The Holly Bush, Hampstead Reviews Summary

Food Quality

Pros:

• "Fantastic food, five stars service, very helpful and polite staff."
• "The food was well sourced, cooked and served by friendly and efficient staff who coped very well with almost all demands."
• "Food was good, ordered the chicken croquettes for starters and lemon sole for mains."
• "The fish & chips a proper classic... comes with a light batter, pea chutney and sauce tartare."
• "Great food, very tasty, with some nice gastronomical flavours."
• "The cuisine is delicious and elaborate."
• "Such an amazing meal!!! I has roast chicken - was one of best meals in a long long time."

Cons:

• "The portion sizes are meagre."
• "Went there for food and it was so average."
• "The wild boar scotch egg sounded tasty but was relatively bland."
• "The other main course was the steak, which was a bit too chewy."
• "This place really missed the mark. The food was average and overpriced."
• "The food wasn't as good as we expected it to be."
• "The food is very average indeed- not food I would normally eat and more the sort of thing I would imagine to be served in a cheap, low end, chain pub."

Service

Pros:

• "Staff are always friendly and helpful."
• "The staff were friendly and hard working during the special time."
• "Staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful."
• "Staff were cheerful and charming."
• "Fantastic service."
• "Service is very kind too, even if there was quite a bit of rush to pay at the end of the lunch."
• "The service was absolutely superb (a real waiter, who was clearly a MASTER in this art and knew his business very well!)."

Cons:

• "Unfortunately the world's slowest service."
• "Classic Hampstead I suppose, £27 for two drinks (2 double spirit and mixer but still) - it is meant to be a pub."
• "The service was very pushy and wanted us to order drinks, they asked several times even though we said we were waiting for another person to join."
• "The management was rude and dismissive."
• "Service took a long time!"
• "The service was also poor. No one checked on us during the entire meal."
• "Service was poor as there weren't enough bar staff and the floor staff were quite short with any customers who asked questions."

Atmosphere

Pros:

• "It’s small dark and cosy, the food and beer selections are great."
• "A dog friendly pub with an open fireplace it is extremely cosy."
• "A really cosy atmosphere."
• "One of the best pubs where to begin or end a walk on Hampstead Heath and full of charm."
• "Whatever the season, the Holly Bush invites you in with its intimate atmosphere."
• "The atmosphere of the pub is great."
• "The pub itself has a wonderful atmosphere and ambience."

Cons:

• "Back room a bit noisy but calm and quiet around the bar."
• "There was a terrible smell from the toilet in the main hallway."
• "The pub can get very very hot."
• "Unfortunately has a very overcrowded drinking area."
• "It was also very very loud, I could barely make conversation with my partner over dinner."
• "But each table doesn't seem to have enough distancing."
• "It was so busy there was no space to stand let alone sit, and difficult to get to the bar, and was hot and stuffy."

Value

Pros:

• "Beer (dark star) was top notch, food (shallot tart, superb, and burger) was superb and excellent value."
• "Food was lovely and fairly priced for the quality that you get."
• "Quality seasonal food, great friendly service."
• "Probably one of the very most charming pubs in London. Even though fairly big tourists attraction food served here is delicious and not overpriced."
• "A very welcome 20% discount off all ales, for card carrying CAMRA members."
• "The food was delicious (a perfectly cooked steak for me) and the desserts definitely worth breaking a diet for."
• "Food is all from local suppliers and very fresh."

Cons:

• "give the over priced food a miss so that they don’t take people for fools"
• "Not worth the money!"
• "The price of the food was high compare to the quality."
• "The total? £240. To me, that represents an inexplicably poor quality of gastronomic experience for the price paid."
• "Everything is priced at a rather extreme premium."
• "Food prices for what you get (portion wise) are astronomical though and very poor value for money at the higher end of the menu."
• "At £35 per head we expected to leave feeling full and satisfied."