Victory Pub Waterloo — Restaurant in London

After a long day sightseeing with a 7yo falling asleep in my arms, at rush hour, this venue was our biggest mistake of the day, but that is not their fault.

We were all tired after a long day and not working properly, so when the nearest mcdonalds was takeaway only, we went here hopeful of somewhere for my son to sit down and enjoy some chicken nuggets. When we arrived we were greeted promptly by a waitress and showed to a seating area but it was all chairs and as my son was asleep in my arms by this point, I asked if there was a booth so he could lay down and nap. We were taken to a booth out of the way in a quieter area of the venue which was great, the waitress promised to come back and take our order but we never saw her again which was not so great. Perhaps we were seated in a self serve area and she then went on break so we were missed by any other staff who were waiting, but it really didn't help our state of mind to feel abandoned.

The QR code to order to the table was adamant that there was no menu for the venue so I was forced to go to the bar and order (1st world problems, right?) but as I've mentioned our mentality wasn't in the right place so this too was the end of the world.

After ordering food, a drink each, a bottle of water and three glasses for the water, I had to ask for a tray to be able to take all of it the back to my table, but I was only allowed one after I swore an oath to bring the tray back after I was finished with it.

The food arrived quite quickly, but they brought the wrong sharing platter, a meat one instead of vegetarian. Luckily, vegetarian was a preference rather than a dietary requirement, so it was 'just' another irritation. Unfortunately, it was pretty tasteless, the texture of each item being the defining attribute rather than the flavour. Unfortunately, I also managed to order the wrong meal for my son who was devastated to receive a chicken burger instead of chicken nuggets so I had to explain to him, in tears, on his birthday, that it wasn't his fault he wasted money and food.

The venue was lovely, cosy and nicely decorated but too lively for us.

I've tried to be as objective as possible, my experience was far worse than four stars, but they don't deserve less because most of it was...

Sorry for the long review, but we had such a wonderful time. It was a full 5 Stars for all things mentioned below *The 1st star is for the atmosphere. There were 8 of us and we all felt safe and had great fun with other customers. *My 2nd star is for the fantastic service. We were a large table with a lot of wants and needs and they were all met beyond our expectations. A special thumbs up to Jack who looked after us brilliantly throughout the night. *The 3rd star was keeping the toilets really clean which is unheard of throughout a football game! *4th star was for the food. Nicely presented, it arrived hot and was absolutely lovely. Thanks chef, thanks for putting some healthy options on there, I had the chicken souvlaki 👍. *5th star goes to the general manager and the whole of his team. He kept a tight ship and had total control over his team and the punters. Nobody felt unsafe and everyone had a great time. I saw he went by every table and was personal and made everyone feel like a VIP guest. Well done and thank you For a great time. Can’t wait to come back for the Olympics Thanks...

We found it impossible to order online as the little plaque on our table encouraged us to do, so we ordered our food and drink from the bar. The barman struggled a little with his computer-based ordering system, but managed to take our order in the end with no issues. The table service was beyond excellent for a pub. The Greek salad included lettuce, which should not be part of a Greek salad, but the salad was good nevertheless. We avoided the loud pop music being played inside the pub by sitting outside. My fish and chips with mushy peas was amongst the best I have ever had (10 out of 10) and the portion size was very generous. It was so nice to have proper chips and not french fries. There was a minor problem with the lamb dish we ordered, but the pub manager addressed this quickly and entirely to our satisfaction. Both the men's and women's toilets (restrooms) were spotlessly clean. Note: a 12.5% service fee was automatically added...