The Hemingway Reviews Summary

Atmosphere & Decor

Pros:

• "All in all this a great place to head on a Sunday."
• "Lovely pub to meet your mates at on the weekend, unique interior and loads of outdoor tables."
• "This pub, being quiet and sophisticated yet laid back with some awesome music."
• "Great outdoors and indoors would recommend for friends or also with little ones on the weekend day time or weekend evening time."
• "It looks great inside with lots of faerie lights all around."
• "Great vibe & interior (love the toilets)."
• "Cosy little boozer in the backstreets of Victoria Park Village."

Cons:

• "Unfortunately, now it has skulls and stuffed animals as decor all over the place. It would otherwise be cosy but with all the death glaring at you wherever you sit, it's pretty grim."
• "If you're okay with an intense smell of food sticking to you for the whole night, you'll be fine there."
• "Back room is pretty dark and dingy."
• "We were sat in the back room, which is cold, has a terrible acoustic, walls covered in plastic plants and with an unused pool table awkwardly stuck in the middle of the space."
• "The lights were turned down (almost off) at 8 though, to the extent that the streetlamp on the road outside was providing more light than the lamp 2 feet away."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "Good wines and beers, pate is also spot on."
• "The best I've tasted so far. If you happen to come around, definitely try the wellington."
• "Food was very nice and they were huge portions! I'd go there again."
• "Had a Sunday roast (pork belly and beef) which were both really good."
• "Food was great. I had fish and chips - the fish was beautifully fresh."
• "The fillet of beef was tender and served medium-rare, it was seasoned very well and as Ramsay would say, it was 'beautiful'."
• "The food itself was amazing, 5 stars for that. Good portions, hot and well cooked."

Cons:

• "We found fungus on the olives."
• "For a gastropub the food was way too average."
• "The normally decent Burger was very bland, badly made, the bread was soggy."
• "Food was overpriced and the meat was very fatty."
• "Vegetables weren’t cooked, potatoes were dry, gravy was tasteless."
• "Roast is below average, potatoes undercooked."
• "The food was poor, cold and disappointing."

Service

Pros:

• "The staff were all lovely and really helpful."
• "Great service at bar and table."
• "Service was particularly good even though the place was busy."
• "Friendly staff, talkative and relaxed but very efficient and professional."
• "I photographed a wedding here recently and wanted to remark on the superb service and attention to detail from all of the staff."
• "Staff are friendly and service is good."
• "The bar staff were absolutely brilliant too, super friendly and professional!"

Cons:

• "£3 for a soda water!! that’s water out of the tap with a soda stream."
• "However their customer service is not quite where it should be."
• "Service was unfortunately weak, regardless of it being a busy Sunday afternoon, staff team were very slow, inconsistent and forgot requests on three occasions."
• "Staff not very warm or friendly, a real lack of personality to the place."
• "Grossly overpriced- drinks don’t be fooled by the friendly airy vibe you are better off down the road at the empress or the Royal inn on the park all much better than this deceptive disappointment."
• "Good luck getting served."
• "Our food took 50min as they forgot our order in an empty pub in Sunday evening… wasn’t great."

Value

Pros:

• "In Central London you'd pay over £70 just for the Wellington alone."
• "The portions are not huge but very tasty and the drinks are excellent."
• "Portions are generous, and tasty."
• "Really reasonably priced drinks."
• "Very friendly staff and prices that don't bite!"
• "Not cheap - but not a rip off either. You get what you pay for: good quality food and wine in a good setting."

Cons:

• "Daylight robbery of £3.50 for a pint of soda water and when asked why got told it was because of London rent."
• "Costs a tenner for a large glass of wine."
• "For the prices of the food and drinks they are positioning themselves quite high but the service level does not reflect that."
• "It is easily a 5 star review except that the prices are just eye watering."
• "The main gripe was the price of wine."