Canteen at RFH

All I want to say is ask about the service charge - it's a scandal .... food was 'ok' but our waitress (from Thailand) was a star!

Nice to see
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Brenda Philips , Croydon
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, April 21, 2008

Went to Canteen a few days ago and all I can say is .....Whats going on????

Service was terrible and disappointing. Food was bland and cold. This used to be such a great place a few months ago.
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I Buntswell
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, March 02, 2008

I really like Canteen. It's good to know you can get good British staples, reliably, served up by pleasant staff. Four of us were found a table on a busy Friday night. We were on the 'special' table by the door. It was okay, if a bit cramped. Worth it for the food. We had potted duck, kidneys and the cashel salad for starters, fish and chips, S&K pie, belly pork and roast chicken for mains and we shared a cheese plate. We had three bottles of decent wine. The draught Greenwich beers are good, too. WIth coffees, water and service it worked out about thirty quid a head. The only hiccup was a rather too enthusiastic waitress trying to clear wine glasses (which we were still using) at the end of the evening, our main server for the evening was extremely helpful and entirely charming, though.
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Boz
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Monday, February 18, 2008

After my first visit to Canteen RFH I was sufficiently pleased to plan a return visit. It has a wide-ranging menu covering breakfast and 'lighter' plates as well as lunch & dinner plus daily pie and roast specials. I had a small plate portion of devilled kidneys on toast which could have served as a main as it had a generous heaping of tender lamb kidneys in a zingy sauce - very tasty; I followed this with pork belly with roasted apple which featured tender, flavourful meat (though the top layer of fat was chewy rather than crispy) nicely perfumed with fennel seeds. I added a silky side dish of mashed potato. My friend had a delicious pear and roquefort salad followed by smoked haddock. We both tried the treacle tart which was surprisingly light but didn't match up to the starters and mains.

Staff were friendly and helpful and organised a table for us quickly after warning us we might have to wait about 20 minutes (we hadn't booked). The surroundings were a bit soulless but this was offset by food and service. I'd definitely like to explore the menu a bit more as so far it seems promising.
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Backdrifter - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Went to Canteen at the RFH last week. Very pleasant and helpful staff. Bacon sandwich was surprisingly disappointing. I left my plate with a mound of stringy greyish fat on the side that i had to pull off. Perhaps you have to request crispy... Bread didn't fare much better, i left much of the dry crust. Fruit salad was an intensely over-refrigerated glop of what appeared to be mainly peach or nectarine soaked in orange juice...it was hard to tell, everything had exactly the same flavour and pulpy overripe texture. The single quartered strawberry on top was ok. Chips fine, water deliciously cold, good coffee, excellent toilets. Perhaps i was just unlucky this time but honestly i was expecting better.
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MacDermott - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Had a really disappointing meal here last night. The service was very poor - our waitress, clearly new and inexperienced did not know how to use a corkscrew and could not open our wine. She then missed the glasses when pouring it! Items that had been ordered were missed, and it was all painfully slow - 2 hours for 2 courses. Food was not up to scratch either, clumbsy execution and presentation and elements of it over cooked. We were not alone in our views, with lots of other tables clearly unhappy too. There was no management presence and the whole thing was pretty shambolic. Too many other places in the area doing it much better to warrant a return.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I lunched here on 11/7/07 on the 'Roast of the Day' which was Roast Beef. The meat was of decent quality and the potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and cabbage were also fine (though served in tiny quantities). The carrots were however overcooked which spoiled the meal for me, particularly as the overall portions were small

Although the meat was a fair portion, I would go as far as to say the portions of accompanimnents were stingy. (1 tiny miniature Yorkshire pudding, 2 tiny Roast Potatoes, and the aforementioned vegetables.

Most pubs who do a 'Sunday Roast' do it a lot better - and at a lesser price.

- and I do not feel it should be too much to ask for a restaurant to time the vegetables properly, particularly when there are charging £13.50 (+ service) for the (ungenerous) dish.

Also the decor here fairly literally lives up to the place's name. Very canteen-like i.e. OK for a quick lunch but not the sort of place you'd want to take someone to in the evening

On the plus side., t he service was excellent and efficient and the waiting staff charming. I would not go back there again though.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

We had a meal at the new restaurant as we are fans of the Spitalfields restaurant. Great Fish and chips and really fresh greens. The Veal pie was really good and great mash.

The Service was friendly and very attentitive and they all seemed on the ball.

I am happy to say that they matched their other branch and its great they are expanding.

Great keep it up and what a nice atmoshere without music.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, July 04, 2007

3 of us tried this on Sunday 1st July.

The standard of the food was very variable.

Eggs Benedict was very good, the ham and pea soup was hugely over-salted. The fish and chips (haddock) were poor, the fish having been overcooked and was very dry. Chips were average. The pie of the day, leek and cheddar, was poor, the ingrediants having disappeared into the soggy pastry. The Bream in parsely butter was good.

We ordered some treacle tart which never arrived despite 2 reminders from us.

The manager took the price of the disappointing food off the bill. If she hadn't, and the food had been ok, this would still have been a fairly expensive restaurant for the quality of the food and the style of the establishment.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, July 03, 2007