The Rookwood Village — Restaurant in London

Less than average experience unfortunately, poor customer service experience ordered food and waited the best part of 2hrs overall, food filtered out very slowly, even though the pub wasn't busy, not one word of apology, or any updates before, during or after, took us to prompt them and then staff played stupid games, as reported the issue to one staff member and said they would send manager over and when manager did come over pretended to not know about the issue, collecting the empty glasses, acted very sheepish... Take ownership. The pizzas are poorly prepared, with a significant lack of topping, The Jerk pizza had 6-7 pieces of unflavoured chicken and around 6-7 of the thinnest shaved red pepper topping, and just loads of sauce squirted over it. Less than a quarter of the pizza had toppings in total. Overpriced for what you get, I've actually had frozen pizzas better than this, which cost a fraction of this price. Having spent in excess of £140+ on food & drink, I could have had a feast at pizza hut, or another alike chain. This place boast selling a premium product, and charge a premium price, but frankly they fail to deliver. To make a point we actually brought an extra pizza, and only ate the parts which had toppings, which equated to only a quarter of the pizza. The manager we eventually aired our complaint to was surprised at seeing the visual representation of just how poorly the pizza was prepared. On complaining granted the manager offered to refund the pizza element of the order, and brought the cash to the table, but only after disappearing for the best part of 15 minutes, we refused the refund, and he took the money away with him again, however given the amount of money we spent and being locals, the manager should have invited us back for a chance to redeem themselves with a meal on the house or even a significantly discounted experience on another occasion. Also giving the excuse the kitchen is busy, doesn't make it ok to wait the time we did, and then get poorly topped pizzas. Not sure why the manager felt that was an acceptable excuse, if it was so busy, why at the point of ordering did staff not notify us of the potential delay? It was the same with the desserts we ordered, they all came out around 15 minutes apart, and then only after I prompted staff, after already waiting 40 minutes... When is that ever acceptable? The kitchen have some serious issues, especially when I'm walking past to go to the bar, the kitchen staff are laughing and joking around, surely they can't be that busy... I would NOT recommend this venue, especially as there are other pubs locally that have a significantly better customer service experience as well as a better food choice. Note to venue, learn customer service, you have inconsistent service, and very poor food service. Take feedback and improve the...

Updated to recent visit: Took me two years or something to try it again.

Up from 3 to 5 stars.

The food was really excellent - pizzas and a pint 2 4 £24 and sundae, spot on, so I think they have found their groove. Would return for the food. —— We went a couple of days after it opened. The refurbishment is nice and the atmosphere was pretty good given there was no natural mingling / standing due to Covid.

The service was a shambles, no one seemed to be in charge or know what was going on. It was quite entertaining to people watch but felt sorry for the staff who were trying hard and seemed nice but had no idea where to take food. Disgruntled customers were pulling them aside all over to figure out what was going on.

We had booked a table for 8pm and specified it was a dinner booking - yet when we came to ordering at the bar (because the app is possibly the worst UX I’ve ever come across), they said the restaurant was closed!!! I was about to lose my s...mile but a waitress thankfully had a word and managed to add our order on - some other people who were less argumentative simply didn’t get food despite trying to order at 20:15.

The burgers (chicken and veggie) were pretty poor to be honest. The menu is far too big and they should have started smaller I think. Also we had some battered mushrooms or something which came after the main for some reason and were frozen on the inside. Given the long wait for food and general mare they had they gave us the food for free which did feel warranted but was still appreciated as not every place would own up to it. The drinks are also overpriced for Forest Gate even for the posh pubs in FG, but the selection was decent enough.

We will give it another go once settled down as the staff were trying their best and the decor is great but lots of improvement to be had hence a...

A very lovely pub, nice decor and beer garden with ping pong table and adult only area. Wasn't very busy on Friday 3rd June and not a single member of the at least 6 members of staff turned to look our way when we walked in. Noticed a table had been marked with my name as I had already pre-booked so I mentioned that to the a girl at the bar and she said yes go ahead and sit down. Customer service was very minimal, wasn't impressed at all by their lack of attention and sub-standard communication skills. They were too busy hanging around the bar chatting most of the time. Considering it was very quiet it was disappointing to say the least. Food wasn't too bad however and came out piping hot, value was good with the 2-4-1 cocktails in Fridays, otherwise it would be a little dear for some perhaps at £8/9 per cocktail. Not sure would return, but if we did it would be with very little expectation. 2-4-2 cocktail that I had didn't have much alcohol in it at all. Ordered garlic bread with cheese for one of the kids and she cheese wasn't even melted as you will see in my photo that I have posted. I ordered a topless burger in the app (as stated on the menu) and a member of staff came to ask me what I meant by that?! Wouldn't hurt for the staff to...