Anchor & Hope

For all the people complaining that they don't take bookings. They do on Sundays - so if you want to be assured of a table at the time you want then book for a Sunday and have a long lunch.
Comment on this reader review

Patrick Cain
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Sunday, December 09, 2007

Fantastic Atmosphere surpassed only by the food. Save room for a dessert.

Very reasonable Wine List. Like all decent Egalitarian restaurants get there early to secure a table.
Comment on this reader review

rubble - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, November 29, 2007

I cant believe there are some reviews with complaints! This is the best restaurant in London! Everyone i have ever eaten with here has confirmed this! For a casual evening out this place is to die for. Every meal i have ever eaten here has been perfect, and the atmosphere is great. The complaints about bookings are ridiculous - as Great Queen street ( the sister restaurant) takes bookings in covent garden, and the complaints about not enough veggie options? This restaurant is famous for meat and offal! Would you go to St Johns or an Angus steakhouse and be upset if the veg menu was limited?

Just like st johns this restauarnt respects the animals served for dinner, every part of each animal is used in some form , wether steak to liver to heart, to stock... I think more restaurants should respect animals in this way, and have the respect to use the whole animal rather than throwing bits away .

The wait is worth it. the tastiest food in london, but if you are sad enough to care about drinking wine out of a tumbler, then maybe its not the place for you.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, November 19, 2007

One must assume the name of this much-hyped gastro pub alludes to your chances of actually securing a table, as in "very little hope". We arrived at 7pm on a Saturday evening and were still waiting to be seated at 10.20pm. Don't ask me why we stayed the course because, from what I recall of the food, it wasn't worth the wait. I had the tripe, which was terribly disappointing (watery and not particularly favoursome), and greens which were well cooked (crisp and tasty). But my enjoyment was totally undermined by the length of time we had to wait. They really need to reconsider their policy of not taking bookings.
Comment on this reader review

Scottish
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, November 12, 2007

I thought the cheapest wine at £10 was actually really nice considering you normally expect it to taste like p*ss and the little tumblers were very cute. We didnt mind the hour wait for a table considering it was meant to be worth the wait and the staff were really helpful and friendly.

The food was so so to be totally honest- all our meals were imaginative and cooked well BUT WHERE THE HELL WAS IT ALL? Call me a gannet but after the hours wait I was revenous. I ordered sea bass which was tiny with a tiny bit of something that l think was mashed fish. Perhaps it was a bad choice considering my friend had a whole partridge to contend with but lets be fair a whole plain partridge is not my idea of a nice meal. She spent a very unladylike 30 mins trying to tear the meat from the carcus.

Also, don't go if you are vegetarian- there were two options and both contained goats cheese which when my friend asked if there was something the chef could do to combine both dishes but leave out the goats cheese was politely told no and that they weren't known for their veggie dishes. fair enough but a little unreasonable.

However, their desserts are to die for - between us we had the merangue, pecan icecream and treacle tart and they were all beautiful. if i'd have know in advance i would have had 3 desserts and been done with it.
Comment on this reader review

sallywally
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Thursday, November 08, 2007

Awesome Steak pie !!!!

Reckon I could have eaten it on my own due to being a greedy guts rather than it being small.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Ok. The press seem to love this place, but be warned, do not believe the hype. You can't book to eat here, which everyone knows, but that's no excuse for being told your table is ready in 30 mins, thereby enticing you to buy £15 a bottle plonk served in high school canteen tumblers, and then waiting over two hours to sit down at a table with other diners. This table co-habiting, incidentally, leads to 'enjoying' your chestnut ice cream whilst being bathed in the whiff of your fellow table diners' crab odour.

The food isn't that great either - £32.50 (for 2) for lukewarm seabass with an inadequate portion of brocolli is ridiculous, and half the side orders didn't arrive in addition.

There are surly staff in the over-crowded nuclear-heated bar area, and it doesn't get much better with slooooooooooow service in the restaurant and a compulsory knocking of your chair from behind at least every 13 seconds.

Maybe if you work for the London Paper/Metro and you get a free meal served at 3pm on a wet Monday when it's quiet, there is a good experience to be had, but for the rest of humanity, do yourself a favour and go to Meson don Felipe, or EV/Tas nearby.

For those who can't get to the Anchor and Hope, you can recreate the experience by eating a cold fish on the Northern Line whilst sitting on someone's knee during a rush hour signal failure. Joy itself.
Comment on this reader review

Benito
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I've eaten dinner here three times in the past month and each time it's been fantastic. Really good starters and mains and excellent desserts.

Two of the times I was with quite a few people and we had their joint of meat to share, the first time beef, the second time lamb. Both were excellent.

Great prices too for what you're getting. Portions are very filling, just one thing to bear in mind if you're planning on having three courses.

It can get very busy and due to the no-booking policy you might have to wait for a while. Due to the popularity of the place they can run out of certain dishes. My advice is go early, around 6pm, put your name down and then enjoy a drink or two at the bar.

Yes it can get noisy so don't go through for a romantic meal. If Nigel Slater ran a restaurant, this is the food he would be serving.

I've eaten at several Michelin starred restaurants in London but for the quality, simply and delicious food the Anchor & Hope offers this is now one of my favourite places in London to eat.
Comment on this reader review

Patrick
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Went on a monday night at 7pm and it was already pretty packed. A group of 5, we were told that we would have to wait an hour and a half for a table, which was annoying, but then the waitress said that a table in the non-restaurant bit would leave in 10mins so we could have that one. So basically impressed with how good she was and how much the staff in general care. I reckon coming as a pair or maybe a three would be fine most of the time, as there were always a few seats dotted around, you just have to be flexible.

We then chose to wait 50mins for the lamb shoulder, and it was worth it. This place is apparently famous for it's slow-cooked meats and you can tell, as it was perfectly tender and tasted delicious. The potatos that came with it were also great, though we should have had some beans or something as well.

With a few bottles of wine and some good desserts, we paid £40 which was pretty good comsidering. I'll definitely be going back.
Comment on this reader review

Stephen H - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Dinner on Saturday night.

Atmosphere:

quite nice , a bit posh , but half of the peolple eating there didn't loo that posh.

Food:

lamb was nice , the pork head reminded me of those chicken nuggets you get for £1.99, heavy and deep deep fried.

Service:

forget it.... every 20 minutes they run out of a dish, even the chocolate ice cream.

I noticed the last one one hour before the waitres did.

We ask for a lemonade 3 times and after half an hour we finally received it , few minutes after our bill.

Anyway it is just a pub.!!!!!
Comment on this reader review

Francesco Lentini
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Monday, September 03, 2007