The Pig & Whistle — Restaurant in London

I live in East Sheen and recently had a friend visiting from abroad. Since this pub is up the street from me we decided to go in.

The older blond and short haired lady behind the bar served my friend a beer and insisted I had to have something in order to be in the pub, which has literally never happened to me before. I don't drink because I have MS and had just had some tea so I wasn't ready for more liquid. She was very pushy and eventually served me a soda water, charging me a pound for it. If and when I ever get a water at a pub I've never been charged before, and much less demanded I buy one. She also made it very clear that if we brought anything into the pub we couldn't consume it, and we explained that we weren't planning on doing so but we had just come in from walking the street and had a bag with us with a pastry for after dinner inside. While out on the terrace, she came out and looked around to make sure we weren't consuming it.

The entire situation felt unfriendly. I do have a strong accent so it seems like I'm not from around here, but it felt like we were being singled out because we were deemed as tourists versus locals ( which my friend was, but as I said-- I live here!)

My friend wanted a beer and we would have probably stayed for a few rounds, but I made us leave after she finished the one she ordered so we could go to another pub down the street and give them our business instead. We eventually bought food from the pub and had a friend meet us there, who also bought drinks and food.

Not only did they lose business because of their bar staff's unfriendly demeanor, but I will never go back nor would I recommend the pub to anyone that comes to visit. Why would we? I would rather walk the 15 minutes into Richmond and go to the bars down there, which were friendly and welcoming...

Food really not good Steak was unedible very rubbery Bangers and mash far too smush onion and gravy - all you can taste is onion it’s really not great. My husband has tried the bangers and mash a couple of times but every time the mash is not edible as it’s all gravy and onion not much mash. Chicken wings ok

Service not great - we called to book a table as we were going to 8 people they manger said they don’t take bookings fair enough but when our friends arrived all tables were reserved (thought you said no bookings allowed so why are all reserved signs on tables when we arrived) Asked the manager she said it’s for locals we are locals we live on Sheen Lane that’s as local as it gets Manager was not very helpful and couldn’t help us just kept saying sorry she hasn’t got any tables for us - so unhelpful after we called to reserve but said we cannot reserve all our friend travelled to come have dinner with us and we now look like unorganised idiots. Not going back here for steak, bangers or service...

This is a review of the Pig and Whistle as a hotel; we booked for Thursday last week and had a really comfortable stay. Gorgeous room; small but fully equipped and the bed was gloriously comfortable (my most important room feature!). Tea & coffee making facilities; excellent shower and although the window faced into the main road, it was perfectly quiet at night. There was a fan which was most welcome as it was a warm July London night. Parking was free & secure in the pub’s own locked-at-night car park. Staff were efficient and friendly and we briefly met Jeremy the owner on our departure in the morning. We will happily stay again. Sheen is a great little suburb; right next to Richmond and Kew and easy into central London too. We walked in under 10 mins to Richmond Park, which was glorious. We didn’t try the food but the pub was popular and packed...