Whelan's Croydon — Restaurant in London

My first time visiting here today and it will be the last. I had a roast beef dinner. Roast beef was OK but had lots of chewy fat bits which I couldn’t eat. If it wasn’t full of fat this would have been the best part of my roast as some of the beef was cut nicely and cooked ideally.

The roast potatoes was a complete let down. I was given 2 roast potatoes, 1 big one and 1 very very tiny one. I asked why only 2 roast potatoes and the lady said your meant to get at least 4, let me speak to the chef. She came back and gave me 3 more. The roast potatoes were fried and definitely no way roasted. That’s why they are called roast potatoes because they are meant to be roasted not put in a fat fryer which tasted completely different to a proper decent roast potato. The Yorkshire pudding was burnt so I did not eat it.

I was given very minimal gravy so I asked if I could have a little bit more. After a couple of minutes a different person came over with a card machine and said ‘I’ve been told you would like some more gravy , that would be £3 please’ I was completely shocked and just could not believe my ears. £3 for a little bit more gravy. Are they serious? I can buy a whole tub of gravy from the shops for that price. A little bit of gravy granules with some hot water doesn’t cost nowhere near £3. And even saying that, the gravy wasn’t all that.

I only went here because my local pub where I usually go on a Sunday for my roast dinners had run out by the time I got there. I definitely won’t be going back to this place. I’ll continue going to my local and if I go there and they have sold out I will find somewhere else but not this pub. No way!!

A complete...

Always liked this place. BUT... went in with a mate to do a tasting run through the red wines on the wine list... No wine list available (was one there 5 weeks ago!) Wanted to compare our taste with the tasting notes (which had been on the wine list). Had 3 tasters.. 4th one, a rioja.. only by the bottle.. fine! "A bottle of that then" (must be the best, we thought..). Errr no! No corkscrew! WHAT!?? (Maybe) the best wine and you can't serve it to us?? Rubbish! Hence 3 stars for service. Staff nice and friendly. Food... chicken wings... at least baked them with the sauce on them for a bit (10 minutes??).. Just wings with chosen sauce squirted over them.. like chucking ketchup on chips. Not tasty. Atmosphere... if you're going to have a playlist waiting for football to start, at least make it a couple of hours or so long not 10 tunes on a loop. Must have heard Elton John's 'Don't Go Breaking my Heart'...

Visited earlier today for dinner with the family - the pub is lovely - really great vibe the footie was playing so it was lovely and atmospheric but not overcrowded. The food was lovely HOWEVER I ordered a burger and when I saw the staff member deliver a small plate with just a burger I was extremely confused - no chips. According to staff members chips are not included in a £9.50 burger and nothing stated when ordered at bar nor is it it stated on the menu which is a bit annoying as it’s a pub and a burger as standard always comes with chips in every pub you visit so if they’re not serving chips with the burger especially for £9.50 it’s really the venue’s responsibility to put a disclaimer message on the menu or have the staff perhaps ask “would you like chips with that?” The burger itself was amazing though so no complaints about...