The Drapers Arms

My boyfriend and I live in Islington and out of all the gastropubs in the area, this is the one we return to most often. We have brought friends and family here over the past year and they have all loved it. The menu changes all the time so we never get bored, though I sometimes find the vegetarian options a little uninspiring. They do a very good Sunday lunch and if you can get a table in the garden, it's a lovely place to spend a few hours outside with a good bottle of wine.
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Jamie
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, April 25, 2013

I can only assume we had the same waitress / manager that several of the others here have commented on - in 19 years of living in London I have never walked out of a restaurant before the food has even arrived because of appallingly rude service, but I did last night here.

After walking in I said hello to the waitress and told her we had a table booked for three but, although she definitely heard us, she just looked up wearily and walked off to talk to the bar man.

This was just the tip of the iceberg and there were several other incidents with her (including telling one of our party "can't you see I'm talking here?" when we asked for some bread) that eventually saw us just pay for our drinks and leave.

I thought it was some hidden-camera show and the presenter would eventually show himself and the waitress would point out the camera and start laughing. Unfortunately not.

I was with 2 guests of mine who were in from America and I was embarrassed at British "service" and they were honestly shocked that anyone in a customer-service position could behave that way.

Will very definitely never be going back which is a shame as the menu looked good.

PS - in the review below difficult to give a score for food and value as we left before our dishes arrived. The two stars for service are for the amiable, bearded young man who served us when his boss wasn't around - shame he left for about 20 minutes and left us with her. She definitely gets zero.
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W Henderson
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Monday, May 28, 2012

Second time to the Drapers Arms last Saturday evening. View remains the same - the place itself is lovely with great decor and good atmosphere, food is slightly better than average (although this depends on what is on the menu when you happen to visit), but staff are generally unhelpful and can be quite rude. Bar staff seem friendly but anyone who has anything to do with the food seems terribly grumpy. A real shame, since I love the place and would happily pop in regularly at least for a drink. Perhaps that is the way forward - avoiding the food.
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MJT - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 07, 2011

Unfortunately our experience on Drapers Arms was very poor. The food good, but the staff very rude.

We booked over the phone for the christmas menu of which we double checked that we wouldn't need to pre-order they confirmed we wouldn't. Then when we arrived they just gave us the usual lunch menu and said we were not able to have the xmas menu. They manager was very rude and didn't apologise. Just stared very blankly at us. Then stropped off. We think she should maybe think about a career change. She had a terrible attitude problem and for such a lovely place its a real shame. She acted liked she was doing us a favour.

They then got our order wrong of which we said fine and ate what was given to us but the wrong meals were more expensive of which we still got charged the extra amount.

Great food but don't expect to be treated as anything more than something thats stuck under the bottom of there shoes.

Shame
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Montalto82 - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, December 22, 2010