The Clissold Arms

Six of us went for dinner to the Clissold Arms recently.

The menu, which I checked online first, looked delicious and varied. The wine list also looked impressive.

Sadly, the reality did not live up to the hype! The Clissold Arms clearly has pretentious delusions of grandeur. The food was certainly OK, but not prepared to the standard suggested by the grand descriptions in the menu.

Add to this the fact that the portions of starters, mains and desserts were all tiny, but the prices were certainly NOT East Finchley suburban gastro-pub, but much more like West End prices, and the overall impression was certainly disappointing.

The red wine we ordered was not delivered to us at room temperature, but had clearly either been resting on a radiator or had had a hair dryer applied - it was seriously too warm. We had to wait 15-20 minutes before it had cooled down to room temperature and became drinkable.

The staff were friendly and helpful, and reasonably knowledgeable.

Would we go back to the Clissold Arms? I don't think so.
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TomM - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Thursday, November 25, 2010

We have been to the Clissold Arms three times now, the first two were perfect unfortunately the third was very dissapointing. The food was OK as usual and the wine was good but the waiter was hopeless. He was completely disinterested in anything that was asked of him i.e. why we were given different versions of the menu, where the asparagus came from, I asked for the Veloute and he didn't understand me and kept asking me if I wanted the soup!

We won't be going back.
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Steve Philpott
5 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Once again, this place out does itself.

Visited on Saturday evening, and what a nice crowd go there. All the nice people from East Finchley, Muswell Hill must descend there.

The wine menu, we are told is the owners favourites, so you get some pretty flash wine to choose from. Sure, it isn't cheap, but with wine, as we all know, you get what you pay for.

The food is ALL organic and locally sourced, as locally sourced as the UK anyway. The dishes are always very well presented and they must have a low turn over of staff as I normally see the same people in there.

The manager is a diamond, always welcoming and personal; he smiles as if you are a long lost friend who always trys to accomodate if you haven't booked. And, it certainly helps to book at this place as it gets full on busy nights.

Always a pleasure to visit this place.
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Richard Johnson
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 27, 2009