Anchor & Hope

Thirteen of us had Sunday lunch at The Anchor and Hope today. Consensus was that the food was unpleasant. Cheap ingredients. Cheap quote winter salad unquote starter followed by A Cassoulet containing too much offal and beans. Green salad comprised undressed plain lettuce. Pudding was okay.

All in all at £32 pounds set menu we felt ripped off. I cannot understand the rave reviews this place has attracted.
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Cresswell - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Sunday, February 10, 2013

I absolutely love this place and think it is wonderful, I am so shocked it has had any negative reviews. Everytime I go here, I doubt that it can surpass its self, yet it always does.

A rather short menu that changes every night keeps me on my toes. Yes dishes do occasionally run out, however everything is so appetising that it matters very little.

Great wine list (and I love the small french tumblers) the bar is lovely with friendly staff. I can understand people finding the no reservation policy a pain, and the wait can feel like forever whilst sitting and smelling others food, but good company and the brilliant wine sees you through, and the food is most def worth the wait.
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Emma - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, December 15, 2012

Quality food in pub surroundings at a price somewhere between pub and restaurant. The no-reservations / you must all be present to get your table system works for the venue rather than the diner. It certainly pays to get here early.

Anyway starting with the bar - very, very decent beer - a decent selection too. Extortionately priced freshly squeezed orange juice. It's a proper pub this side of the curtain - relaxed and buzzy.

As for the food - starters pretty good - decent sized portions although the samphire was a little 'side-dish-y'. Well prepared and pretty well presented. Mains very decent and a filling size. Side dish of greens a bit plain and eye-wateringly expensive.

Service friendly and helpful. No complaints at all. But it's a short menu and things do run out. Additionally a chunk of the food available was pre-prepared (chicken and foie gras pethivier (pie), cold silverside) to speed up turn-around. These are factors that drag my service score down a bit - no fault of the waiting staff.

Restaurant atmosphere pleasant and relaxed. If you want your own table - be here at about 5:30pm. (The restaurant opens at 6pm - the bar is open all afternoon)

My feelings on value for money are mixed - although balance on the positive.

Overall - good and I'll return. However I'll get there early to avoid the issues mentioned.
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Rex - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, June 15, 2012

I've no idea why there are so many negative reviews on here - this is right up with the Harwood, the Bull and now the Drapers in Barnsbury as the best pub food in town and I come here at least once a month. That it has been doing so longer than the others makes it top dog in my book. Yes, it's busy. Yes, you may well have to share a table and wait a while for the pleasure of doing so. But the food is so darn good. Order anything that says it's for two or three-ish and you invariably get an epically generous portion of the most appetising and comforting food you can only dream about. This place is a bustling, joyous gem, perfectly illustrated by the amount of notable chefs that choose to come and to eat here for their fab Sunday lunch. It is a London institution and nothing less.
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Murray
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Saturday, April 28, 2012

So disappointed with the Anchor & Hope. The food and wine was pretty good value for money and the menu definitely more interesting than most, but the service just ruined everything. When we politely asked to switch tables (as we were sat with strangers and another table came up free) the waitress looked at us like we'd asked to kill her first-born, turned around without a nod or a single word and then 5 minutes later we were told we could move. We had to wait so long for our order to be taken - we asked twice! Same story for desserts - we waited 25 minutes for our order to be taken then the same again for them to actually arrive.

I am a waitress myself and I enjoy relaxed service and can also tell when someone is trying their best and things just go wrong. As long as they're friendly I don't mind - but this girl was just plain rude and was more interested in doing her hair than serving her tables. No tip - sorry! Won't be going back in a rush.
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missfoodie - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, April 16, 2012

Had an absolutely shocking and disgusting evening at the Anchor and Hope. Having drank on a number of occasions at the bar with colleagues after work, I decided to go for food with my girlfriend and a couple of friends on Friday night as the food always looked tempting. Firstly I knew that there were no table reservations so we got there early, and got our name on the wait list. We were told 20 minutes and got some drinks at the bar.

We ordered 2 beers, and 2 glasses of white wine. The wine was served in little tumbler glasses that were filled to the brim. When we politely asked the barman if we could transfer them into a wine glass, we got a very abrupt and extremely rude NO! I pointed out that the there were others at the bar who had wine glasses, and yet the response was still “NO” as apparently it was the bars policy to only serve wine bought by the bottle in wine glasses! The fact that we would be buying a few bottles at the dinner table once seated didn't count for anything, so the partners had to carefully manoeuvre a ridiculous glass to their mouths taking a sip being careful not to spill it all down their dresses!!

20 minutes was in fact 45 minutes to be seated, and at the time, my friend had slipped out for a cigarette. Instead of a normal “welcome to the restaurant can I take your coats” we got “Where is the 4th person?!!!” from a waitress. That was followed by a “We cannot hold the table if he does not return in the next few minutes!” ironically the restaurant had several available tables. My friend came in from the outside, and we were given the menus.

After the rude waiter had given us the menus and swiftly crossed off the venison, there were 2 main courses left available on the menu, one of which was the vegetarian option!! That was the final nail in the coffin! We looked at each other, got up, and left.

My experience of the Anchor and Hope was by far the worst restaurant encounter I have ever had. Go here if you like waiting, want to drink wine from small tumblers (because some idiot behind the bar must think that it is "trendy"), and want to be made to feel about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit! Never going to go back here again…not even for drinks after work!
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Jordan
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 31, 2012

I have been going to the A&H on and off since it opened and have never been disappointed.

Went with a colleague and had potato soup with foie gras and then shared a whole saddle of hare. Both were so good we had pud - lemon tart and a chocolatey cakey thing with ice cream

Virgin Mary is perhaps the best in London. I think they add fresh horseradish which shows their attention to detail

Service could have been a bit quicker but we were not in a rush. The staff there are not subservient creepy crawlies - but actual real live human beings. So if you want to be dealt with by an oiley person perhaps not for you.

It is a pub - and is very informal.So if you want a posh meal in a posh place with posh service I'd suggest you do not go there

However for really top notch food in a casual atmosphere it is hard to beat
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John Tate
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 08, 2012

We haven't visited for a couple of years and it seems to have gone markedly downhill. Only a 30 minute wait for a table on a Saturday night but we were seated at a table for 6, sharing with 2 other couples which was a surprise to all of us. Service was haphazard at best - lengthy waits for ordering, bread, water, plates being cleared etc. Food was generally fine, but my cuttlefish and chickpeas was 70% chickpeas and the "English Lop" was a small portion of pork stew. All just a bit disappointing from a place that used to be one of our favourites.
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Jane Lancaster
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Saturday, September 10, 2011

I used to be a regular both in the bar and restaurant at the Anchor & Hope and had taken many groups of friends there over the years, but things seem to have changed of late and I do not intend to return despite it being very conveniently located for me; although the bar staff are helpful and usually charming, neither the current bar manager nor the general manager should, in my opinion, be employed in hospitality.

They are both rude and arrogant, no doubt fuelled by the constant flow of customers. Each is quite happy to lose custom rather than back down over a legitimate complaint or handle it as one would expect in a decent establishment.

Things are quite different at the Anchor & Hope's sister restaurant in Great Queen Street; the food is equally delicious (probably better given the occasionally heavy hand administering salt at the A&H) but my experiences of service there are that, although it is also busy, the staff are able to cope and are universally professional, charming and efficient.

What a shame the owners don't seem to realise the value of happy customers.
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5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Saturday, February 05, 2011

It just feels like home.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, January 19, 2011