Coz's Reviews

This was my first visit after the relaunch. The decor changes are very welcome, much less formality, somehow lighter. We arrived quite late, after a night at the theatre, so the evening was winding down, but, despite the hour, the chef still produced an excellent ‘pintade’ (guinea fowl) with accompanying veg & and the head sommelier recommended an excellent Domaine la Rouviole (Minervois, Languedoc) to go with it. Pud was very tasty too and a well made espresso capped the evening nicely. Restaurant consultant Richard Weiss, who holds the Guinness World Record for ‘Sabrage’ (chopping most corks off champagne bottles in a minute) was also present. After some prompting, he duly demonstrated the skill before pouring us one for the road. A very enjoyable evening in an excellent addition to St James's.

This is a great pub in a superb location, with an excellent terrace & beer garden – but ruined by awful service. We went on a sunny saturday with friends. The beer garden & terrace were nicely buzzing, but the (very) few bar staff were completely overwhelmed, and didn't seem to care. One server was excellent, obviously working as a mixologist at night. The others couldn't run a tap. Due to the slow, lackadaisical service, the bar was 2 deep forcing a 20 minute wait. When I went back for a second round, many of the same people were still waiting. There was a blitz spirit with several strangers running jokes about growing beards, the beer going off before it could be poured and so-on. Later the next week I related the experience to friends in my local. They remembered being at the Feemasons several years ago and related the same story. So the management clearly haven't learned anything yet. Had this pub not been in leafy hampstead, where the clientelle are too polite to cause a scene, it would have failed long ago. Very poor.