Saw the Anchor Tap pub on a random walk one evening.. saw a sign on the window saying a roast was £7.95 and thought the price was amazing for the location! Right near Butlers Wharf and the River Thames so we thought we have to come back here one day. That day was today. I have never been so disappointed in my life. Walked in to find a deathly quiet and empty pub and a woman standing behind the bar. Asked her if she had any pear cider.... she didn't understand. When she finally grasped what I was asking, she offered us, what we thought, was a cherry cider for £5 per tiny bottle. We later realised it was a cherry fruit beer. Not a big deal, was a pretty nice drink. We were told to go upstairs to the dining area for food orders, and were initially impressed by the decor.
The pub has a great 'Old English Pub' feel to it, though was, again, deathly quiet and empty. Ordered a beef roast, which came quickly. We soon worked out why. What we had on our plate was some stringy, cartilage-filled beef slices, some (pretty decent) roasties and mash, boring boiled veg, and a massive yorkshire pudding, all covered in tepid p*** water they like to call gravy. We cut into the yorkshire pudding (and my poor friend ate some) to find it was still frozen. We told the woman at the bar upstairs and she told us the 'chef' would reheat them and she was very sorry. Our plates came back and again, frozen yorkshires. I told the woman to put her finger into the yorkshire to see that we weren't just being fussy, and she apologised again, saying she didn't know what to do as she didn't know how yorkshires were made (?? just bloody oven cook them for longer than 3 mins dummy!) After a third time, they were warm. Everything else on our plate however, was now cold.
We ate what we could, guzzled down our 'cider' and got the hell out of there. Expensive mistake. Save yourself some money folks, avoid at all cost! read more