Review: Lunch at the Crown Tavern Farringdon
One of the best things about working in Farringdon is the array of eateries close by which offer all sorts of food from thai to american burgers, posh gosh to pub grub. There are lots of fantastic pubs serving tasty food alongside the range of drinks. I recently visited the Crown Tavern with a group of work mates, as it’s just around the corner from where I work.
The Crown Tavern is located on corner of Clerkenwell Green and has a few claims to fame including being the place where Lenin and Stalin held a meeting in 1905 and for it’s upstairs “Apollo Lounge” which featured in the movie ‘Notes on a Scandal’, featuring Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. Not forgetting that the lounge was once a well-known concert hall and the lovely seating on the Green and in the Beer Garden. The Crown Tavern claims to be a great place for a pint of speciality beer, they boast 16 draught beers including 5 real ales, alongside a home cooked pub meal.
On entering the pub you certainly get a hit of the past with traditional wood fixtures and fittings, a variety of vintage looking decorations and an olde worlde atmosphere. Having booked in advance we were shown to our table downstairs in a separate dining section and started to browse the menu. Some of the group went to the bar to order drinks.
Unfortunately herein lay the problem: whilst we were shown to our table by a waitress those whom went to the bar to get their drinks ordered food there also and those of us whom did not go to the bar directly but browsed the menu at the table were expecting table service. This lead to a situation where the food ordered arrived before we had even put in our order and when we realised the waitress was not going to come and get our order we went to the bar to be told there was an hour wait for food! Obviously we were not too pleased but as our boss was there and knew the situation we decided to order and wait.
Luckily, despite the mix up with the service which was not at all positive, the food was great. Our table ordered a selection of different dishes from pies and burgers to salmon and my gnocchi which was served with wild mushrooms, roasted squash, spinach & cannellini beans at a price of £11.00 which I thought was pretty steep seeing as usually the vegetarian dishes are cheaper than the meat options. However, after the long wait the dish was actually very tasty and top quality.
Overall the experience at the Crown Tavern was a bit patchy, the service obviously had a major fail that day which hopefully is not a usual occurrence – however the food was the redeemer for the experience. I am awarding the Crown Tavern a 3 out of 5, as despite the amazing food our day lunch was marred by the service mix up but I will definitely go back and give them another shot.
