The Ship & Shovell — Restaurant in London

Born and raised in London, so not a tourist, and understated pub etiquette - bought a pint and a double gin and tonic, drank those, bought another pint and another double gin and tonic and a packet of crisps, and my wife as she was talking, moved her arm and knocked her G&T over. The pub was crowded, as a pub should be, and the bartender saw her knock it over by accident. We asked for a replacement, or at least a single gin and tonic, and the look on the bar tenders was as if we had asked them to donate a kidney, but we had simply asked for a replacement drink as they had seen my wife accidentally knock it over. We’re both older, so far from drunk club goers, and we just wanted to replace the gin and tonic that was knocked over, but the bar tenders were the rudest I’ve ever met, and refused point blank. We were going to stay and continue drinking there, but left because of the stinking attitude of...

Nice cosy pub, food dishes were nice but had a strange experience at the front counter putting our meal orders through.

The kitchen is open 12pm-3pm to which we didn’t realise and we tried to order food at 11.52am. The server on the counter said to come back in 8 minutes time because the kitchen isn’t open yet. I suggested paying for the order now and they can start preparing it after 12pm (we were happy to wait) but unfortunately he mentioned they can’t do that so returned 8 minutes later to place the exact same order to which he snickered! Not sure if this was dry British humour or just a silly system with no queue able to be created for meal orders before 12pm!

Steak pie was excellent but the fish and chips was unfortunately very dry. Thankfully a multitude of condiments are provided on each table which...

Really disappointed with our, very short, visit. This looked like a very cozy and quant traditional pub so I called earlier in the morning to reserve a table for two of us. That was confirmed by the lady I spoke to, but when we got there, the barman (who looked and sounded like he didn't want to be there at all) said nothing was booked and the pub was full. Finally, he spoke to the woman who didn't offer any solution or apology. A family was leaving their table and kindly offered it to us. The table was chock-full of half empty plates and glasses, so much that there wouldn't be room for drinks. But after waiting for a while, none of it was cleared. So, we decided to leave and go somewhere with better service (in this case, the gutter could have been better). My advice, don't book a...