Fairly nice neighbourhood gastric pub. On a sunny Sunday, expect it to be full of 20 somethings talking about how drunk they were on Friday/Saturday. Suspect the bar staff aren't that expert- pouring a pint of exotic Red Stripe lager took three goes, and the result had a good 20% head. read more

I have died and gone to pub food heaven! This is an all-around fantastic gastro pub. Having trouble finding a place for drinks on a Friday night in Vauxhall, my friends and I wondered a bit further away and decided on this place. The pub is in a residential area so on the exterior, it looks rather dull. On the inside, however, it's packed and tastefully decorated. It was a rugby night, so many people were crowding around the tv to watch the game. My friends and I manage to sneak into the nook with the amazing wallpaper. The table was reserved for later in the evening, but the servers didn't make a fuss and the group never turned up in the end. All the servers were so friendly and approachable. We ordered our food at the bar, but there was a waitress floating around somewhere (possibly serving the rowdy crowd of rugby fans). The fish and chips were spot on. In terms of dessert, try the pecan tart! I can't wait till the weather is warmer so I can check out their backyard patio! Definitely coming back for more. read more

The Fentiman Arms - I'm in love with this wallpaper. - Gastropubs Near Me - London, XGL

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We are visiting from the US and wanted to eat somewhere near where where we're staying. We came across Fentiman. They aren't many things on the menu but we found something everyone liked. The Mac and cheese was amazing!! Everything else we found it to be very bland. Maybe it's an American thing where we are used to more flavor, but it was still ok! The waiter was so great and so nice, even helped us with ideas of what to do while in London! read more

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I was seriously disappointed in this pub. Most of the Geronimo chain have been pretty good, and we were just popping for a quick pint and a bite to eat before the cricket - what could go wrong? They had a table which needed to bevacated in an hour and a half - no problem, we thought, since we'd be off by then. How wrong we were! We ordered 3 roasts and a pork thing, some lime and sodas and a beer. And waited. And waited. And waited. The hour and a half was up, so we got a bit worried we'd be kicked off before eating. We had asked after our food three times by this point, with a '5 minutes' promise every time. This irks me - if the food is late, admit it and apologise, don't tell a barefaced lie. The food was nowhere near being ready, clearly. We did get some drinks to tide us over. They were drinkable. Finally it arrived: 2 roasts, a stone cold pork dish, and a stone cold lamb dish that was most definuitely not the roast I ordered. The disappointment on my face didn't register with the waitress, who was off like a shot. I tracked her down and she said 'I'll just check', then informed me that I was right (erm, isn't the customer always?) and that I had ordered something different. Given the length of time it had taken, I didn't want to re-order so I ate it but told her I wasn't willing to pay for it. It was cold and boring. The food would have been OK had it been warm, but the service wasn't even close to OK and there's something going seriously wrong in a pub that lets food go cold at the pass after nearly 2 hours' wait. They put my meal and the second round of drinks on the bill, and we had them take them off. There goes their last star - beyond cheeky to try to charge me for something I didn't order, took 2 hours to arrive, and was horrible, and you'd promised not to. Can't recommend this one. read more

This was my very first stop on my very first trip to London. Wait, that's not true, we stopped at Tesco's on the way from the Tube station to my fiance's flat. Anyway, my guide picked this place due to its location (within walking distance of his place), its ambiance (a pub-like atmosphere but with a classier touch) and its food. And I say he nailed it: I loved this place. They reserved the two biggest tables they had for us (picnic style which is a huge pain in the ass as there's nowhere to put your purse and coat except on the table, and everyone on your side has to get up if you need a smoke or a wee). But that was only a minor annoyance as the service was great, the beer selection was decent, the crowd was fun and the bathrooms were never too crowded and clean. AND they boast a smoking patio (that's American for beer garden, as I understand) out back. Tried a few menu items -- a pastry covered sausage that was pretty good, some crisps and I saw a Scotch egg show up for someone else at the table who said it was good. A creative menu with some traditional basics=score. I would come back for a nice dinner with my fiance or for a night of pints with friends again. Fentiman would be great for either. read more

Stuck in the exact middle of Fentiman street is very nice place to relax on summers eve. The open, airy space with cushy bunkets give this pub a sort of Nantucket kind of feel. It always seems quite busy and filled with the local diversity of young professionals verging on family and a few local gays. Chris the manager is very friendly and always makes the time for his us. The staff are polite and because of the low turn over, you can become friendly with them. I always say, 'it pays to be a good tipper' The food is good but best on Sundays. You have to book to get a table and be there early to enjoy the great roast beef. The back garden is huge and full in the summer. my local hang out. read more

I can't comment on the food but the ale is very poorly kept. My pint of Youngs bitter was sooty in taste and the sample of Doom bar - a ubiquitous ale that should have the distinct refreshing clear taste typical of Cornish ale - recoil-worthy. Seriously Fentiman Arms, go for quality (ideally get Cask Marque accreditation) over quantity if you can't do both. A couple of pluses are the space upstairs and music. But I'd take drinkable ale and background chatter over that any day. read more

The food is unpretentiously good. The wine and beer are well selected and high quality. Open fire and interesting music make for a superb atmosphere. Just arrange a table early during busy periods like Friday night and over the weekend. read more

The Fentiman Arms - Cosy atmosphere - Gastropubs Near Me - London, XGL

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I work in Vauxhall and always seem go forget about this lovely pub, until someone suggests we go there for a nice lunch or leaving do! The decor and atmosphere is really lovely. It's quite quirky without being in your face weird, combined with being a bit more upmarket looking than your average pub. My favourite area to sit in is a section with penguin book cover wallpaper! There is a good range of drinks and they serve delicious, upmarket gastro pub food. The huge chips (think massive hunks of potatoes!) are the perfect hot pub snack with a drink or two. Drinks are a tiny bit pricey, but not unaffordable for London. There's a nice large outdoor garden, perfect for summer drinking too, plus a BBQ area where they sell hot dogs and burgers in the summer. A really lovely pub for a nice catch up drink or meal with friends or a date. Also, a real treat, they have an excellent playlist! Love their music! read more

If you want a nice local bite in a cosy pub, this is it. I love the fish and chips, but to be honest the menu is great overall and I have been to this pub many times. The staff are lovely here and always very chatty when they can - it does get very busy, but then again it's a lovely pub and there aren't too many of them in Oval! read more

Had a lovely dinner here on the new patio. It's a great neighbourhood pub, and the warm service really makes it worth a return. Crowd is generally 20s-30s and lively. I've been a big fan of the Geronimo Inns pubs and this one is no exception - homey and quirky decor (like the nook wallpapered with Penguin book covers), friendly service, excellent wine list and fantastic food. The food isn't gastropub standards but it's above and beyond standard pub fare. We had the cod croquettes starter, the pork chop main, the gnocchi, and the lamb main. Finally we finished up with the peach tart. Lamb and gnocchi were delicious, especially the latter for the portion size and gooey cheesiness. The lamb was perfectly cooked with a yummy pomegranate seed salad alongside. The pork chop was good, but raw near the bone. When we told the waitress, she apologized and offered a drink or dessert on the house. I understand that pork is a bit difficult to cook without making it bone dry, and staff handled this hiccup excellently. All in all, definitely worth coming round for some drinks and snacks and an afternoon in the sunshine! read more

Nice, large corner pub. The front seating area catches the sun. Not much traffic passing when I visited, so is peaceful at times. Friendly and helpful staff. Lots of comfortable seating. Well worth a visit. read more

The Fentiman Arms - Gastropubs Near Me - London, XGL

Great place with beautiful big leather armchairs, fireplace. The wine list is great, and the food pretty damn good, so you can have a very nice meal here. By pub standards the food's expensive. Or you can have a pint and relax. It's a local pub in that you'd probably have to live nearby to know it's there. The back garden is lovely in the summer. read more

Look at me giving a rare 5 stars. I like this pub, plenty of space when the garden is in use. Nice beer, nice staff, the young adult cultural type crowd. I went here after a game at the oval. The walk from there may put you off going to a pub in the area, but this place sits in an affluent road. A few reviews on qype had me convinced to give it a go. Great place I will visit regularly from now on. read more

The Fentiman Arms - Gastropubs Near Me - London, XGL

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In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best choice of venue for a colleague's leaving do. They happily let us book a lunchtime table for 10, but didn't mention that it was 'BBQ menu'. So just two choices: £15 meat platter (served with salad and chips) or £9 veg stuffed peppers (again, served with salad and chips). Only one of us actually felt like eating BBQ, so the rest of us considered the veg option. Could someone just order salad? No. Just chips? No. Just salad and chips? No. So we were served 1 biggish plate of chips, 2 biggish plates of salad, 1 plate of meaty bits and 9 x half peppers. £9 for half a stuffed pepper, salad and chips? Yes indeed. After a bit of moaning, we were upgraded to an extra plate of chips. To be fair, they also agreed that half a pepper wasn't really much of a main course and knocked a few quid off the bill. So a good venue for talking about cricket, wearing your fred perry with the collar sticking up and chewing a charcoaly sausage. For anything more, the Portuguese places up the road are a better option. read more

What is it they say? Location, location, location. The success of this rather mediocre pub is that it's the only 'middle class' boozer anywhere nearby. The result is a rather lazy establishment resting on it's laurels because of a lack of competition. Although reasonably spacious, it's poorly organised and crammed full of furniture. It also (especially on Cricket days) gets fantastically busy. U-shaped, you can only access the toilets on one side, so if you're the other side you're gonna say a lot of 'excuse me, can I squeeze pasts' before you can find bladder relief. And even, for the chaps, when you get there this pub only has two urinals. It's the only pub I know where you frequently have to queue for the toilets. Not much to say about the real ale (it's ok) and the service isn't as brisk as one would hope. They seem to have a house policy on giving short pints because I seem to alsways ask for a top up. Oh come, say something nice. Ok. The garden's large and quite nice. They do the Amstells's cider. The food is good, but pricey. read more

The garden is great and the food is usually of a very high standard. However, it does try to be a bit too cool for school. There are plenty of other chilled out pubs nearby that offer the same sort of thing but are better. The pub quiz is quite good but goes on for too long. Also - they suck you in with a nice easy first round and then leave you itching to leave with round after round of annoyingly difficult questions! read more

By far one of my favourite pubs in the Oval area. The food is great, the service is always friendly and The Fentiman pretty much caters for whatever you are after. We've had lazy afternoons there playing board games for hours on end, had delicious meals (be it the full three courses, a Sunday roast, or simply just bar snacks), watched the football without being crushed by overly rowdy crowds, celebrated birthdays and even taken part and won a prize in the pub quiz (albeit the booby prize for coming last)! I couldn't recommend this place highly enough - especially in the Summer when the beer garden is accented with the smell of freshly BBQ'ed food that practically guarantees you'll be reaching for the menu and tucking in. read more

Great food - a bit pricy overall for both food and booze but it is made up for in great atmopshere and a wonderful beer garden. Service can be a little bit hit or miss when it is busy, but overall love going! read more

A charming pub very close to the Oval cricket ground. Especially cosy in the winter. Food was OK but not worth the price (especially the side dishes). Desserts were very disappointing! Excellent service from the friendly staff. read more

This was my second visit to the Fentiman Arms and I have to say it won't be my last. Our group had two tables booked overlooking the garden area, and with doors thrown open and rose wine chilling in those new fangled wine cooler bags, eveything seemed right with the world. Our tasty lunch appeared on the table just moments after we had returned from making our order at the bar - how do they do that?? - and I was more than happy with my starter size salad of bulgur wheat, lentils and avocado, red beetroot, blood orange dressing accompanied by a side of handcut chips. And while it may be a small detail for some, I really appreciated the fact that they served San Pellegrino - as us low level drinkers usually have to contend with the syrupy on tap soda that doesn't quite have the bite of the real thing. Good times all round! read more

This pub used to be my local when I first decided to move south of the river. Vauxhall is very odd place, on one hand there are few rough and industrial parts where I wouldn't venture after dark and then you also have got cute little places like Fentiman Arms or nearby Vauxhall Park with miniature houses, bird fountain and bowling green - absolutely gorgeous for picnic on a sunny day. But back to the main point, I wouldn't agree with Monica that the Fentiman Arms is only frequented by people with little personality as I used to go there every Sunday! And I'm far from being boring. Fentiman Arms is one of those lovely pubs tucked away from busy streets of London which is why you will be greeted by the same faces each week and will become friends with staff in no time. But what I loved the most about this pub, was its cosy atmosphere, comfy seats and the board games! The place becomes even more fun during spring or summer when beer garden at the back gets opened for weekly barbeques. If you live nearby then check it out! read more

An impromptu visit on the hottest evening of the year. We squeezed onto the last table on the buzzing terrace and instantly relaxed. I had a perfect smoked chicken Caesar with just the lightest touch of smoke on the meat, my partner enjoyed his well seasoned smoked mackerel pate. All washed down with a cool bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. Great atmosphere and excellent service by the very hard pressed staff - not easy shimmying between the closely packed tables! read more

A posh pub in an otherwise nondescript part of town. The Fentiman is frequented by mostly young professionals with little personality but lots of money. Admiteddly the beer garden is great in the summer but the food is overpriced and the staff pretty obnoxious. However, having said that, there's not a lot else around this area if you want to spend a quiet evening in someone's company having a bite to eat and a few beers. Afterall, there are thousands of gastropubs worse than this one all over london so you're not doing too badly if you end up here. Be warned - service is slow. read more

Great spot here, cosy in the winter, great garden in the summer. Often really busy Thurs, Fri nights. Limited menu but food is good, great crowd, walking distance from Oval and Vauxhall. Good local. read more

Nice neighbourhood pub with good food and friendly staff. The garden in the back is large and is a nice place to go and hang out on a nice summer day/evening. Thumbs up for the Malbec on the menu too! read more

This pub is in a random location (I got lost) but well worth the effort. Food is really good and it has a lovely atmosphere. Brilliant quiz on a Tuesday but make sure you get there before 7.30 as it gets quite packed. read more

Bland bland bland, and over priced for what it really is.... Service is so lack lustre that you would feel more special getting your own ketchup, cutlery and napkins at a Nandos. And i'm saying this as one paying for what use to be my "local" the menu is boring burgers and salmon it use to be seasonal and exciting but the new staff is rude and un-interested bordering on rude to be kind. Spare yourself the time and visit something more exciting on the riverside by Vauxhall or Clapham... read more

Great place! Was there with couple of friends for dinner - excellent seasonal dishes! Nice cozy area above the pub with fireplace and loads of books. Grreat atmosphere! read more

A brilliant, fun boozer with an amazing garden for the summer that has blankets and heaters for the winter too. The food is usually pretty good, but too many times I've been disappointed with the service. Still, if you're just looking for a fun, boozy afternoon in Oval, then this is the place to be. read more

Food Was Shockingly bad! Starter came out frozen! No apology... Will not be recommending to others!

Waited for food for over an hour, service really poor, food was stone cold. Not going back.

Good atmosphere, dog friendly and an outside area which would be good on sunny days but the food was average at best. There were minimal food options left available when we arrived at 3, which as a vegetarian left me only with a starter to have as a main. My cauliflower cheese side was tiny and had barely any cheese. The service was poor - both starters and mains arrived at once, and i wasn't told until 25 minutes after I ordered that what I wanted wasn't available. My friends then ordered and only one main arrived out of 5 dishes, and the waitress kept coming back to tell us various dishes were no longer available, ages after we ordered. It was one problem after another! Very disappointing. read more

Seriously good place to chill out and enjoy a long Sunday lunch. They've got the ambience right, the service is good and the menu includes old faves and interesting ideas too. BUT just sometimes the food isn't as good as it might be - not actually bad more fair-to-middling. It's just that when its busy I wonder if the kitchen simply can't keep up with the demand. read more

We dropped in for lunch yesterday. Picked a table and I ordered an £8 sandwich. Tomato and mozzarella. Complete rip off. 2 small triangular sandwiches consisting of 4 small dry triangles of white Italian style bread, 2 very thin slices of tomato and 2 thin pieces of tasteless mozzarella. SHAME. very very poor. No butter, no mayo, no lettuce, no onion, no watercress,no condiments offered, no chance I will be going back. Just a few under cooked fat chips on the side that my husband ate. No ketchup!! I'm just too American for a fancy London gastropub. IM AFRAID IM OUT! As a dragon would say!! read more

This place is my local. Love to pop in for a pint. Can be absolutely packed some nights, but usually plenty of room when the back garden is open. Sunday roasts are brilliant. read more

Good local boozer. Nicely decorated with a great beer garden. Got some sport on but not recommended if you're desperate to watch the match.

Had a great experience this evening at this pub, Fish and Chips was excellent and the service was better. Pub atmosphere was cozy inside with some nice booth style benches and chairs, the outside Patio looked great too. Highly recommended. read more

Paying £29 for a 2-course (starter & mains) christmas feast would leave you thinking you are getting exactly that. 2 bowls potatos/veg were shared amongts 12 people. I got 1potato! The slices of turkey stood idle in the middle of an otherwise empty plate staked on 2 pigs in blankets and some stuffing. I can safely say this was the very first pub christmas dinner I finished still feeling hungry and slightly robbed! read more

best pub on fentiman road,the staff and managers are the fastest bar staff in the pub world