The Garrison

Review summary

1. E

   Erin

   London

   4 reviews

   4.0

   4 reviews

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 5

   The restaurant was lovely with a lively atmosphere. The servers were very friendly but seemed a bit overstretched probably due to the restaurant being full up on a Wednesday evening so service was a bit slow for one course. The portions were a bit on the small side for the starter and side but very delicious.
   

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2. T

   Tom

   London

   2 reviews

   5.0

   2 reviews

   Dined 4 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   A restaurant that clearly cares. About the food, the atmosphere, the guests. Relaxing, informal but special at the same time. Loved it.
   

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3. L

   LOUISE

   London

   7 reviews

   5.0

   7 reviews

   Dined 5 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   Sunday lunch was great - good meet, good potatoes, plenty of veg, perfectly cooked and nice gravy. One of the best roasts in London for sure. Only slight gripe is the seats down stairs not super comfortable- too high for the table.
   

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4. A

   A

   London

   1 review

   2.0

   1 review

   Dined 5 days ago

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 2
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 2

   I’ve been going to The Garrison for circa 15 years. I don’t know if it changed hands, but about 5 years ago the quality dropped. We had a lovely waitress today but past trips it’s been a mixed bag of indifferent staff with poor knowledge of food, zero knowledge of wine and limited customer service verging on not trying. But overall there’s a corporate feeling behind the eclectic furniture- an attitude of pack in the customers, serve middle quality food, and get them out the door fast. Today our main meal was in front of us within 5 mins of ordering it - we still hadn’t finished pre-food drinks, and the food was served cold and needed to be sent back. We had two courses - just over £200 bill for 3 of us. Plus we discovered the service charge doesn’t go to the staff. All in all a disappointing decline of a local restaurant. It’s become a blatant money making machine. I hope The Garrison ups its game considerably. But for now there are much better choices elsewhere.
   

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5. n

   nicola

   London

   8 reviews

   3.0

   8 reviews

   Dined 6 days ago

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 5

   We had a girl's Christmas lunch for 8 people on Saturday and were seated at the high table. We have all been to the Garrison over the years (from it's beginning) and it still remains one of the nicest little places to go along Bermondsey St. It's buzzy & cosy with lovely interiors. The high table isn't the most ideal as it's right by the kitchen and for the shorter people amongst us, not the most comfortable getting up and on the seats. But as it was the only table available when I booked that was the compromise. The xmas set menu was very reasonably priced. The roasts were good and my cod was lovely although the 'mussels' it was advertised with were - I'm pretty sure - actually clams. Or if they were mussels, they were the teeniest ones I'd ever seen! Due to it being so busy the turnover on tables is quite quick so once we'd eaten it was very much a 'we will get you the bill' scenario so we did feel a bit rushed sadly. The Garrison still feels like a trusty old friend - some of the food fell a bit short in places (eg the Burnt Cream pudding) but we left having had a lovely time and an enjoyable lunch and that's the main thing.
   

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6. R

   Rian

   London

   5 reviews

   2.0

   5 reviews

   Dined 6 days ago

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 4

   We arrived to a rather unwelcome greeting and luckily 1 member couldn’t join as the table we were put at was a booth which was extremely tight I had to flag someone over to give us menus and order drinks again not very welcoming I booked a Christmas get together but didn’t realise I had to prebook the Christmas menu so we had to choose from the standard menu which I was very disappointed with The food arrived and was very small we should have been recommended to add some sides as I ordered steak and literally had a plate of steak and a few crisps (dairy free they swapped the small mash) We all felt it was very over priced for what we had eaten I won’t be returning as there are lots of better places in London
   

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7. K

   Karoline

   London

   1 review

   2.0

   1 review

   Dined on 4 December 2024

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 3

   Booked a Christmas dinner with friends here after long research but was very disappointed with the service. First, the restaurant was busy so it took a very long for us to be served even just drinks. I added a note to the reservation that my friend is vegan (and responded to another email on the morning of the reservation asking for any dietary requirements!), but when we arrived there were no vegan options on the standard menu. I had looked up the vegan option on the Christmas menu on the website before - but we couldn’t order from that menu as I didn’t specify that this was a Xmas party… you would think 99% of reservations in December are Xmas parties?? My friend then got offered a „lovely salad“ (it was 5c outside that night) or a soup which - surely every pub in London should have at least one decent vegan main meal nowadays?? She was then also served a side of fries with Parmesan on top, apparently the staff forgot within 5 minutes again about the dietary requirements. We wanted to order wine, but pretty much all the options were sold out, not sure which wine we got in the end but we all got the same type rather than different types we ordered… Two meals we received were wrong and had to be replaced. The chef also „forgot“ to add the topping on the pork belly, which my friend then got in a separate bowl… Conscious the pub was very busy that night, but that’s no excuse for such a poor quality of service. Nobody even acknowledged any of the mistakes or offered a free desert or drink in exchange…?
   

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8. C

   Claire

   London

   2 reviews

   4.0

   2 reviews

   Dined on 4 December 2024

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 4

   We had a nice meal, although our main meal took ages to arrive so we hadn’t finished our wine when they wanted to clear the table for the next customers. They were then funny about us wanting to finish our drinks at the bar saying it was too busy, however we did managed to sit at the bar in the end and it wasn’t too busy for us to stay. It is a nice, cosy restaurant and the food was good. We just felt a little hurried after our main which didn’t feel necessary and slightly spoilt the evening.
   

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9. P

   Paul

   London

   5 reviews

   5.0

   5 reviews

   Dined on 3 December 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Great service and menu options. Excellent wine selection for a decent price
   

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10. l

    lea

    London

    6 reviews

    2.0

    6 reviews

    Dined on 1 December 2024

    1. Overall 2
    2. Food 3
    3. Service 2
    4. Ambience 3

    Sunday lunch was disappointing, minimal portions and the waitresses forgot our sides on several occasions even repeatedly asking
    

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