The Engineer

Went to the Engineer on Sunday for lunch with 9 friends. While it wasn't the greatest food or the best service in the world, it wasn't nearly as bad as made out in the reviews. It wasn't busy and perhaps this was fortunate - our waitress did seem to get distracted and forget drinks orders when new diners arrived, but so long as all you are expecting is decent pub food in a site setting, the Engineer is not too bad.
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Andrew
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, July 16, 2007

Having been a regular at The Engineer for the past 8 years, i can now safely say that i will never be going back. Upon visiting this week for a celebration i am dumbfounded at not only the appalling service, but the mediocre food. The waiting staff were some the rudest I have ever experienced, throwing food and drinks when eventually they arrived onto the table. That said we had to keep asking for drinks, and we had to ask for our food 3 times. When we complained at the end of the meal they did not seem to care, of even apologise for this unhappiness of their customers, the ones paying their wages nonetheless. It is sad that such a reknowned London establishment has let its standards slip, perhaps the management/owners should read this and take action, if i was them i would be deeply concerned. I eat out regularily and have no hesitation in spending money on good food and wine, and service, sadly The Engineer no longer delivers any of these. What a shame!!!!!
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Bubble
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Had the misfortune of eating here at the weekend. It was noisily busy, as you'd expect for a Saturday afternoon, and in the absence of waiting staff/maitre 'd, we sat down at one of the 3 empty tables outside. Whne a waitress did arrive we were curtly told these were reserved and if we wanted to eat we could go "upstairs". Evidently this is were they put groups with children, presumably not to offend the pretty young things with silly haircuts who were sat around trying to get in as many fags before the ban comes in. The waiter was friendly enough and brought drinks and took our food order reasonably quickly. Unfortunately we had to go through the meal ordering process again as a few of the main dishes were now 'off'.

To cutthis short, basically the food wasn't good enough. It lacked depth of flavour and when you take away the gimmicky touches, didn't represent valur for money.
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Sam bush
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Monday, June 11, 2007

the food was under seasoned , overpriced.horsradish cream didn't have anny horseradish in it ,tequila cured salmon tasted of nothing, chicken was overcooked , bland , .very disapointing for a place wich calls it self one of the first original "gastro pubs" .
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, May 01, 2007

the maincourse arrived suspicioulsy too fast, and indeed it seemed that the pork was stuffed in the microwave or left under the heating grills for too long, although we were assured by the waiter that this was not the case! The meat was tough and dry and more like a student prepared dinner than a "gastro" pork.

The lamb tagine was average at best and more similar to lamb shank on a bedding of steamed vegetables and rice.

The desert manue was unispiring.

Overall expensive for the quality.
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franco
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Saturday, January 13, 2007

Am I correct in thinking the description at the top of the page has drifted out of date somewhat? It doesn't sound like the place I visited. How about this as a replacement? "Unpleasant and expensive, with a sour, pretentious atmosphere and utterly mundane food." To all those harbouring negative preconceptions about London and Londoners - come to The Engineer and have them all confirmed.
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N G J
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Friday, January 05, 2007

Last night by boyfriend and I booked a table at the Engineer for dinner. We were very disappointed. We eat out regularly in London and it's been a while since we visited somewhere so overpriced. We had asked for cocktails without citrus as my boyfriend is allergic. when his arrived piled in lime we asked for something else so the barman left the extra one for me...the manager didn't appreciate this and told him that next time to pour it down the sink.... not a great start!! The starters of duck where almost £7.00 and were extremely salty. The main course of a small steak, tomatoes on the vine and "fat" chips came in at £18.00 and my poor boyfriend had opted for the chicken with porchini mushrooms with mash that wouldn't have been lost on a student table. It tasted like a piece of chicken with Campbells Condensed mushroom soup on top.Throw in a few cocktails, over generous service at 12.5% and the bill for 2 came in at £90. An absolute rip off. A quick word to the manager revealed the true backbone of the restaurant. "I'm afraid that is just the way it is" is not really the best comeback to disappointed customers. Thank goodness we live south of the river and can easily avoid this overpriced up itself establishment again.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Thursday, October 19, 2006

A group of friends and I had the displeasure of dining at The Engineer last night. We were commiserating the anniversary of the passing of a very special person so we were looking forward to a cheering night at what we had been informed was a fine gastro-pub with an excellent reputation. How wrong we were.

The service was average. At one point in the evening our curt waiter who had been ineptly serving us almost tripped over my foot and had the audacity to demand that ''I'' be more careful. He managed to forget the side dishes which arrived after we had finished our main courses that were fairly bland as it was. The food was horrendously over priced. At GBP16.75, the sirloin (grey is not medium rare) was chuck steak you'd feed your cat and the pork chop had absolutely no flavour.

The clincher in this painful evening came when one of our group was asked to leave as the management found her to be too intoxicated. She was quite obviously in complete control of her faculties and understandably upset by this rude demand. It didn't help matters that she was the bereaved friend. This fact was explained to the floor manager and amazingly he showed no sympathy whatsoever. What struck us most was the fact that there was no quiet side word just a rude refusal to serve her. Obviously it's within the pub's rights and legal obligations to remove highly intoxicated patrons but she was neither highly intoxicated nor was she unruly in her behaviour.

Badly dealt with guys, you lost yourself seven possible regulars not what your reputation needs after the reviews on this site either. It seems The Engineer is on a crash spiral to hospitality hospital.
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Nigel Rawson
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, October 04, 2006

A friend had her 30th birthday here (a party of 12). My friend's sister had bought a really nice cake but the manager refused to serve it - saying it was not policy. We had already ordered two courses, plenty of drinks and offered to all buy ice cream and coffees but she point blank refused, changing her mind and saying that as we had the table all night, she wouldn't allow us to have the cake! When we refused to pay the service charge, she simply shrugged her shoulders and said "well it's the staff that suffer not the business" (we had already given the excellent waitress the money in her hand).

I wrote a letter to the owners but heard nothing back. Clearly customer satisfaction is of no concern
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Friday, September 29, 2006

where do they get the staff from here? When i went i sat right next to the reception for 15 minutes and still didn't get anyone come over or say hi. I leant over and asked the waitress if someone had any menus. She responded without looking at me as she was more ineterested in her computer and i was distracting her and said something about someone being over in a minute. Rude is not the word. The manager explained that she was very busy. I explained that how busy can one be that you cant even smile and acknowledge someone. He reiterated that she busy and that was that. Well it was that. We left. Shame as the place is quite cool. Being pleasant costs so little. Well approximately £80 quid as thats we'd have spent had she smiled and just been a little real...GET RID OF YOUR STAFF OR TRAIN THEM!
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david
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, June 21, 2006