The Victoria — Restaurant in London

Was in here last night and had my phone stolen by a man who looked like he had a disability of some sort. He came over to our table with an A4 paper with lots of writing on it. We were trying to figure out what it was but then realised it was just a bunch of random patterns. About 30 seconds after he left, I realised my phone was missing. The paper was a distraction.

Unfortunately, this is the second time I know of this happening. Something similar happened to my friend 6 months ago. in her case, a random person came and sat down next to her, he pretended to be friendly. He put his bag on the table. When he left, he took had sneakily taken her phone with his bag.

I was aware of this and really kept my hands on my phone all night as I had no pockets on me but his distraction was so good, it got me.

Anyway, as this is the second time this has happened to our group. I have realised some of the bar staff and regulars at the pub must be in on this scam. We were told the exact same thing, in the exact same way as the last time. "Oh my God. This has literally never ever happened here before." and "I've never ever seen this man ever."

This guy who stole my phone had no jacket and no bag on on a cold evening. He is clearly local to the area and anyone who frequents any pubs or cafes knows that random unknowns of the sort don't just come into the pub. If these weirdos do come in, they've done it many many times and usually are told to leave and are a known person to the establishment.

As before, we were escorted to a back room to identify the person on CCTV. Again being reassured that this man has never walked into the pub before.

It was all a bit fishy as the "speech" was exactly the same as before. It really dawned on me that this was not an isolated case and staff and regulars are part of this operation.

I just think people should be aware of this. I don't know who is involved but if the owners and management are not involved, then you should really have this investigated. It can't be a coincidence it happened twice and the bar staff and regulars say it's never happened before and again, it's a person...

We have be at Victoria 3 times, the first time we have be there food was great, we have an amazing experience , fantastic service, we have be back 4 weeks ago for the second time, the experience wasn’t great as the first time, we have wait around 30mn for starters, our mains has arrived cold, we diced to not complain and give another chance to the place, I have be back today for the 3 time, my god, I will never be back, our main courses was horrible, all four of us have received mais courses cold, my fish and chips was horrible, cold fish, cold mush peas, mixed os French fries and hand cut chips, the hand cut was left over pieces over fried and hard, my wife has place for main, not season on the fish, fish was very grease and raw, my friend have a pork belly, which was cold, and another friend has trout which was cold to, my self , my wife and one of our friend we have left the food on the plate, and I don’t think they really care about it, we didn’t complain, we want to see if they really care about , but don’t think they do it, because they clear the table and don’t ask why we didn’t eat our meal, so I don’t recommend this place, I was really disappointed, I understand they was busy and short of staffs, but there is not excuse to send a cold food to the table, at least sow a bit respect for guest, we ending expending 290£ on...

We have been going to the Victoria for years as we've lived in Bow since 2012. It used to be an amazing local option for fish/seafood. Having had a few average experiences recently we went there again last night- but this will absolutely be the last time. All of the specials were finished by 8pm which was a shame so we ordered from the main menu. We paid £14 for a minuscule plate of "heirloom tomatoes and burrata"- which comprised of literally 6/7 small tomato pieces and probably 1/3 of a mozarella ball- did not feel like burrata at all as it had zero creamy centre. If I am being charged £14 for a tiny salad plate, I'd expect a full burrata ball in it. My husband's main was equally disappointing: an oily, refried piece of fish and horrible looking wedges that were supposed to pass as "chips"- all and all a dark oily unseasoned deep fried brown mess- for £18.50 My dish was a tiny butterflied charred mackerel- again, under seasoned, placed on a red tasteless smear which was supposedly "romesco sauce"- I make my own romesco and this was nothing like Romesco. With a tiny sprinkle of potatoes "parmentier"- which again looked like they took the same wedges they served intact on my husband's dish, they chopped them up in smaller chunks, refried them (without seasoning) and put 7/8 tiny pieces on top of the...