The Red Lion — Restaurant in London

As regular customers when the Red Lion was "Toby`s" we used to love to come here for family meals, the food was great, the staff were friendly and helpful and the whole atmosphere was brilliant, sadly we have visited this place twice since being overtaken by new management and both experiences were really bad. On our first visit we were given a place to sit, we went to get our food and was billed at the end, however, the carvery food was dry, tasteless and only offered a small selection of meat. We had to wait 45 mins before we could even order a drink ... by this time we had finished eating and decided to go.... we never even got to order a drink with our meals. On our second visit (returning, thinking the first must of just been a bad day for the company) we went to our table and then went to order, a member of staff quickly came over to us and told us we needed to buy our ticket at the bar first and said, "This is not Tobys anymore" in a very rude way. We went to purchase our tickets from the bar and returned to the carvery bar.... their was a choice of Gammon and chicken... all the other meat had finished. The mash was lumpy, the yorkshire puddings had shrunk (as well as the plate sizes!!) the potatoes were rock solid and the beef GRAVY was full of lumps. We were a family of six and not one of us could finish it, we were starving and forced down what we could manage ... 20 mins in and 5 out of 6 of us urgently needed the toilet (this speaks for itself). We ordered ice-cream which my children used to love and I have to say it was disgusting ... the ice-cream used to be white in appearance and tasted great, now it is yellow and RUNNY ... all my children left their ice-creams... at the end of the meal the people opposite us asked for their bill, they paid and left... yet we were told at the beginning that it does not work like this and "This is not Tobys anymore". Not once did any staff come over to see how we were and if we needed anything. Overall... This place has gone right down hill. You no longer receive any customer service, the plates have shrunk, along with the famous large yorkshire puds, the food is dry, tasteless and limited.. they seem to focus on the pizza side of things... this seems to be a big mistake.. there are already loads of pizza places in the area and they should have kept it as a Carvery instead... I would not return again to this place and now travel a little extra to a place that focus on Carvery meals, deliver good customer service and offers a family friendly atmosphere at...

2 points to this review: Writing this review on behalf of my elderly grandparents.. They came to visit me in London, but unfortunately could not park their car on my drive due to the narrow gate. Unfamiliar with the area, they pulled into the large Red Lion car park, and asked if they could pay handsomely to leave their car for 2.5 days. They were refused by the staff, and then the manager, "because if you're parked there that's one less customer I have coming in the door". Funnily enough, the locals sat nearby contested, and said they frequently park their car/vans there with no problems, and it wasn't an issue for a van that had been dumped there for months; but the manager still refused. My grandparents who had had a 4 hour drive, were pointed in the direction of the tube station car park, where they paid less than £20 for the whole time, even though they would have paid triple to the Red Lion and brought our family to dinner there. I've been to the pub myself, it's huge and mostly empty (which is probably why they're closed 2 days a week), so really it was clearly a pedantic manager that doesn't know a good deal when he hears one, nor how to treat the elderly - which I was shocked about as High Barnet is such a welcoming place.

Secondly, I have eaten here, and I've got to say it is the most bog standard Carvery I've ever had - luke warm and mushy. So they've lost out on a weekly carvery trip with 4 people, as well as the custom in the future for drinks, due to the way they've treated my grandparents.

Good job there's plenty of pubs in...

I went for my tea on the 24/03/17 with my partner, we went for a carvery and gammon and eggs. After being given a couple of tickets at the bar and a modern looking pager which should inform you when the eggs are ready, we waited for about 25 minutes (people came and went) we made enquiries to the waitress if the devise was working, off she went to check!

Yep it was fully charged was her reply on returning, we have had a bit of a mix-up in the kitchen, she offered us a top up free and said it would just be a couple of minutes. Another 10 minutes passed before another waitress came to say the eggs are ready, devise failed again!

We went to the food area only to find 2 very sorry looking eggs on a plate, I was in the process of complaining when the manager came over and asked what the problem was, I filled him in and he immediately took charge of the situation.

The Manager was absolutely spot on, he said 40 minutes waiting for food was totally unexceptionable and offered a full refund, he made enquiries with his staff and came back to explain this was a genuinely mistake and had not happened previously, he was a very genuine professional person and it was clear this was out of the normal.

He handled this perfectly and the food we got in the end (fish, chips and mushy peas and a carvery) was excellent "worth the wait in the end". The Manager also presented us with a complementary gift card to go back and give them another chance, we will as this potentially damaging situation was handled...