Tiana Esperanza

Review of Anchor Bankside

(American Reviewer) Now, we walked here after comp...

(American Reviewer) Now, we walked here after completing the London Eye Cruise. This place was talked up by the cruise crew and so I imagine the place gets many tourists/business from them. As it was our first time visiting a British pub, we were very much in the dark about how to receive service. A simple sign saying "seat yourself" would've faired us better than walking up and down their many floors searching for an employee or anyone who would help us OBVIOUS foreigners figure out how to get food there. I really hated the idea (especially as pregnant as I was and after walking 30 minutes to get there) of going up and down the stairs to find a table, then having to creepy stare down tables that looked like they were done eating until they left. After going through the process of stalking a table and rushing to it before someone else nabs it (fortunately, the couple saw I was heavily pregnant and yelled at the people who tried to steal the table from us), we then have to leave an article of clothing or leave someone at the table to guard it so we can walk to the bar to order. So basically, the servers here only bring food to the table and clean the tables periodically (nobody came to clean up all the bottles from the previous guests, so they just piled up on the floor and window sills).

The ONLY reason I'm giving this a star above 1 is because the fish and chips actually lived up to the hype that this "infamous" pub was given. The batter was light, flaky and crispy. The fish was a hearty Texas-sized serving and tasted very fresh! If only the service could match the taste, I'd give this place 5 stars. But like I warned, I'm an American and if this is how pubs work, I'll leave it to my younger, not pregnant cohorts to enjoy.