Walker's of Whitehall — Restaurant in London

PERFECTLY ADEQUATE FOOD... GREAT FOR THOSE WITH FOOD INTOLERANCES....”

My guest and I visited this restaurant as part of a Hot Dinners 50% off all food offering.

It's had a significant refurbishment since I held my Christmas party here back in the 1st week of January 2012 and not all for the better it has to be said. Lost some of the Victorian character of its predecessor.

Firstly though, credit has to go to Maina at reception, who really did go out of her way to secure a booking for me and demonstrated a level of pre-service for a venue I'd never encountered before.

My friend has recently turned Vegan and had arrived before I did and was surprised to find him looking at a ring bound folder when I joined him.

This was the venues menu broken down into every conceivable food intolerance, allergen or food preference you could think of. It was inspired and allowed very easy choosing for him (and as many of my readers know, me too on occasion).

I'd had a quick look at the standard menu and already knew that I wanted to try the Fish & Chips only to be informed by the waitress that the frier wasn't operational that night and that nothing deep fried on the menu was available.

Having decided what you want and then discovering you can't have it is the worst thing ever for a restaurant.

So I went for the Pork & Pistachio terrine with plum chutney (£7.50), the Chicken, bulgar wheat, fennel, chard & fresh herbs (£10.00) & the special of Sticky Toffee Pudding with clotted cream for dessert (£5.00) and we shared a bottle of red wine (Le Bosq Rouge 2015 Grenache at £19.00)

My guest went for the Charcoal baked beetroots, (without the whipped feta to comply with his Vegan diet) orange & walnuts (£6.50) and the Charred Cauliflower, tahini, golden raisin & pine nuts as a main (£12.00) surprisingly there wasn't a dessert option to comply with his diet but the waiter suggested an Espresso Martini Cocktail (£9.00) as an alternative (but charged us full price for it - as it was a dessert replacement felt he should have had a heads up about that).

The food was pub grub (not Gastro - but above standard fare) and was perfectly adequate. Obviously we felt we had good value for money paying £11.25 + £17 for our 3 courses respectively, but if we'd been paying full price we would have had to remind ourselves that we were minutes from Trafalgar Square and on Whitehall to justify the price.

As I say though, if you're in the area, are looking for a pub with a bit of character and want something a little bit above the other local establishments in the area then this is definitely one for you.

But if you suffer with any kind of food intolerance or allergy...

Today at the Walkers of Whitehall, 24/09/22, we had atrocious service, inadequate food and no compensation on their faults. Firstly, me and my friend ordered two avocado and poached eggs on toast, the toast wasn’t toasted and was wet. Wet bread. It was vile, we couldn’t finish it. The rosemary salt chips however, were quite tasty and pleasant to eat. Secondly we ordered two cocktails, one named Lemon Gin Fizz and the other named Salty Paloma. They were both extremely strong and the price was extortionate for the small glasses we received. We politely asked if we could change them and we were rudely told ‘No. We’ve already made them.’ After this we decided to order desserts, they only advertised 3 desserts and we decided to have the sticky toffee pudding, the bar maid said they didn’t have any left, so I decided to have the Eton Mess, my friend decided not to have a dessert after this let down. About 6-7 minutes after she took my order, the same bar maid came to inform me that there was no Eton mess either, she gave me the other choices of a brownie or another option which I cannot recall. I said to her it was fine and that I would have the brownie with a scoop of ice cream on the side and she put my order through. Another 10 minutes later the bar maid said the kitchen is closed but she had taken off the brownie from my bill. I thought this was horrendous, it was a brownie and a scoop of ice cream. We then decided to order two more drinks, one of which being a shandy, the bar maid informed us there was no lemonade. I was taken aback as this is advertised as a Pub/Bar. When coming to pay the bill I requested the service charge to be taken off the bill as I was not impressed with the service today, that apparently could not happen. I did not even get an apology for messing us around. I am appalled. This place does not deserve the rating...

NOT WORTH THE MONEY! Chose this pub as me and a friend were looking for somewhere to have a nice pub lunch and a drink, we found this place on google with 4.1 rating and decided it was the best out of all the others near by. Once we got there we thankfully found a table even though the inside is quite small, we ordered 2 cocktails and Smashed Avocado on Toast. Firstly, The cocktails were extremely overpowered with the spirit and in a small glass, for £9 each you would expect a higher standard, unfortunately we could not finish one of the cocktails. Secondly, once we received our Avocado on Toast we were eating it and noticed that it was not toasted and was soaked in water. We unfortunately couldn’t even finish our food because it had turned to mush. After this we decided to order some desserts to see if anything could be salvaged from this experience, we started off by ordering Sticky Toffee Pudding and were immediately told there wasn’t any available, after this we ordered Eat N Mess instead and this was fine according to the staff, 10 minutes later one of the bartenders comes and tells us that Eat N Mess is unavailable but they have brownies available with ice cream, so we ordered that instead. 15 minutes later we were told the kitchen is now closing so we won’t be receiving our desserts, at that point we had had enough but we ordered one more drink, we ordered a basic shandy and what did they not have? Lemonade. This was when we decided we wanted to leave, we asked for the bill and saw a 12.5% service charge which we would have been happy to pay if the service was up to par but unfortunately it was not, we asked to change this service charge and we’re told ‘the service has already happened so no’. We paid and we left and agreed to never return, our experience was awful along with the food and drinks which is definitely NOT a...