Wattenden Arms — Restaurant in London

My partner and I went to Wattenden Arms pub for lunch a couple months ago. It was supposed to be a little outing - somewhere local, to have some lunch and get some fresh air as we just had a baby a couple weeks ago and this was the first opportunity we had to get out.

However, we were extremely disappointed in the service and the quality of the food.

Firstly, the food took almost an hour to arrive. We weren’t notified of any wait times and it wasn’t busy as there was one, maybe two other tables, who ordered food around the same time we did. I also noticed one of the tables who ordered ahead of us received their meals (sandwiches) and they had to send them back due to the sandwiches having barely any filling in them. I overheard that it would take about 15 mins for the new sandwiches to be sent out. However, we had eaten and left quicker than the time it took for them to receive their new sandwiches! I’d say they would’ve waited minimum an hour for 2 sandwiches. Which is ridiculous.

We ordered: Onion rings 3.50 - these were the best thing from our whole order.

Chilli Jam Glazed Sausages 6.50 (Our pork, red wine & fennel sausages tossed in a sticky chilli jam glaze.) This sausage wasn’t a red wine and fennel sausage - it was an ordinary banger sausage which had been sliced up with a load of chilli jam dumped on top (not glazed).

Rosemary & buttermilk coated chicken burger smothered with Frank’s® Spicy Chicken Burger 15.50 (RedHot® sauce, oozing cheese sauce and a garlic & herb glaze.) The chicken piece was clearly out of a packet from the supermarket, not rosemary & buttermilk but a breaded southern chicken breast piece. The burger had ketchup, a bit of lettuce and a spot of franks sauce - that is it! I could’ve made this at home if I wanted something below sub-par for a burger; nothing that was stated on the menu item came out on the plate.

Chicken & Chorizo 9.00 (spinach and a chorizo, chilli & tomato sauce. Grilled chicken breast served with smashed baby potatoes, spinach and a chorizo, chilli & tomato sauce.) Firstly, the two chicken breasts were minuscule and were well overcooked as well as dry. There was no spinach or chorizo and the potatoes were standard baby potatoes. Once again, many things that were stated on the menu were missing or different. When I asked the server about the missing chorizo, we were told that the chorizo is defrosting so they added a couple sun-dried tomatoes instead. If we knew that was going to be the case, we would have opted to change our order. No one explained this to us in advance of ordering and the waiter quickly cleared off before I had a chance to respond to his explanation of the missing chorizo. I questioned the staff on this when they came to give me my burger - as this came out 10 minutes after everything else…

No one came back to check on our food and we didn’t see any servers or workers from the time we started to eat to the time we left. At this stage we just wanted to leave as we were so disappointed and a bit annoyed at what just happened. If there was a wait in the kitchen or items missing from the menu, this should've been communicated with us from the start. If the person making the food wasn’t capable of producing the menu items then perhaps the kitchen should’ve just been shut as the food that was coming out was actually very poor.

We have eaten at this pub for lunch/dinner before and usually find the food and service very good and are happy to pay good money for it, hence us coming back again. However, on this occasion we found ourselves annoyed and frustrated having to pay for such service and poor quality.

I emailed them directly with this feedback before posting a review online to see what their response would be and I’ve not...

My partner and I visited on Friday lunchtime, for the first and last time. We're not from the area and had traveled 3 hours to see our young nephew for Christmas. I had booked a table the day before via telephone and explained to the man who took our call that we had two small terriers. Upon arrival we were not greeted by either of the two young women stood behind the bar; we didn't even get a smile. This was a very different response to the friendly and helpful telephone call with the man I spoke to the previous afternoon. I let them know about our reservation to which one said, 'I didn't know about your dogs'. We were pointed to a table and told to order at the bar; we had to ask for menus and then ask again for a children's menu. As a vegetarian, there weren't the most options and at 36 weeks pregnant I just wanted something light. My partner went to order me the mozzarella, tomato and avocado sandwich to be told first there was no avo, then no mozzarella and finally none of the focaccia. We asked for a vegan cheese substitute as mentioned on their menu and what arrived was a cheese and tomato on white bread. The cheese was like a white crumbled feta consistency and completely tasteless. My nephew was upset by the lettuce and ketchup added to his burger which wasn't mentioned on the menu. We scraped that out and he enjoyed his food. My partner rated his steak sandwich too, so they were happy. I treated myself to a dessert, as lunch was so disappointing and just wish I hadn't bothered. The chocolate creme brulee fondant topped with strawberries and chocolate brownie chunks is not what arrived. The chocolate is just a cold custard, not fondant, the strawberries were less than one quartered and just on the side of the plate, and the brownie was 3 tiny pieces of diced millionaire shortbread. Despite the discrepancies with both dishes, we were still expected to pay the price on the menu, which seems pretty cheeky when it's not what you're getting. The pub became very busy, with a lot of dogs and there was a very near miss between two, right next to our table which was distressing. We overheard after ordering that they were not taking orders for 20 minutes, to allow the kitchen to catch up, which I've never experienced anywhere before. Had our nephew not been with us, we'd have left at the point of ordering, but we persevered for his sake and didn't want to make a scene. I was also exhausted. My partner enjoyed his food, but mine was very disappointing, and the atmosphere and service was terrible. One of the women staff was bordering hostile and spent a lot of time on her phone behind the bar. We were initially excited to find another dog friendly pub with a kids menu that we could go to when visiting our nephew, but after our experience, we will not...

We met some friends here for Sunday lunch and a few drinks. This pub is beautiful with a real sense of history and character set in an idyllic countryside location right on the doorstep of London. However that's the only good thing to say about it.

The bar staff were barely able to cope with what could only be described as a slow Sunday. The glasses were dirty, we were told certain drinks were out of stock whilst the barmaid stood in front of a fridge full of those drinks.

In regards to the food, the menu promised great food which was a complete disappointment from start to finish. I had a Rib-eye steak that tasted great and was latticed with lovely grill lines but everything else on the plate was tired and cooked to death, it very much put me in mind of how my Nan used to cook vegetables, not in a good way either. It was unpleasant to eat.

My companions had the roast dinner, which again sounded lovely but was essentially made up of ready made food. Ready-made roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings with watery gravy and mushy vegetables begging for the bin. It's the sort of food you could happily buy for the freezer and reheat in 50 mins. For something described as "The Perfect Sunday Roast" and costing £12 it was a bit of an insult.

The desserts were quite nice, in stark contrast to the rest of the food but again it had the feel of something shop bought and unboxed to serve. I have no complaints about this when the food is nice.

Unfortunately they managed to get the food order slightly wrong too, when we pointed this out they corrected it fairly quickly, but made it clear that it was definitely our fault for ordering wrong in the first place! So customer service left as poor a taste in the mouth as the food.

I'm not sure if we caught them on a very bad day or whether Sunday's are just not the time to visit. But I'd steer clear of this place in the future if food is in your sights. I'd happily stop off again for a quick pint if I was in the area again, but I wouldn't go out of my...