Calico Bar & Eating House

This place is wonderful - the decor is very rustic and homely, the food is deliciouse – hearty and reasonably priced and the drinks are good too - they serve pints! Bonus! The upstiars is perfect for eating / drinking and chilling out whereas the downstairs has lots of pool tables if you fancy a game? The venue even caters for weddings at a reasonable £200 for the entire day! Conisdering the place holds a total of at least 200 people and caters for around £15 a head, It's a fantastic venue for a central London 'do. We are having ours there soon – main course will be sirloin beef – I highly recomment it! We've been a few times on weekday evenings and the food / service has always been great. Give it a chance!
Comment on this reader review

Elit
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Monday, April 07, 2008

BEWARE!!! A friend and I were there last night. We had a bottle of house champagne and then asked for another glass of house champagne each afterwards (yes, the lushes that we are!).

The barman went to the far side of the bar and poured 2 glasses from a different coloured bottle (the house champagne has a clear bottle). I saw this and asked him what champagne he was giving us - He was pouring us cava instead! He seemed quite embarrassed and offered to replace it with the champagne or to reduce the price. Apparently the manager had bought it when they were running low on champagne and the bar staff had been told to use it if people ask for champagne by the glass!!!

I have no problems with drinking cava, but don't give me cava and charge me for champagne (£6.50 a glass). Why don't they just do a special on cava if they want to get rid of it??

Very, very cheeky... I wonder how many other people have been ripped off?
Comment on this reader review

Disappointed
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Friday, June 01, 2007

Beautiful French waitress; no other incentive needed.
Comment on this reader review

Me
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Saturday, May 26, 2007

Having seen the mixed reviews of the Calico, I was interested to see what it would actually be like.

Overall I had an enjoyable time here, thanks to having good company, but there is a genuine issue with the service. This seems to centre around one of the staff who I presume is the manager, a small lady with blonde hair.

I phoned up in the morning about 11.30am to make a reservation. The phone was answered by someone who couldn't speak English, who told me 'Please could you ring back' and put the phone down.

I made sure I got there early so I could get a good spot anyway. I sat down at a nice table at the front, but the blonde lady told me that it was reserved for 3 people (we were only 2 people) and that I would have to move. She then tried to give me a table at the back with 3 seats, which didn't make much sense, so I offered to sit at a table for two.

To my annoyance less than 5 minutes later the table I'd originally picked, and the other 2 tables nearby which were all set out for 3 people, were then filled by couples who definitely hadn't reserved (I heard their answers when asked by staff).

The food was ok, bog standard pub food really, and the wine was good albeit with a couple of bits of cork in my glass.

Service wasn't great, no one ever came to our table, rather we had to try to get someone's attention which was often difficult. Of course the tip was automatically added to the bill at the end, another annoyance.

I'd recommend this place for drinks if you're going to be at the bar, but for food or table service it's unfortunately quite poor.
Comment on this reader review

Tom - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Friday, May 18, 2007

Do not go to Calico. Terrible service, staff extremely rude and not value for money.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 20, 2007

I have been eating at The Calico since they took over from P & P and I must say these comments are totally disagreeable. The atmosphere, service and food are all equally great and I often take my clients for lunch here as well as colleagues for evening drinks. Fabulous place I would recommend to any fellow City workers with excellent service alike
Comment on this reader review

Rolf Peters
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I can't believe these comments about the Calico. I have been there several times and on every occasion I have received excellent service, lovely food and experienced a wonderful ambience. I always recommend the Calico to anyone looking for a great venue in the city - in my mind you simply cannot go wrong here.
Comment on this reader review

Sarah
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, January 18, 2007

Awful service. Not rude as such... but not even the slightest morcel of friendliness. Made to feel like a bit of an inconvenience.
Comment on this reader review

MT
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Friday, November 17, 2006

I have been there a number of times and I've always received good service.

The food is great, the servings are respectable and the decor is very warm.
Comment on this reader review

Todd
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, November 02, 2006

food ok but not worth the price. service quite fast food like. will not go again
Comment on this reader review

terry
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Saturday, October 14, 2006