The House

Oh Lord! Laurel resting a-go-go.

Please get the extraction issues sorted. Please employ some observant, attentive front of house staff. Please get over yourselves! Self-belief is one thing, but parading around as though you are doing your patrons a huge favour by actually giving them a menu, is simply annoying.

Local residents frequent this place on a regular basis, but I have been twice and was thoroughly disappointed and irritated on both occasions. I shall not return.
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S R King
3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

We live very close to The House, and have eaten there many times in the last year. We were very happy to find on a recent visit that they have hired a new chef, and many new staff. The result was a truly fantastic gastro pub meal, and fantastic service. I had the fish and chips, it was a fantastically prepared and displayed dish. My husband's steak was equally great.

In the past, as some reviewers have also indicated on this website, the food had been sub par, and the service very unfriendly. This had frustrated us in the past, and we had stopped eating there as a result. However, I am happy to report that The House has turned a corner, and I suggest to anyone who had been put off in the past to try it again. We were very happy we did.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, August 17, 2011

We used to love The House - it was an unassuming neighbourhood gem, turning out consistently good quality fine dining-style food, with passionate and courteous staff. We last visited a year and a half ago - and my, how things have changed.

The House has morphed into a chavvy gastro-pub, with Sky Sports on the wall, and a late bar on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant seems to be an after thought.

There were a few rowdy drinkers in the pub, but the restaurant was empty at 8pm on Saturday. Despite this, we were "greeted" by a waiter barking "have you booked?!", before being shown to a table.

We were asked if we would like a drink - we fancied treating ourselves to a glass of champagne, but on studying the wine list, saw that only prosecco was available by the glass. Not ideal, but we went with that given the lack of alternatives. The waiter shook his head and said there was no prosecco left, they had sold out. Sold out of the only sparkling wine available by the glass? So we asked if, in these exceptional cicumstances, he would consider opening a bottle of champagne from the list - we would pay extra... "err... um... no, sorry, we can't do that... sorry". They could have made some easy money by just trying to be a bit flexible, but it seemed beyond them. Never mind good customer service.

Then the bread basket came round - small white rolls which looked home made - and not in a good way. Mine was pappy and slightly stale. I make better bread myself.

The waiter came back to tell us what the Pie of The Day was. Pie of the Day? I thought this was fine dining? The menu also had rather too many dishes on it, something that always causes alarm bells to ring for me. Can this kitchen really turn out all these dishes fresh and perfectly executed?

We just had a really bad feeling about the place, and looking at the prices in the menu I had an overwhelming urge to get up and leave there and then, and save myself £160. So that's what we did.

We shan't be returning.
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Jo - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Thursday, August 11, 2011

Was surprised when I ate at The House in Islington, It is unassuming, as a building...But so then is the Ivy and many other London super restaurants...The food made up for this, It was difficult to decide what to choose off the menu, all four of our party chose something different and we were all delighted with the food, we also noted a few famous faces in there ...nice really felt like we had lived it up...will return soon Thank you for a lovely evening.
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Bardo janex
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, April 06, 2011

I have recently visited the House, on recommendation from a couple i met, in one of the other establishments within the same company, a place in Mayfair called The Only Running Footman, which I went to with a work social.

However regarding the House in Islington it did take us a while to find from Highbury and Islington station (after my partner thought they knew the area better than they did)...... But dont let this put you off, once we were there the staff made us feel very welcome, the menu was a pleasant suprise we were informed it was the first week of the new menu as well as a new wine list, neither of us are big wine drinkers so cannot report on this.

For starter we both had Wild boar Sausage with colcannon mash and pinenut and sage sauce which was delicious :) for mains I had the scallops with spinach white bean puree and chorizo which i found all complemented each other wonderfully, my partner had Monkfish cheek and tiger prawn cassoulet, again this suppassed expectation, we shared a dessert which was double chocolate cheesecake with honeycomb again very good, the staff were pleasant and not to bothersome(which i find a little off putting at times) Not the cheapest of places, but i will definitely be back :)
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Tilda Sweeny
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Thursday, October 07, 2010

Disappointing. The waiting staff were sour, our waitress had poor English & struggled to understand our order and as a result there were various misunderstandings i.e. our order wasn't carried out in the way we asked. First came here a couple of years ago but it appears to have gone downhill.
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Camellia
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Sunday, August 22, 2010

Just moved in to Islington and looked up some reviews for dining out here. The House came up and thought why not try this place out, it had a lot of good reviews on line and a few bad ones too.

So I and my partner made our way here on Thursday evening. We didn’t book but the Waitress managed to get us a table on the terrace, which was perfect to dine on as the weather was so good, and so was everything else.

The food was great and good portion sizes too, I had the Crab and Crayfish Salad to start with a Bloody- mary dressing, worked so well, followed by Sea Trout with Cous Cous and a Red Pepper Sauce which again was delicious. Ted had Duck to start and said it was tasty.

Chicken with Lentils and a Spring roll, also delicious {I tried some of that}

Service was spot on and the bill was what I would have paid for everything we got.

This will be my Islington Local {hopefully will get discounts on future visits}
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K.Adams
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, July 12, 2010

What an exceptional night out in Islington we had here on Saturday night, The House in Islington is a great place to take your friends and dine out, the atmosphere was buzzing and the food is fantastic.

Service could be a little better, maybe employ a few more waiters/waitresses if the place is always that busy??

A bit on the expensive side for a pub, but well worth every Penney.

Will be coming back very soon.
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Matt
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Monday, July 12, 2010

I'm getting to know my local pubs and restaurants, and after success at the Albion and Canonbury I thought i'd give the House a whirl.

The lady at front of house was a delight, getting us a table on the terrace despite us having no booking. Sadly that was the only moment we experienced friendly service. The other waiting staff were heavy handed and grumpy.

The menu looked pretty promising, resulting in my husband and I nearly fighting over who could order what. I plumped for asparagus, duck egg and brown shrimps to start followed by mussels in cider and tarragon. He had scallops with lemon thyme risotto and then chicken with lentils. HA how stupid we were. What sounded delicious on paper was in reality one of the most disappointing parades of dishes we've eaten in a long time. the asparagus starter was crying out for salt and a squeeze of lemon, maybe some bread to mop up the egg? it tasted of very little, and the asparagus was woody....I was willing to forgive this actually until I tasted the scallop starter. Whilst the scallops themselves were cooked very well, the risotto was so overpowered by the thyme that you couldnt taste anything else! What an ill conceived dish!!

Mains were no better...I thought mussels with cider and tarragon might have some sort of sauce...rather than a clear grey broth of basically just herbed hot water! nothing to dip the chips in, no flavour at all. The sauce just needed some cream, some salt, some white wine, some garlic cloves...I'm no chef and I could see what it needed for flavour. Sadly the kitchen didn't.

I think the chicken was OK....we rushed through the mains and legged it home after paying far more than the food deserved. I will not be returning, and urge any locals looking for a good restaurant/pub in N1 to avoid this place.
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Sonia - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Ate there weekend just gone with family, have had mixed opinions in the past but it seems they are very on the ball, everything was wonderful service and the food, we are going back for my sisters birthday next month cant wait :)
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timmy
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, June 16, 2010