I mentioned this in a review for another pub, but it appears that a number of London's pubs are links in a chain that is not overtly a chain. The menus are identical for both food and drink, with the same fonts, same descriptions, same everything. The Golden Lion was one of three such pubs that I went to in London.
It was also the worst of the three, in that it was indistinguishable other than the cramped environment and shitty service. When we sat down upstairs, table service was over despite the relatively early hour and a large sign indicating table service upstairs. I suppose that isn't horrible, though. What was horrible was that when we picked a bottle of wine to share and my friend went to the upstairs bar to order it, the bartender told him he didn't have it. More specifically, he said that that bottle was at the downstairs bar, and that we would have to go downstairs to get it. On principle, we ordered a different bottle.
We had a pleasant enough time drinking our second choice bottle, which was functionally the same as our first. That is not the point. I just think that it isn't too much to ask for a bartender whose job it is to attend to patrons, of which there were less than a dozen upstairs, to run downstairs and grab a bottle of wine. Customers pay for bottles. Bartenders get paid for distributing them. Golden Lion, please rub these two truths together and come to a logical conclusion. read more