Anchor & Hope, Waterloo

[Paul de Gruchy]

I have yet to eat at Anchor and Hope but I dropped in recently whilst showing a restaurateur from Vancouver around London's hot spots. I have to say that I was amazed quite how basic the place was, it reminded me of the sort of "estate" pubs I used to avoid going to in Portsmouth for fear of getting beaten up. I am no snob, but I can't seriously see myself going back there in a hurry, no matter how good the grub is.

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Andy - I suggest that you avoid using the phrase "I'm no snob" in future. The cat has been let out of the bag. And, for what its worth, I quite like the crappy tumblers they serve the wine in. It all adds to the sense of good food and eating as something that should be a daily, rather than a special, event.

[Andy Lynes]

Andy - I suggest that you avoid using the phrase "I'm no snob" in future.  The cat has been let out of the bag. 

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I nearly choked on my champagne breakfast when I read that. I'm so mad that, as soon as I get back from luncheon at my club (which should be about 5.00pm this afternoon) I'm going to get my PA to draft a personal rebuff. Snob indeed.

I wonder if there are any more blinis and caviar...

[Carlovski]

I have yet to eat at Anchor and Hope but I dropped in recently whilst showing a restaurateur from Vancouver around London's hot spots. I have to say that I was amazed quite how basic the place was, it reminded me of the sort of "estate" pubs I used to avoid going to in Portsmouth for fear of getting beaten up. I am no snob, but I can't seriously see myself going back there in a hurry, no matter how good the grub is.

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I'm sure it has to be a bit nicer than your average Pompey backstreet boozer!

Anyone know if the place is open on Sundays?

I'm going to be in London this weekend to see my mates band - might have a mooch around and something to eat on the sunday (Work off the hangover...)

[Andy Lynes]

Closed on a Sunday.

Possibly a bit nicer than your back street boozer, but the difference is marginal.

[Paul de Gruchy]

You should go Andy. I went a couple of weeks back on a Friday and went to The Capital the next day. Nothing wrong with the latter, but, like you, I'm slightly tiring of the whole haute cuisine thing. A&H was really excellent - not the food which technically wasn't in the same league as The Capital, but just the whole vision of the thing. I turned up at 12 after a Borough Market shop and was by myself, the only person in there at first and I don't even live in England or go to boozers generally, so you really shouldn't be scared by your Pompey memories (though I know someone from Portsmouth and it does clearly leave deep scars).

[Winot]

And, for what its worth, I quite like the crappy tumblers they serve the wine in.  It all adds to the sense of good food and eating as something that should be a daily, rather than a special, event.

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There's nothing wrong with using decent wine glasses every day!

[endless autumn]

If you order a good bottle of wine they give you real glasses.

[CheGuevara]

If you order a good bottle of wine they give you real glasses.

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"real glasses" - that's not a place, nor is the food, to be drinking wine so special it requires the perfect glass. those tumblers are excellent for the place, anything else is simply wrong in my book.

tehy don't even have the time or space to be properly cleaning "real" glasses.

-che

[endless autumn]

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tumblers.

It just happens that the last two times I've been I've had wines towards the top of the list - a Toques et Clochers Limoux and a Bandol - and they've spontaneously produced teensy but rather nice little wine glasses.

[Winot]

An astonishingly good meal there yesterday lunchtime, before the astonishingly good "A Minute Too Late" at the National. I do love London.

Four of us ate:

Beetroot and horseradish salad

Cabbage, chorizo and white bean broth

Snails and bacon on laver bread toasted with duck fat

Smoked herring, fennel and blood orange salad

--

Roasted pollack, lentils and green sauce

Pigeon, ceps and mash

2 x pumpkin and parmesan torte

--

Creme caramel

Marmelade Bakewell tart with marmelade ice cream

It was all fantastic. The bill for the food came to £83 plus service. If you can time it right I can't think of anywhere in London I'd rather eat.

[balex]

Arrived 6:30, sat down at 7. Fabulous meal. Terrine to start: really one of the nicest I have had for ages.

Just the right mixture of textures and flavours, not too fatty while still being really moist.

Slow cooked pork (Middlewhite) with sauerkraut and sausage. The meat was so delicious, tender but still iwth a bite to it and great flavour.

Milk pudding with pears and prunes.

Everything was delicious. The pub was very crowded though.

[tsg20]

Has anyone been recently on a Friday? I'm planning on going next week (having not been for about 18 months), and I'm wondering if I should be worried about getting a table, or if turning up at half five for six is likely to be fine?

[Andy Lynes]

Maybe you'll just have to weigh Anchor at the bar and Hope to get a table!

(I just thought of that. Just now. What can I say, it's a gift.)

[Jamsie]

Has anyone been recently on a Friday? I'm planning on going next week (having not been for about 18 months), and I'm wondering if I should be worried about getting a table, or if turning up at half five for six is likely to be fine?

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Should be a doddle at that time, though depends how many there are of you, 2's & 3's easy for them to find space as you just share tables, larger than that takes more time.

[Pille]

I went for a meal twice last week. On Tuesday night with a group of 6 around 6pm and ate in the pub part of it. The place was absolutely buzzing - quite unexpected for a Tuesday night (we left just after 10pm, and the place was still busy). The food was great - I had roasted spring onions and Italian greens with grilled goat curd on toast, followed by panna cotta with rhubarb.

I went again on Saturday night about 6.30pm for a quick meal before the 7.30pm show at the Old Vic, this time just me and a friend. We were seated on a shared table, and the waiter asked if we're there for a pre-theatre meal and what time do we have to leave. We had a very attentive service, and got all the drinks and the food promptly. I had pork and herb terrine, my friend opted for roasted beetroot and lamb tongue salad. There was a queue of maybe 15 people when we left about an hour later.

Overall a very good experience - nice and welcoming atmosphere and delicious and interesting food.

[TomHall]

Has anyone been on a friday night recently? I've got tickets to the national for 7.30 and I'm hoping to eat here before. I work not far away so should be able to get there for around 5.30. Good chance of getting an early table?

Also, how quick is the service? Two courses in an hour a possibility?

Cheers

[Winot]

Also, how quick is the service? Two courses in an hour a possibility?

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See earlier post.

[Matthew Grant]

Good meal at the Anchor and hope last night, we looked on forlornly as the Rib of beef for two got crossed off the list so made do with a starter of new seasons garlic soup with Lancashire cheese on toast, and followed up with braised Hereford beef with swede and pickled walnuts. The soup was great, thick with garlic which had lost its pungency but not so much that the soup lost its garlick chracter. The Beef was rolled flank, which had really good flavour, nicely browned and crusty on the outside, melting in the middle and came with an intense cooking liquid, a great winter warmer of a dish. Rachel had roast pigeon with a potato cake cooked in goose fat. The cake was a little greasy but when its goose grease that doesn't matter so much.

Marmalade ice cream for dessert was a great idea though an Almond pot with blood orange didn't work so well as the Almond cream was a little grainy.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Anchor and Hope is a gastro-pub located near the Tate Modern Museum and the Old Vic theater. It has been written about extensively on multiple food sites and lauded often by bloggers. It was recommended as a final dining experience one evening by a London local and I honestly had forgotten that I had received previous recommendations. Unfortunately, what transpired almost ruined what could have been a stellar dining experience.

As it was our last day in London, my old friend and I were tromping around the Thames, anticipating meeting up with the rest of my party shortly around dusk at the Oxo tower for cocktails. Twenty minutes before our appointed cocktail time, I received a call that they were done with cocktails and getting hungry – why didn’t we all head to the Anchor and Hope and whomever was there first, snag a table for five. “L” tubed over and arrived at approximately 6:15 p.m. and was told a table would not be available until 7:30 or 8:00! Well, we went ahead and put our name down and headed around the corner to the Wellington for a pint. Needless to say, the fact that the people I was with was willing to wait an hour for this restaurant and not for Tayaabs a few days before was slightly annoying.

We returned at 7:30 and was told it would be another half-hour to 45 minutes. Okay, the boys headed off to another pub and I wandered around a local market. I went and found the boys at the other pub and they indicated they would be right back to Anchor & Hope. I walked back to the restaurant and we were informed that a table for five had been available while we were gone and that it would be another half hour. Can I express how upset we were all getting? By 8:45 (two-and-a-half hours after we checked in!) we got a table. And guess what? Half of what we wanted to order was already crossed off the list.

Starving at this point, we managed to order the beef ribs with béarnaise (their last of the evening), a roast duck (also their last, we were told), a snail salad, cuttlefish risotto, and a fennel gratin. The beef was excellently prepared, delightfully rare, and at this point, great tasting. The snail salad was my least favorite (especially after the one I had at St. John). The duck was quite hearty but I really liked what it was stuffed with (a bit of pork around some cabbage). The winner of the evening was the fennel gratin. All of the food was respectable but I think the enjoyment was due more to abject hunger and having waited so long. I would have liked to enjoy a dessert, but as it was getting on after 11:00 when we were finishing, it was too late for everyone who was anxious to leave. The setting is too crowded, too loud, and too cramped. I would be hard-pressed to ever want to return.

Pics on blog.

[chrisp]

Anchor and Hope is a gastro-pub located near the Tate Modern Museum and the Old Vic theater. It has been written about extensively on multiple food sites and lauded often by bloggers. It was recommended as a final dining experience one evening by a London local and I honestly had forgotten that I had received previous recommendations.  Unfortunately, what transpired almost ruined what could have been a stellar dining experience.

As it was our last day in London, my old friend and I were tromping around the Thames, anticipating meeting up with the rest of my party shortly around dusk at the Oxo tower for cocktails. Twenty minutes before our appointed cocktail time, I received a call that they were done with cocktails and getting hungry – why didn’t we all head to the Anchor and Hope and whomever was there first, snag a table for five. “L” tubed over and arrived at approximately 6:15 p.m. and was told a table would not be available until 7:30 or 8:00!  Well, we went ahead and put our name down and headed around the corner to the Wellington for a pint. Needless to say, the fact that the people I was with was willing to wait an hour for this restaurant and not for Tayaabs a few days before was slightly annoying.

We returned at 7:30 and was told it would be another half-hour to 45 minutes. Okay, the boys headed off to another pub and I wandered around a local market. I went and found the boys at the other pub and they indicated they would be right back to Anchor & Hope. I walked back to the restaurant and we were informed that a table for five had been available while we were gone and that it would be another half hour. Can I express how upset we were all getting? By 8:45 (two-and-a-half hours after we checked in!) we got a table. And guess what? Half of what we wanted to order was already crossed off the list.

Starving at this point, we managed to order the beef ribs with béarnaise (their last of the evening), a roast duck (also their last, we were told), a snail salad, cuttlefish risotto, and a fennel gratin. The beef was excellently prepared, delightfully rare, and at this point, great tasting. The snail salad was my least favorite (especially after the one I had at St. John). The duck was quite hearty but I really liked what it was stuffed with (a bit of pork around some cabbage). The winner of the evening was the fennel gratin. All of the food was respectable but I think the enjoyment was due more to abject hunger and having waited so long. I would have liked to enjoy a dessert, but as it was getting on after 11:00 when we were finishing, it was too late for everyone who was anxious to leave. The setting is too crowded, too loud, and too cramped. I would be hard-pressed to ever want to return.

Pics on blog.

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Agree with everything you say, Carolyn. It's good food but it's rarely, if ever, worth the hassle of getting it. Only once have I managed to get a table without sharing with strangers and without elbows in the back of the head every 2 minutes.

[CheGuevara]

Agree with everything you say, Carolyn. It's good food but it's rarely, if ever, worth the hassle of getting it. Only once have I managed to get a table without sharing with strangers and without elbows in the back of the head every 2 minutes.

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i must say that i wholeheartedly disagree with Carolyn although i do understand why she feels this way. It really is a matter of expectations, as with most things we appreciate or not in life.

I would wonder why if you decide to go to the Anchor & Hope where you know they dont take reservations, do you leave your name and head off to a different pub - twice. It is just that, a pub that serves good food. You go there to drink and eat what is available, which "ensures" the food is fresh.

Otherwise, book a table at a restaurant.

-che

[Matthew Grant]

I have to agree with Che, bad form IMO to go drinking in another pub,whilst expecting them to hold a table for you.

[Andy Lynes]

I have to agree with Che, bad form IMO to go drinking in another pub,whilst expecting them to hold a table for you.

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I would have thought that investing in a pager system would help matters, for the customers at least. But if the pub's packed all the time though I expect the owners see it as an unnecessary expense.

[Matthew Grant]

The pubs just not big enough to justify a pager system, surely? Most people there are waiting to eat, in the past when I've been, after the initial rush the main pub isn't exactly overrun, there is space to grab a bottle of wine while you wait which I would think is the part of the reason for the no reservations policy.

Edited April 4, 2008 by Matthew Grant (log)

[Gary Marshall]

if you can fill a place with no a reservations policy you've got it cracked, especially if they're all drinking at the bar beforehand!