The Barnsbury

fantabulous place with one cracker of a scrummy waiter, bearded man we love you. The food is delicious and withouot the pretentions of 'potato mousse' or seared angolian goose-brain on toast. Flaming chorizo is a must, just remember to blow it out first. I disagree heartily with the obvious scam of five people from the same table writing utter twonk. I thought the service was spanking, but that may be because the waiter was a dish. Any sane and indeed social creature must realise the pressure on staff on a Saturday night in the big smoke. GO
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Tallulah
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, February 19, 2006

Fab.
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Paul
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, February 13, 2006

went to Barnsbury on a sat night, in Feb06. Although only 80(ish) metres from Upper St., it was a different world. OK, you probably need to book for peak times and they will turn you away (in the nicest possible way) if they don't have space. But that means that the place is not too busy, there are not crowds by the bar and it all feels nicely warm and personal. The steak was cooked to ordered perfection and a couple of bottles of the Malbec capped off a lovely experience. One for a good ol' laugh with mates, when you really can't be doing with the hassle of other N1 venues.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Saturday, February 11, 2006

A couple of years ago we discovered the Barnsbury by chance and I'm afraid we became hooked.

We've now moved out of the area, but it has remained our local. The food is excellent (steak and chips especially) and for someone who does not normally like seafood, the scallops are fabulous.

They also serve my favourite Belgian Trappist beer and the service has been without exception; outstanding since we started going there, the staff go out of their way to accommodate. The Barnsbury for us, captures the atmosphere and friendliness of the Antwerp cafe bars we used to frequent and a real effort has been made by all there to create and maintain this feeling.
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Ian
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, January 20, 2006

My parents and I had a most enjoyable Sunday lunch at this place (I live nearby) where we were surprised by the quality of well, everything! Ok, it is just a pub and small at that but from rural Glos they are not used to good eats out but definitely know loads about good food. I cannot fault anything from the scallops or pate to the delicious roast beef. They eulogised about the food and service as if they had never had anything like it before. Get out more I hear you say ! I know where will keep them quiet in future. Thank you.
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Denise
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

As the owner of The Barnsbury and coincidentally another customer that evening seated at the table adjacent to the customers who have commented below regarding Saturday 14th January, I feel the three individual sets of feedback given below referring to one individual party experience, require some explanation;

Firstly let me say that there is never any excuse for rudeness and as I happened to be lending a hand at that point in the evening due to the unusually large amount of people in the pub at the time, I personally experienced the aggressive behaviour of the member of staff to whom you refer. Yes, she was overly aggressive and this was indeed totally unnecessary in order to communicate the point that she was trying to make. It should be mentioned here that your party of nine people had arrived into an already very busy pub and subsequently tried to sit around a small table for 3 people directly in front of the food service area using additional chairs from neighbouring tables that were already booked for dinner. The bar staff were happy to serve you drinks but simply indicated that the area in which you were stood was a food service route and that it would need to be kept clear, to which you agreed. I hope that you will appreciate that on a very busy Saturday night when all tables were having dinner, such routes in any similar establishments are used constantly by staff carrying plates of hot food. I hope then, that you will also appreciate the potential hazards that such obstruction causes to you the customers and our staff that evening. The Barnsbury is a small pub and unfortunately we do not have the space to accommodate large parties during extremely busy meal periods. Perhaps the manager on duty that evening should have been made that more clear.

I would like to impress upon you and others reading your comments that our staff do not normally have a serious attitude problem and whilst I apologise again for any unnecessary aggression on this particular occasion, it should be remembered that we do have obligations to our staff and other customers in terms of health and safety and we try to be as accommodating as possible to all but it is for these reasons that we cannot allow large groups to congregate in front of our food service areas or indeed fire exits.

Jeremy Gough

A group of 9 of us decided to go there for a drink on Saturday night as we didn't fancy the more lively Upper street pubs on this occasion. The welcome we got was one of utter contempt. One particular female member of staff repeatedly moaned at us for daring to stand at the bar and routinely pushed and barged her way past us scowling on each occasion. Fortunately we were all very sober and actually found this funny rather than offensive as I can see this attitude causing problems in there in other circumstances. Can't comment on the food as we didn't eat and I have no intention of ever doing so. There are serious attitude problems in there and I think they are throwing away custom with it.
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James Maughan
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, January 16, 2006

I have to say I have never encountered such rude staff at a 'gastropub' in London. Turning up in a group of more than 5 is obviously the biggest sin you could ever commit in this place because it seems to warrant the baddest attitude and a level of unfriendliness that is just plain unnecessary and rude! The party I was with were neither rowdy, nor drunk, so i can only imagine it was because we didn't order food that our presence was frowned upon? Its a shame because its a well presented pub and the menu looked tempting, but I don't think any of us will be going back to actually try the food for fear of being sneered or snapped at! I can only say if you like friendly service with your food and drink - avoid this place!!
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Zoe
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Monday, January 16, 2006

I'm pleased to see from some of other comments below that we weren't the only people to visit the Barnsbury and be treat like something the staff had just wiped off their shoes, I was getting paranoid. My friend first asked the bar man if it was okay for us to just order drinks to which the response was 'As long as you don't get in our way'. So we got a drink and some of us took a seat. Those that stood were aggressively ordered by waitress to 'stand one side or the other, not in the middle' when all she had to do was ask politely. She then passed by a few times with a face like thunder and at different points of the eveining booted a chair that was temporarily vacated, elbowed the top of my friend's dad's head and shoved his mother as she walked passed. If there was a plus point, it was that the staff's attitude was so bad we ended up laughing. If the staff could manage a smile and be polite it would be good pub.
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Marty - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, January 16, 2006

great food, great location and great dining room, and one extremely rude blonde waitress, who clearly wanted to be somewhere else on the evening i went. not a smile all night, banging plates down, taking bottle of wine away when they still had a glass in them... and finishing up spilling red wine on me without apology when i was trying to get the bill corrected (extra wine and coffe we hadnt ordered). yes i understand you may be busy, but its no excuse for rudeness when you work in the service industry. i felt sorry for the other waiter who was trying to apologise for her...
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Monday, January 16, 2006

Excellent pub, off the beaten track so you generally always get a table its vwery relaxed with open fires. There is a non smoking part to the pub for dining which is very rare to find today. The food and the staff are always great.
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michael
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Saturday, December 03, 2005