarrassed to say the least, I don't blame them though, the manager must be a hard person to work for but you could tell that this sort of thing happens all the time. Ok, so some people don't go to pubs for food, I understand but if a pub does both they should do both competently. The ale selection is hit and miss a lot of the time, most of the time I find the ales are off which is always disappointing. This pub used to be great but now it just looks like its waiting to be shut down. I hate to see pubs close but I'll be celebrating when this one does. Avoid at all costs...