Anchor & Hope, Waterloo

[chrisp]

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!

←

Yes, I'm sure they're making a killing, it's just not for me. Call me neurotic, but if I plan a trip for food I want to be reasonably sure I'll enjoy the experience when I get there.

[Carolyn Tillie]

There were five of us. Being told there was at least an hour-and-a-half wait, the pub scene at A&H was WAY too crowded, loud, and hot. The only place we could stand was against the wall, in a straight line where we could not even talk to each other. At least at the Wellington, we could get some couch space (even with a game on!). The hostess didn't necessarily know we were pub-crawling as we told her we were just going to wander the neighborhood.

I don't necessarily blame them for giving away the table except that we very pointedly told them we would be wandering the neighborhood and offered them a cell phone number (for me, more than another pub, I enjoyed looking the bookstore at the end of the street, or window shopping the neighborhood and seeing the Old Vic). I think the annoyance is that they wouldn't even consider taking a number and calling us when a table was available; in most cases, we were within a two-minute walk or less!

[Iestyn]

Am glad I'm not the only one who feels like this, I sometimes feel like a culinary pariah with my views on Anchor & Hope, good food, just not worth the hassle,Anchor & Hope Blog review. I do slightly agree though that it was slightly bad form to go and drink elsewhere (even if you didn't, others in your party did), and that was pretty much bound to result in any tables that became available being given to someone who was actually there, waiting, and had been spending money at their bar in the meantime. For me its not worth going there, but if for you it is then you should wait at the bar- the problem with that (see review), is that if you spend an hour waiting in the bar it doesn't matter that the food is good as you're not really going to appreciate it.

[emsny]

I agree that hanging around a bar, drinking, while waiting for a table rather spoils one's dinner. However, Anchor & Hope's proximity to the Old Vic makes it an ideal place for after-theatre supper: by that hour, the wait is minimal or non-existent. At the same time, of course, many items are off the menu, but there's enough to put together a good meal. Is that not the key to visiting no-reservations restaurants: going at off-hours?

[Winot]

I agree that hanging around a bar, drinking, while waiting for a table rather spoils one's dinner. However, Anchor & Hope's proximity to the Old Vic makes it an ideal place for after-theatre supper: by that hour, the wait is minimal or non-existent. At the same time, of course, many items are off the menu, but there's enough to put together a good meal. Is that not the key to visiting no-reservations restaurants: going at off-hours?

←

And at the other end of service, we have used it successfully many times for a pre-theatre meal.

[chefmatt]

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out. so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it.

i always eat early, or at lunch, have always had a table without sharing, have always had the whole run of the menu and always bloody enjoyed.

i am very impatient and would get bloody pissed off if i had to wait ages and had to be told that half the food wasn't available, but i ensure that doesn't happen.

it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar? if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[chefmatt]

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out. so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it.

i always eat early, or at lunch, have always had a table without sharing, have always had the whole run of the menu and always bloody enjoyed.

i am very impatient and would get bloody pissed off if i had to wait ages and had to be told that half the food wasn't available, but i ensure that doesn't happen.

it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar? if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[brokentelephone]

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.)

←

Amazing!

On a side note, I love the A & H, as well as their other place, Great Queen Street. I don't really mind the atmosphere, esp. after a bottle of wine waiting in the pub. Everything seems very chaotic, but they always bring the delicious food promptly. For those against waiting I'd recommend coming on a Sunday when they take reservations.

[Andy Lynes]

I nipped into Great Queen Street last Monday for an early Guinness before popping along to the London Restaurant week launch at the Hospital last Monday (fronted by Jean Christophe Novelli who owns exactly, um, zero restaurants in London). The Guinness was out of a bottle ("do you want a glass?") and on the warm side. The room is rather gloomy and studiously unadorned - I just couldn't see myself ever wanting to actually eat there, even though the menu reads nicely.

[algy]

I think the annoyance is that they wouldn't even consider taking a number and calling us when a table was available; in most cases, we were within a two-minute walk or less!

←

Welcome to the UK and its legendary service culture.

[chrisp]

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.)

←

Amazing!

On a side note, I love the A & H, as well as their other place, Great Queen Street. I don't really mind the atmosphere, esp. after a bottle of wine waiting in the pub. Everything seems very chaotic, but they always bring the delicious food promptly. For those against waiting I'd recommend coming on a Sunday when they take reservations.

←

Yeah, Great Queen Street is fantastic, and my experiences there have been uniformly pleasant. And you know why? Cos you can book a frickin' table.

[PhilD]

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.)

←

Amazing!

On a side note, I love the A & H, as well as their other place, Great Queen Street. I don't really mind the atmosphere, esp. after a bottle of wine waiting in the pub. Everything seems very chaotic, but they always bring the delicious food promptly. For those against waiting I'd recommend coming on a Sunday when they take reservations.

←

Yeah, Great Queen Street is fantastic, and my experiences there have been uniformly pleasant. And you know why? Cos you can book a frickin' table.

←

Isn't that the point - you can book at one one and take pot luck at the other. One suits one person the other suits another. I like having the opportunity to take pot luck and "no reservation" restaurants meet this need. For the times I want a definite time to sit down I choose a restaurant I can book.

[Carolyn Tillie]

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out.  so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it.

←

With all due respect, We don't ALL know it. Some of us are tourists who are recommended to the pub and do not know its intricacies. My post makes a very good point that there was no way I could know food would run out or that some dishes require an hour+ preparation time. In fact, the chick that took our name handed me a menu so that I could start to choose what we might want; she had a perfect opportunity at that point to tell me that by the time we sat down, some dishes might not be available. That information was not provided.

it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar? 

←

Again, there was NO ROOM (get it? NONE) for five of us in the bar area except to stand with our backs to the wall where people were trying to walk in and out. And, being a tourist, wanting to explore the neighborhood (you know, explore the country in which we are visiting?!?!) is not unusual.

if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

←

ETA: Yes, that is a correct statement. But, sadly for me, being only one of five and a minority voice, I had no choice. I am simply stating that the hostesses and servers at the pub DO have a choice. They could have told me we risked loosing our table instead of saying it WOULD be ready. They could have taken our number since we said we were just going to wander the neighborhood. They could have let me know that because of the long wait, there MIGHT not be any food left. They could have done a lot of things to make the experience better than it was and chose not to...

Edited April 8, 2008 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[PhilD]

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out.  so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it.

←

With all due respect, We don't ALL know it. Some of us are tourists who are recommended to the pub and do not know its intricacies. My post makes a very good point that there was no way I could know food would run out or that some dishes require an hour+ preparation time. In fact, the chick that took our name handed me a menu so that I could start to choose what we might want; she had a perfect opportunity at that point to tell me that by the time we sat down, some dishes might not be available. That information was not provided.

it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar?  if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

←

Again, there was NO ROOM (get it? NONE) for five of us in the bar area except to stand with our backs to the wall where people were trying to walk in and out. And, being a tourist, wanting to explore the neighborhood (you know, explore the country in which we are visiting?!?!) is not unusual.

←

Maybe if you had been more patient and waited in the bar more room would have opened up as other tables were seated and you would have had more space to chat. It is also a pub so standing around having a drink is sort of what it is all about.

Did you really not know the intricacies of the restaurant and that you would have to wait? I thought your first post mentioned that the "first people to arrive would snag a table for five". You also say you were recomended the Anchor and Hope so you must have understood it didn't take bookings, either from the person who gave you the recomendation, or from when you rang up to make a reservation?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Did you really not know the intricacies of the restaurant and that you would have to wait?  I thought your first post mentioned that the "first people to arrive would snag a table for five". You also say you were recomended the Anchor and Hope so you must have understood it didn't take bookings, either from the person who gave you the recomendation, or from when you rang up to make a reservation?

←

Here is EXACTLY what happened:

I'm wandering around near Tower Bridge at 6:00 p.m. -- the adjacent walkway on the Thames. I get a phone call from the guy who lives in London (transplanted from France two years ago) who says "we are all going to meet at A&H at 7:00 -- the first one to get there should snag a table for all five of us." The four guys were busy driving around London in an NYPD police car, showing off the car (search Flickr - you'll see some pics). This is how the restaurant/pub is recommended to me -- I had not pre-researched it and only read of its "intricacies" after the fact. I went in blind.

I took his instruction to mean that HE had called and made a reservation for approximately 7:00 and that the first of us to arrive should sit down. I tube over and am the first to arrive at about 6:45. It was then I was told that a table would not be ready until 8:30 at the earliest. I phone the guys to say that I am going to walk the neighborhood (gee, I see a bookstore - looks good to me!) and when they arrive, tell me they are at the Wellington.

So, silly lemming that I was, I just followed along. Nope, I did not understand the restaurant's policy and was surprised they would not take my phone number when told there was an hour-and-a-half wait. I've never been to the area before. Not wanting to SIT for an hour-and-a-half and just wander to see what is around should not be considered unusual for a tourist. I have some great pics of Kevin Spacey going into the Old Vic and I bought a good book at the store across the street. My friends saw the end of some game at the Wellington and I also got some interesting pictures of food products in the grocery store next to A&H.

That's it. That's all she wrote.

Edited April 8, 2008 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[Andy Lynes]

Reports are coming in of a brutual and unprovoked attack on an American tourist. Caorlyn Tillie from San Francisco was posting her thoughts about a night out in London's Cut district when a group of masked foodies set about her with barbed words and snide remarks.

"I was trying to explain that a night out with friends hadn't gone well and they just started in on me," explained a shaken Tillie. "Once they got going, I didn't think they would stop."

Officals are still looking into the case but its thought that by criticising the Anchor and Hope, Tillie broke an unwritten rule of the foodie internet.

"Its too early at this point to come to any conclusions," said a spokesperson. "But we believe that Ms Tillie has been somewhat rash in her negative comments about a beloved British institution, what with her being a bloody Yank and all. While we don't condone the action of her attackers, we do think she may have been asking for it."

The investigation continues.

[Matthew Grant]

[Carolyn Tillie]

Reports are coming in of a brutual and unprovoked attack on an American tourist. Caorlyn Tillie from San Francisco was posting her thoughts about a night out in London's Cut district when a group of masked foodies set about her with barbed words and snide remarks.

"I was trying to explain that a night out with friends hadn't gone well and they just started in on me," explained a shaken Tillie. "Once they got going, I didn't think they would stop."

Officals are still looking into the case but its thought that by criticising the Anchor and Hope, Tillie broke an unwritten rule of the foodie internet.

"Its too early at this point to come to any conclusions," said a spokesperson. "But we believe that Ms Tillie has been somewhat rash in her negative comments about a beloved British institution, what with her being a bloody Yank and all. While we don't condone the action of her attackers, we do think she may have been asking for it."

The investigation continues.

←

In a follow-up report, with a single 18-hour return expected for the evening of 9 April, Ms. Tillie, concerned for her welfare, has decided to confine herself to a local McDonalds maintaining "at least with a Big Mac, I'll know what to expect."

[fisherman]

Just don't start bleating when Ronald McDonald tells you they don't take reservations either

[Scott]

first off, the A&H is not worth the grief that a visit ALWAYS entails.

however, that is just what it is.

very poor form to wander off, and expect them to hold a table. it's a pub. there may not have been room to comfortably hang out, but that's ultimately irrelevant.

there was OBVIOUSLY another table of 5 waiting, who were there. and I'd expect, being there, that we get that table.

how are they to know the difference between someone lounging at another pub who does want the table, versus someone who has gotten jack of waiting and gone home? and why should they care? they have a party of 5 there, then, and willing.

it's a pub, a bloody annoying one at that, but you still got it wrong.

[algy]

first off, the A&H is not worth the grief that a visit ALWAYS entails.

how true. Nonetheless, there are always enough devotees of various forms of sado masochism to keep these sort of businesses going - just ask Max Mosley, he knows "good form" when he feels it.

[Matthew Grant]

Good meal at the Anchor and Hope on Saturday, griddled spring onions with Romesco sauce to start followed by and excellent rib of beef (Herefordshire), very nicely cooked with good Bearnaise. Chips were a bit average though. Damson Bakewell tart was lovely to finish.

[Paul Reynard]

Visitied for the first time a few weeks ago as I was on the wrong side of the river for a change. Have got to say the queue was not too annoying to me as we arrived at 6 and got offered a table at 6.30 or 7.30 so we chose the latter. After a couple of (very reasonably priced) pints we went in.

A couple of glasses of elderflower fizz worked a treat and were the first time I've actually liked the taste of elderflower. My starter of pork terrine was good and piggy with a nice piccalilli although the terrine could have done with being a bit less fridge cold. Can't remember what my friend had but went well enough (I think).

Mains were a pot roasted partridge for friend and braised hare for me. The hare was a first for me and was very good. Obviously braised for a long time with figs/dates added in which gave it even more richness along with a puree of celeriac. Lovely comfort food. A shared tart was all I could manage for dessert and can't really remember what it was like (probably the wine not the tarts fault). With a bottle of Spanish red (£30ish) it all came to jjust over £85 (ex SC). Good value for a good all round meal, but no more. Would try GQS though as a bit more central and closer to home.

[Matthew Grant]

I love watching the kitchen at the Anchor and Hope, two people working there proverbials off and turning out decent food to boot.