The Southwark Tavern — Restaurant in London

A very bizarre Sunday roast experience.

I think from the off it was all very interesting. Having to repeat a simple roast order 4 times before it has been attempted to put through the system to then looking baffled as to what a lager shandy is…. Which later had to be taken back and changed, as we had been poured an ale shandy :(

I’d asked for no Yorkshire pudding and if it could be swapped for an extra roast potato instead to then find we had been charged for an entire portion of extra potatoes (not what I had asked) and the Yorkshire pudding was still brought with the order anyways.

When asked about what this issue was with the food I can only describe what looked to be a pure baffled expression of blankness. To be simply put if I wanted a portion of extra potatoes I would ask for a portion of extra potatoes. To request if I can swap a Yorkshire should be a fairly simple yes or no response. To then be asked what would you like me to do about the situation the flummoxed staff member asked me if I would like him to take the Yorkshire pudding off my plate. (See below photo… he did not take said Yorkshire off my plate ;) haha).

The potatoes that did come I believe were aunt Bessie’s frozen potatoes sold may I add at £5 per portion. These could only be described as paper mache cardboard esque and wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemies.

Throw this in with a nice plate of under cooked raw and cold parsnips which after mentioning to the staff, to which response I was asked if I’d like more to be sent which I politely accepted did not come in the end and I’m only wondering still if the arrived upon our departure.

We had also requested mustard and horseradish only for the baffled bar staff to return with an empty mustard pot and no means of getting anything out even if we could by way of spoon/knife. No horseradish was delivered :(

All in all maybe the most bizarre customer service and in all honesty worst food I’ve had in quite some time. We were told upon arrival table service was done downstairs I just wonder if they served the same...

Really sad to share that we had a very poor experience at Southwark Tavern on Sunday. We arrived for our reservation at 2.45pm. It wasn’t clear whether it was table service or not, so some of us headed to the bar to order drinks for everyone. We sat down and once we decided what to order, we flagged down a waiter who was clearly mega busy and asked him if we could order. Busy we understood but he clearly was not happy at all and took his time coming back to us barely acknowledging us when he did. We eventually were able to order but he seemed confused on what we wanted and our food took an absolute age to come.

We witnessed other tables send food back and other tables leave plenty of food unfinished on their plates which worried us about the quality.

The food eventually arrived in stages via a dumb waiter as we were sat downstairs. Several of us had roasts, others had dishes with chips and salad. The chips were cold and the veg and salad with the food was flat and withered. We had to ask twice for cutlery whilst our food got even colder and the grumpy waiter snapped that he had to bring it down from upstairs. You could set up a cutlery station as they do in other places to get round this as clearly the waiter had a lot on. By this stage we were so hungry we would have eaten the table, so we didn’t complain and just ate our meals. We also had children with us who were completely overwhelmed and hungry so we didn’t say anything.

However the roasts were soggy and the rest of the dishes were pretty poor.

The grumpy waiter could not have appeared less interested in people if he tried. I almost wanted to go to him and say - please quit, you seem very unhappy. The place was clearly understaffed. Eventually someone came to help the waiter who seemed much more enthusiastic and on the ball. Sadly this was too late to benefit us.

Also during our time there we visited the toilets and both the men’s and women’s were disgusting. They were messy and smelly.

All in all, a disappointing experience and definitely would...

So here is the score with the place: I walk in asking for alcohol free beer. Given choice of two, chose one. Thrn I say: can I have one on draft? Yes no problem respond was. I tap the card, grab my 0% and walk outside where other 2 of my party were waiting for table to be cleaned. We sat down and someone walked over picked up my beer and spilled it all over the table. Table had big gaps so my jeans smelled like beer all day. Still waiting g for my pints I walk back to the bar and ask where is it. Reply: I didn't put it through. Ok I say. Let's do it then. Paid £8 for another beer, finally grab it, barman asks how was my day so I told him it was amazing till I walked in this place. Explained how we were treated, we have a staff member staring us down like we want to do a runner. Then we were told we can only sit for 30 mins if we not having food, which we planned just 10 mins really but since it took them 30 min to pour one pint in the we literally had to neck it get up and go. Guy was looking at us like pitbul would into the butchers window. He was prepared to jump. I think someone forgot to tell him we only have a pint and we already paid. Everyone was staring like we were there to run away. Most unpleasant experience I ever ever had in any food place. McDonalds treats you nicer. I honestly was utterly shocked and uncomfortable with staredowns of some of the staff. They truly made my family feel unwelcome and we just got up and went. What is this place I dont know but they truly could do with some customer...