Here you get dinner and a "show". Marius was slight of hand with card tricks and was just as friendly and efficient a waiter. The food and ambiance was good, though the music got quite a bit louder toward the end of our visit. Would recommend trying this place out. read more

Friendly, great pub food. We liked the steak and mushroom pie and the BLT. Great service, too

Great time st this pub. We went for Sunday toDt. Bzr tender and wait staff were attentive. Food and drinks were very good. I highly recommend. read more

We stopped here for lunch on our first full day in London, place is perfect for anyone coming from the riverfront, Buckingham, or the square down the street. My wife said the roast beef Sunday roast was the best meal she has had in our England trip. The drinks, service and ambience are top notch. A must stop for anyone visiting! read more

Old Shades - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

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I found this place on my first trip to London and have visited it every time since! I even got to bring my wife and daughter to experience the awesome Fish & Chips! I am not really sure what all the negativity is all about, but u am a rookie pub goer and simple come here for the food! Staff if friendly and service is pretty quick for London :) read more

Old Shades - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Marius magic is the guy to know when you are here! The service here is absolutely amazing. Everyone is so friendly and the drinks/food are really good. They even have Marius Magic performing tricks for you at your table. It's a great vibe and would recommend to anyone from the UK or abroad (we were from America). read more

Hidden Gem In The Heart of London 'Ello Chaps! The Old Shades Restaurant is located in the popular Trafalgar Square area of London. It's a cool little pub with some of the more memorable food in London. It was built in 1898, and it's menu features a large affair of traditional British pub food. Overall: I give Old Shades Four Cheers out of Five. Good location, ample seating inside, and good food for a good price. read more

Overall, bad food and even worse service - the worst meal we had in 5 days in London. The table next to us waited so long they got up and left. Our waitress left half way through the meal - assume her shift was over - and no one bothered to let us know. The fish and chips were simply awful as one other reviewer indicated. It was so full of oil we could see the oil literally drip from it when picked up. We ordered the 'Artesian' Bread which was truly a joke; it was a couple of pieces of day old toast. The buffalo wings were even worse; it looked like microwave chicken with BBQ sauce poured over it. My daughter couldn't eat one bite. I rarely give 1 star reviews as try to focus on positive experiences but our meal here was so bad other should be warned. I have no idea how others have rated this place 3 or more stars. Maybe I picked a bad day - the day anyone who knew what they were doing or cared about customers took the day off. read more

It was our last day in London. It was bitterly cold, gray, and raining. We were weary from a morning of soggy sightseeing and were ready for lunch. The Old Shades looked cozy, warm, and inviting, so we came in to dry off, relax, and enjoy a light meal. We both ordered the Caesar Salad with grilled chicken, quail eggs, and crispy parma ham. It took a while to get our food by American standards, but we experienced that just about everywhere we dined. And it was just OK. The chicken was dry, and although the dressing was very good it was entirely too thick and difficult to pour over the salad.I really don't remember much about the quail eggs or the ham. The servers were friendly (and very nice to look at). The atmosphere was wonderful on such a dreary day. I just wish the food were better. read more

Old Shades - Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken, Quail Egg and Crispy Parma Ham ... * shrug * - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Great lunch spot with friendly service. Our family of five stopped here and enjoyed a variety of tasty dishes for an early lunch. It was a comfortable place to take a break from seeing the city. In fact, we were early early enough that the bar tender was able to spend a bit of time chatting with us at our table after he got our order to the kitchen. Would certainly stop here again. read more

Stopped in for lunch. I had the Sausages with Horseradish Mash. Didn't really taste any Horseradish - the potatoes were bland in fact. Not exactly the healthiest plate, but hearty. Lovely setting, but wouldn't recommend for foodies. read more

I have been to this place on several occasions The Old Shades is a traditional old London pub with original wooden decor. And a stained glass window in the dinning area. The food and service is excellent and not overly priced, they have a excellent selection of real ale's available from behind the bar. It is a pub that can be easily over looked with many larger pubs within the vicinity, but the one i would recommend. read more

Old Shades - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Maybe we just hit this at a bad time but we had horrendous service and the food was absolutely horrible. It was my son's birthday and nearly ruined it. We had to leave mid-meal and find somewhere else to go. I could not even find a server in order to pay for the meal so we finally left some pounds on the table and exited. read more

This place blew my mind. No seriously, my mind is gone because of how awesome this place is. Roger was an absolute gentleman and made our stay here incredibly stellar. The Old Shades is the best bar in London hands down. Boss music cranking throughout the joint and comfortable seating for all! Thanks to Roger and everyone at Old Shades for making our experience the best ever! read more

This is a gorgeous pub. Lovely dark wood and beautiful old fashioned tiles. It has a great vibe to it. The drawback is that they seem horribly understaffed and the food is very. very mediocre. We kept having to hail down waitstaff and, while friendly, they appeared to be doing too many things at one time. Dishes were piling up at the dumbwaiter and they were running around frantically. The pub wasn't even full so I'm not sure what the issue was. Regardless, our waitress was sweet and engaging so we left her a good tip. Something to note: leave any tip in cash. This is one of those annoying places where tips on cards go straight to the house and not staff!! The food was pretty bad. I ordered the chicken, bacon and avocado club. I am not sure how you can screw this up but it was pretty gross. Very claggy thick mayo which just ruined it. I ordered fries with it too which were small portion-wise. There was also a disgusting blob of coleslaw that was tossed in heavy, cloying mayo. It was gross. There is absolutely no reason to eat here. Just walk up towards Soho or Covent Garden and get some better options! But it's a nice spot for a drink! read more

Very cozy, quintessential English pub. We went here just for a drink or two, and they really knew how to beat the winter blues. Mulled wine and an absolutely delicious half liter of cider? Yes please. December all year please! (well, not really). I did notice the menu was unique, i.e. none of that "Taylor Walker" nonsense present at many of London's formerly-crappier kitchens. Perhaps next time we'll have food. For now, four stars for a pleasant, simple experience. read more

This pub is close to a bunch of hot tourist spots and perfect for a tourist looking for that classic London pub atmosphere. Great for fish and chips- they use a different beer each day to make the batter and the batter is really excellent. Service was nothing special but fair enough... read more

Hey now, what's with all the negative reviews of this place?! Granted, I've only been here once and it was my first trip ever to London so I was definitely on a vacation high, but I LOVED this place! The service we had was fantastic, despite the fact that they were busy because of the UK versus Italy football game (I almost said soccer... whoops). My friends and I came in to have some authentic fish and chips, beer, and to interact with the locals (or in reality, other tourists) while watching the game. The fish was great and so were the chips! We devoured all our plates and almost could have ordered seconds if we hadn't filled up so much on beer. When the waitress brought out our beer, our whole table was in shock. This place brings out a giant cylinder of beer for the middle of your table and you pour it into your glass from the spout. If this is an English thing I don't know about, then I must sound like some dumb American right now, but I was very impressed and happy! It was like having beer on tap right in the middle of our table! I've never been to another pub in London, so I have nothing to compare my experience to, but compared to my experience at pubs in the US... this one definitely rocked! :) read more

I thought this place was pretty good! It was one of the few places open on Christmas, and it didn't take too long to get seated even though it was completely packed. It was my first time in London, so obviously I got Fish & Chips, and I really liked it! The fish were tender and juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside, without too much batter fat-padding. And the chips were thick, crispy, meaty wedges. Delicious. With generous tartar sauce and pea mash on the side. And everything flavoured just right! The bar itself is kinda small, just a short row; but four stars for the food! read more

The Old Shades is one of a number of pubs down the Whitehall stretch from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalguar Square. It is a typical London touristy pub in that it tries to give people (namely Americans) their idea of what a traditional British pub should be like, and to be fair it does it quite well There are a number of ales on tap as well as some strong continental lagers. Where the place fell down though was on it's food. The menu looks good, with sausages featuring heavily, but heaven forbid being a vegetarian - despite ordering a vegie sausage, I was presented with a meat one, which as you can imagine could well have been a disaster had it have been served. This meant that, when I finally did get my meal, it was over 30 minutes after the rest of the party had eaten - and not even a free beer as way of an apology! Thankfully, there are plenty of other pubs in the vicinity - some owned by the same chain and thus with exactly the same menu - that don't make this sort of cock up! read more

I've recently found my old account for Yelp and I'm in the midst of transferring over my reviews. The rating and the review are exactly the same so their overall review didn't change as I've deleted my reviews from my old account and it's not inactive. Reposting the old reviews with my previous ratings was the only way I can transfer these over unfortunately. Review date: 1/19/2011 Technically I wouldn't have given Old Shades any stars and it isn't because I'm a picky eater or I only eat at 5-star places, but this really reflected on my experience at the pub/restaurant. My boyfriend and I walked into Old Shades after walking blocks and not seeing any restaurants. We looked at the menu and everything sounded pretty de-lish, so we walked in and seated ourselves [apparently that's how Europeans do it]. After sitting for 40mins, no one took our orders so my boyfriend went to the bar to order. He then comes back with my drink order which was Coke with A lemon, but it tasted like watered down Coke. We then sat and waited for our food to arrive which took another 30mins and I told the waitress about the Coke. She then comes back and says the bartender said he thought we ordered a Coke with Lemonade [?] uhh... who does that? Then we had to pay for another Coke. I don't know about London, but in America, customers are always right and therefore shouldn't they have just replaced the Coke. Well anyways when I finally stuck my fork into what I thought was a chicken filled pie thing, it completely mushed down and was soggy... ok, so apparently they can't make drinks or cook food because my boyfriend ordered steak and got a roasted beef patty and burnt tomatoes and the salad looked like shredded lettuce with a huge tomato. I wished we had just sucked it up and walked a few more miles. read more

Old Shades - My chicken pot pie that turned into mush right when I stuck my fork in... - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Nice old bar feel - we tried the salmon Niçoise salad & corned beef. All were fine. Service was good. And they r located conveniently on the main drag outside downing st & the tourist attractions. read more

Possibly the worst pub in the entire British kingdom. I cannot stress how much this pub deserves absolutely no stars. To be stricken from every food-based category on Yelp, for it simply does not serve anything edible. I took my younger sister here, visiting on her first trip to London, and what we were served was a vile affront to pubs worldwide. Tough, dry and burnt meat. Pies not fit for a frozen microwave dinner. Practically untouchable at every turn. Throw in tiny (but expensive) drinks, slow and inept service and an atmosphere that was nothing short of awkward, and you've basically got the worst experience possible. read more

I thought this place was lovely; I'm sorry some people had negative experiences here. When we went the pub it was pretty quiet, which was a nice change of pace for such a heavily touristed area. Service was friendly, and food was good. Loved their fish and chips! Fried to a perfect golden brown, but not greasy, and the chips were awesome. The seared tuna nicoise, which I opted for, was also really good- perfect sear, great vinaigrette. The only thing that was lacking to me were the bar options. Very few drafts available compared to other places, and pretty much all imported, which surprised me. I would come back here again, a bit pricey but that's the part of town... and the decor was nice too. read more

Great Pub! After a long day of sightseeing I found this spot while I was on the way back to my hotel. The staff was extremely nice and friendly. I ordered a lamb dish which was incredible and I asked the waited for advice about the best wine to have with the dish and the wine he selected was absolutely perfect! It was an amazing South African wine. Advice try the Lamb! and they have a desert called Eaton Mess try that toooo! read more

Had a great meal and a few pints with a colleague. She had the fish and chips with mashed peas. I had corned beef hash with a poached egg. The place was pretty empty on a Monday at around 9pm - which suited us fine. Found this place on the recommendation of a bartender at one of the *many* pubs no longer serving food at that late (?) hour. Thankfully he pointed us to the Old Shades. If you are looking for a quiet pint and a good bite to eat, I recommend highly. read more

We have went there twice and loved everything! The waitress is extremely nice and helpful. The food is hot, freshly cooked, flavorful and good sizes. We had fish and chips ... wonderful Sweet potatoe soup... very good Shepherds pie with mash potatoe ... our favorite (my husband ask me to make this for him at home, I said it is much more complicated than I can make!!) Would highly recommend for consistent, excellent service and food read more

Hmmm. At first this pub seemed like exactly what we needed after trudging around museums and galleries all day. Quaint, cosy and not too busy with a good range of ales and lovely pork scratchings. The food menu looked really good value for money. Especially considering this pub is practically on Trafalgar Square. So what on earth where they thinking playing that DIRE music? I am not joking this was 5pm Saturday. Sprinklings of old men having a quiet pint. A few couples having a quiet chat...then they start pumping out cheesey pop music...totally inappropriate for the atmosphere and the clientele. Made me down my drink and leave! read more

Dropped in here for lunch after walking around the local attractions. For the life of me, can't figure out why, but it was absolutely empty, which was fine. Had a great lunch of sandwiches (club and salt beef), and really enjoyed the decor. Service was prompt and friendly, and prices were not exorbitant particularly considering the tourist attractions nearby. Really appreciated this NOT being one of the many chain pubs in London, which grow tiresome very quickly even as a tourist. read more

The worst fish and chips in London. Skin on fish . Greasy real small order of chips not crispy mushy peas cold . 13.95 for pure terrible fish .told the waitress she didn't care .Never again waste of a good vacation meal . And calories. DONT GO! Go next door to McDonalds and get a fish sandwich instead. read more

Old Shades - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Not bad food. Good service. Decent beer. Popped in for a quick bite while site seeing. I got the Sunday Roast, with Yorkshire puddings and vegetables (broccoli, potatoes and something else). Was okay but not great. Gravy had good flavor though. My sweetheart got the burger and fries, which was also just okay: meat was a little over cooked and dry. Drank an IPA and a Blue Moon, both were solid. read more

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Nice atmosphere, air conditioned, but we were disappointed with our meal. Two of us got the Fish and Chips and one got the Chicken, bacon and avocado sandwich. Just OK. Service was good. read more

Restaurant was outstanding. Gluten-free fish and chips were amazing. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Would definitely recommend.

Mulled Wine in December was my cup of tea! I also loved the bottled fruit beers they had; I believed there were from Sweden. My husband and I came in late, after the kitchen closed, and the booths were very comfortable. Considering it was a pub, it was the one of the more clean bathrooms in London. read more

Nice pub like atmosphere and good friendly service. Suggest they close the entrance to the ladies restroom...most distasteful. read more

The food was average, not our best meal in London. Service was terrible, she never came to see if our food was good or if I wanted a refill on my drink. 2 stars for ambience. read more

Service was very friendly. Easily seated our group of 6 people for lunch. Loved the fish and chips and bangers and mash. Beer selection was just OK. Conveniently located in Whitehall right off the tourist track between Trafalgar and Parliament. read more

This pub is just a few doors down from Trafalgar Square, and unlike most West End pubs you can actually get a seat on a Saturday night. I don't like standing up in pubs so that's a huge plus for me. The interior is wood panelled and attractively old fashioned and there's a good choice of beers. Probably not the the place to go with a hen party (it ain't buzzing!) but a great place to meet friends for a chat. A word of warning: I haven't been there on a weeknight but I'm told that like all the pubs in Whitehall it fills up with Civil Servants. read more

Worst service in the history of anything. Incredibly bad! I'd avoid at all costs. Staff seem to think wandering around trying to look good is more important than actually serving anyone. read more

The fish & chips were not very good, very disappointing. The beer and pot pie was pretty good, but all in all not worth the relatively high prices. read more