The Royal Standard — Restaurant in London

Let me start with the good stuff. The parmesan, truffle, rosemary chips are fabulous - the portion was small but we had a lot of other stuff. The Halloumi chips are out of this world; a large portion, crispy on the outside spongy inside, big chips., the calamari (didn't get a picture) was outstanding, not the usual (pig bum) rings, but actual long chip size tentacles. We loved the cauliflower fritters it's quite a small portion but the batter is crispy and substantial. In general the portions on the small plates we had as well as the prices are very decent. We came in November 2023 and were blown away by the food (and service). They said they were thinking of making it a gastropub and I was super enthusiastic about the idea. The food was so good we all agreed to share everything.

The pork belly was chewy none of the soft mouth quality you expect with belly pork all (& I mean all) the fat had been removed, It was a bit like eating steak (which I don't like) I think people who usually don't like belly pork would enjoy it. red wine sauce and apple ketchup - both were absent, there was a thin, tasteless gravy instead of red wine sauce, the red cabbage was ok. The cook had clearly not a clue of what crackling is we were served a piece of roof tile masquerading. it's the rectangular bit on top of the food with the little saucepan. When I asked the 2nd waiter to look at it, he wouldn't, but gave us that meal for free. Last year the 'buttery mash' was mind blowing. It was scraped baked potato mixed with butter, super fluffy, literally melt in the mouth. This was watery and lacked flavour yet too salty, no butter taste. Steak and Ale pie - pastry was hard, tooth destroying lid, also quite dry inside the pie case, the filling was about 20% of the inner space, few steak pieces again too salty but otherwise tasteless thick gravy it missed the ale flavour. The savoy cabbage was nice and crunchy but the stalks were too big, so a bit hard - my companion doesn't have the strongest teeth and wasn't expecting the challenge with ordering a pie. See above for the mash and the red wine sauce was seriously unimpressive. Though why you would serve red wine sauce with an ale pie is beyond me, which is why I didn't order it. I ordered the pan fried sea bass with chorizo and peas, sauteed leeks and a lemon, thyme white wine velouté. The fillets were over cooked. I asked what 'ratte' potatoes were and the chef (who is clearly better at making up bullshit terms than cooking) said they were just boiled cut and pan fried. He didn't say they would be covered in cheese. What kind of person serves sea bass with cheese covered pan fried potatoes? The other things were all under the fish, indistinguishable from each other, chunks of chorizo completely wiped out all the other flavours didn't see a velouté just the chorizo fat at the bottom of the plate. All too salty Now the service. When we arrived there was a funny, engaging, helpful man who was charming and told me I'd really ordered enough food - he was right. The stars are for him! The guy who replaced didn't make eye contact, didn't listen. Seemed to be utterly terrified and got really defensive when I said I wasn't totally happy with the food. I didn't dare to say anything else, but I really feel I should have said that we found it all way too salty. The waiter insisted we have the money back for the belly pork as soon as I mentioned the tile When I went to pay he paid me back and gave me the credit for the belly pork. I told him (out of the goodness of my heart) I hadn't paid yet and proceeded to do so. He didn't thank me. I could have walked out without paying the 120 quid and 17 quid up and he didn't even say thank you!

Hoping to have racked up some brownie points with the...

Sunday Lunch with 4 friends.

Arrived at 1pm and ordered from the bar. My friend ordered her meal and a coke and it was processed. The woman who was serving walked away. We presumed that she was getting the drink but she started serving another customer. I asked another person behind the bar and he pointed at the other staff member and said ' well, ask her then.' and turned away from us. The original staff member was very polite and apologised.

At 1.15, 1 friend's food was brought out. At 1.20 we were informed that they had run out of a nut roast that two of us had ordered. It was a bit late to find that out as we had plans to leave at 2pm but it was understandable and my friends reordered alternatives.

At 1.35 the same staff member than said 'well, ask her', came to our table holding two nut roasts. He stood there for a few seconds and I asked f they were for us. He said nothing and walked away. I said 'excuse me', but was ignored. He came back a moment later to say 'I already told you there's no nut roast. These weren't for you. We explained to you already, so why did you call me back.'

At 1.45 we asked where the pie was. The manager who was a lady apologised and said she would chase it up with the kitchen and be right back. She wasn't. The fishcakes came. The same staff member from before came over and stood there. We asked if they were the fishcakes for us. He dumped them on the table and left.

2.00 - Another manager comes over and apologises. Promises the pie will be out in 10 minutes, leaves. He also promises, 15 minutes go by with no pie.

2.30 - Half an hour later after sending 2 members of staff to investigate, a member of staff dumped a plate in front of my friend with no apology.

The pie was with chips and not mash as my friend had order. Needless to say at that point we were done.

I cannot express how poor the entire experience was. I am actively telling people not to come...

Sadly we got food poisoning here from the fish main course. It was really serious: I vomited profusely and repeatedly for most of the night, and was completely out of action for two days afterwards. Had to take time off work.

A few days after it happened, I called The Royal Standard to let them know there was a problem in their kitchen. The lady who picked up the phone was very gracious, sympathetic, said she would immediately notify the kitchen, and offered to refund the cost of the meal as a matter of course. I was impressed.

But then I was passed to The Royal Standard's parent company ('Mitchell & Butlers Leisure Retail Ltd'). Things quickly got stuck in a bureaucratic morass where I was asked to fill out a 'questionnaire' about my visit, and then there were a series of emails from their 'Food Safety and Guest Care Representative'.

Mitchell & Butlers completely shirked any responsibility for the food poisoning, and said that it could not possibly have happened at The Royal Standard. They also said they would not be able to know it was food poisoning unless I went to my GP for a stool test. Isn't the NHS is under strain enough already without people being sent for a stool test by their local pub...?!

I know for sure that it couldn't have happened anywhere else. The only other food I had that day was vegetarian, and my family ate exactly the same things as me (none of whom had any food poisoning). The only thing I ate differently from my family during that day and during the two preceeding days, was this meal at The Royal Standard. My partner is an NHS medical doctor and she was absolutely certain from my symptoms that this was (extreme) food poisoning.

At the end of this process, Mitchell & Butlers refused to offer any refund, and offered a £25 voucher to be spent in one of their pubs. Needless to say, I am not going to take them up on their offer. We have...