The Oval Tavern — Restaurant in London

Wouldn’t recommend - poor service and experience. P.s - Don’t book a table in advance, they don’t reserve tables anyway!

Myself and my partner booked a table a week in advance - as we had heard that the roasts and food in here are fantastic, and we knew that it would be busy being a Sunday afternoon.

We called ahead 2 hours before to double check the timings, a table booked for 2:30 and all was confirmed as fine.

When we arrived, it was clear to see that the pub was extremely busy, due to it being a Sunday and popular for a roast dinner, and also due to having live music on. We scanned around but every table was occupied, and as we couldn’t locate our table, decided to ask at the bar and get a drink.

We explained that we had a table booked, and the bar lady knew the name from us calling previously one can only presume. She proceeded to ask us if we wanted a drink, so we got some drinks before she then went to check with one of her colleagues which table it was, as they were all occupied.

The lady then came back smirking (I am not sure if this was embarrassment or that she found it funny), and told us that all tables were occupied, and that the only choice we had was to either sit outside in the cold or share a table with another couple sat a table for 4.

We both felt frustrated and incredibly disappointed, as this completely ridiculed the idea of booking a table in the first place. Whilst I understand that it’s a busy day / period, to not have a reserved sign on a table seemed completely disorganised, and to have us buy a drink first also made us feel that we were then backed into a corner of having to wait regardless. I decided to discuss this with the bar lady, who agreed it didn’t make much sense, but was only telling us as instructed by her senior colleague. I said that had we have known there was not a table for us, that we wouldn’t of made the effort to travel down there (around 30 mins away), and definitely would not have bought a drink! She then went away and spoke to her senior colleague once again, and came back and refunded us for the drinks we had purchased and apologised.

Myself and my partner could not believe the experience, so decided to finish the drinks and leave, so went and sat out in the garden. A member of staff came shortly after, to say that they had ‘made a table and some space for us upstairs’, but due to the experience and service previously, we politely declined.

The member of staff was very friendly and seemed genuinely gutted that we had had such a bad experience and apologised profusely. It wasn’t his fault at all, and I explained that I didn’t think it was fair that he was given the job of having to come out to us to take ‘both barrels’ so to speak, so I kindly asked if he would ask the manager to come and have a word with us so I could provide honest feedback. He went to find the manager but came back soon after and apologised to say that the manager was not available, but that he would provide the feedback to them and ensure it was passed on.

The principle of booking a table at any restaurant or pub is that it is ready or nearly ready when you arrive, and that bookings for tables are prioritised over walk in customers.

This obviously wasn’t the case here, so I can’t recommend booking a table here, as it may result in a similar experience.

Myself and my partner after phoning a few places (who were all full with bookings for roasts - what a surprise!), then decided to take a walk into East Croydon.

We came across a lovely modernised restaurant across from the station called Fern, and the experience was absolutely faultless. We decided to eat there instead and I have to say, we probably had a nicer meal than we could have had at The Oval anyway.

Safe to say we won’t be returning, and neither will our friends or family members after...

Unfortunately I won’t be back in a hurry. Went last night as a recommendation from a friend who had been and received the most attentive care from the land lady...that was not my experience. Friendly greeting and we were sat with menus, 10 minutes later after carefully choosing what we want, we decide to order and are then told everything we wanted was sold out. Not a great start - we should have been told as we were given the menus. We then ordered 4 meals, lamb burger, GF Hallumi burger and two falafel - one of which had a GF requirement and needed some changing (no falafel or pita)...yet they both came out as GF meaning all I got was a plate of salad no falafel, fine. Not happy, but fine. This got sorted and I was brought falafel about 15 minutes later when everyone had finished there meals, not ideal. Ordered three drinks, only two of them came- again mine not to be seen. Really not my night. Went outside after dinner (/the snack I was given) and ordered two more beers which took upwards of 15 minutes to arrive although the pub was mostly empty and the staff were ambling about, had to ask a second time from the man who took our order. Really need to work on customer care and quality of care. My friend picked up the bill when we weren’t looking as he was that embarrassed for our evening on...

Bit of a weird one really, it's clearly a very popular pub for the locals but that's the problem, if you're not local it seems like you're the only one not invited to the party. There's about a thousand bar staff all helping themselves to beer and coffee, all while their dressed like the village people, lugging deliveries backwards and forwards through the bar while you're trying to have a cosy drink and a meal and then cats walking round as they please. Dogs are allowed in this pub which is lovely as I love cats and dogs but I think allowing dogs to actually sit on the bar to be petted by bar staff is pushing anyone's boundaries of hygiene. After about an hour the hard wooden seating gets very uncomfortable and there is no comfy chairs here just wooden style benches. We ate here and the food is very good, ignore the mismatched plates and bowls and you can get some good food, especially the tuna melt. Very nice. All in all I very much doubt I'll ever...