The Castle

It's difficult to be kind to this place as there seems to be no consistency of service or continuity.

Food is overrated and overpriced. Portion sizes can be tiny, depending on what you order.

I used to go here a lot, but this pub has lost its way. It could be a real community asset, but only seems interested in selling its gastro pub credentials, which the food doesn't justify.

I have lived in Walthamstow for over 5yrs so remember the castle before the castle pub it is today. Gorgeous food and a great selection of beverages, considering the other pubs in the village is a cut above the rest. Heartily recommend the beef casserole or the classic burger, handmade on site!!

Deco is really welcoming especially in deep winter with the fire burning!! If any criticism is sometimes get a little crowded especially for Sunday lunch but I guess shows how popular the castle is becoming.

Whenever people visit, this is the place I take them, great service and friendly staff mixed with great food and entertainment.


Cannot recommend this place enough!!

Great Pub, nice decor and atmosphere (if you take away the uncontrolled kids at the weekend). The foods of a good standard - great burger. But its way overpriced (hence loses a star) for what is a pretty unadventurous menu. I'd eat there regularly if they had some choices for under a tenner or if the menu was more inspiring at present prices.

I have been a customer at the Castle pub from 2010 and it is my favourite pub in east London. The atmosphere is great, stuff polite and professional, food and drink has always been very high quality. It is a very trendy and family friendly pub. I absolutely love recent addition to offering on Friday nights - a band. Music is great!
I am now looking forward to food deliveries.

We too have been at the receiving end of the owner’s unique brand of customer service, being told “piss off and don’t come back” because our two-year-old son was fetching a book from the bookshelf, provided for customers, I presume, rather than in his seat.

While I appreciate that in La Gavroche, or similar, this would not be acceptable behaviour, but in a supposedly ‘family friendly’ neighbourhood boozer – indeed one rather akin to a chimps tea party of a Sunday afternoon (see below) – this seemed a little rich. Especially as we were one of three groups in there, so his crazed ‘walking from the bookshelf’ was hardly damaging custom.

Upon questioning the new ‘pub rule’ that all children had to be seated at all times, we were told having children wandering about is ‘it’s not the sort of pub we want to be’. Well, at this rate of customer attrition, the sort of pub he’ll soon be is ‘empty’. Perhaps that’s how he would prefer it. For someone in the people business, he seems to see customers as nuisances to be managed with random despotic rage.

It appears I'm not the only person to have had problems at the Castle. I see the manager has posted here to try and deflect criticism. Well, it's up to you if you want to try your luck, but you risk a disappointing or outright upsetting experience.

The Castle is my local pub and I've visited it many times. I took my mother and sister there for Sunday lunch a few months ago. We waited over an hour and a half for our food to come, and complained three times about the wait. We were given free drinks and apologies on the second complaint.

After an hour and a half other customers who'd come in after us were being served. My mother almost lost her temper on the third complaint, and the owner was rude to her. Then the manager came to our table, slammed our money down and told us to "f*** off". This in front of a busy pub full of families. We were stunned. He repeated himself with some apparent relish. I said "This is my local". He said "Not any more". I assume this means I'm banned, which is fair enough because I wouldn't ever want to set foot in the place again. I have at least one friend in Walthamstow who's had a similar experience, and I warn my other local friends to avoid it.

I invited the manager to f*** himself in turn - I'm only sorry I was too shocked not to say it more loudly and emphatically - and then we left. My sister, who hadn't made a peep, was very upset. The manager may complain about the rudeness of his customers, and I'm sure some of the Castle's customers have been genuinely problematic, but he doesn't seem cognisant of the fact that his own appalling, aggressive attitude and the terrible customer service in general provoke many otherwise polite people to get very angry.

Go to the Nag's Head instead - now that they do very decent Italian food at pretty much all hours, there's no reason to ever bother with the Castle. They don't deserve your custom.

I am lucky enough to have 4 really decent pubs within a 5 minute walk radius, and I am happy to boast The Castle is both my nearest and best.
I often attend the excellent quiz nights ( Mondays) and drop round to meet friends here in the evenings and weekends. The atmosphere is always warm and welcoming and generally has a buzz most evenings, including week days.
The decor is warm and modern, with the bathrooms especially being a definite cut above the usual local boozer being pristine with contemporary decoration.
I have eaten here in the evenings midweek and at the weekend, with friends and / or my young family and have always found the service polite and have never had to wait too long before the order arrives. I have ordered many things from the menu over the years and have never been disappointed with any of the options. The prices are reasonable and the portion size generous, the roasts especially are huge.
I have had to complain about a wine not being to my taste and this was dealt with immediately and replacements given free without question. Other reviewers take note - I was polite, the staff were polite, job done!
The Castle hits exactly the right note for the type of pub this area has been crying out for - it will continue to be my venue of choice in Walthamstow.

I reviewed this pub in June 2010 after I'd just moved to the area. At the time we'd had some great evenings in The Castle including watching the World Cup and we'd chosen it over other pubs in the village or near to where I was based Lloyd Park.

Despite all the bluster on this review sight the food and staff are decent. And I have eaten there loads. Yes- they call themselves a Gastropub on their livery which makes me smile and I have to say one fellow- I think the manager- takes himself very seriously, but so what? That's no reason to slag the place off

I appreciate that in order to survive pubs need "family friendly" somewhere in their description. WV attracts older hipsters who have reproduced and need more than a studio flat in Dalston to raise Tarquin and Tigerlily. And in appealing to these people, The Castle succeed- it is packed every weekend afternoon.

For me however, this is why I've dropped one star from my review. Thursday night or later on a Friday and Saturday night (once Rupert and Buster are tucked into bed) are fine, albeit there doesn't seem to be a DJ anymore (I guess as it's in a resi area) but I can't deal with the chimps tea-party on a Sunday afternoon so I don't go in then.

You will notice that all the negative reviews are when the pub is packed- and to be fair if someone came up to me at work and slagged me off I'd take umbrage.

The Castle is now a thriving family friendly food pub which is a stark contrast to three years ago, before we took over.

Unfortunately these sites can provide platform for fake, malicious and sometimes ridiculous reviews that are not always the truth. This is a shame. I find it disturbing that anyone would take to a review site to talk about a member of staffs physical appearance, one reviewer mentions ‘the manager with the pretentious awful moustache’. This quite frankly is not acceptable. This reviewer is known to The Castle and was asked to leave due to her drunken behaviour and foul language towards staff.

I am not saying we are always perfect, mistakes happen, but we do strive for excellence and I believe we provide good quality food at a reasonable price. All our meat is free range, our vegetables are delivered daily and our menu is produced by us fresh. Nothing bought in ready made, nothing frozen. Every dish has been designed by our Chefs, from the Burger recipe to the Cheese Sauce on your pasta. We even pipe our own Sausage mix from a recipe our Head Chef James created. How many Gastro pubs could say that?

I would like to advise booking on a Sunday for a roast as it does get extremely busy. We will always try to accommodate anyone that hasn’t pre-booked but we may not always be able to find a table for you immediately. At peak times we can have up to 90 -100 customers in at any one time, so it may take 30-45 minutes from ordering to receive your food. Nothing is precooked the night before and reheated like many other establishments do. We cook our meat to order.

We have recently changed our wet offering, so far these choices seem to have gone down well. Please let us know what you think.

I felt obliged to write this response today out of respect for our staff. The kitchen team especially work extremely long hours and are passionate about getting it right. It’s not on for business rivals and drunken fools to condemn the work they do.

this place is fine as long as you don't have an opinion or suggestion or complaint. god help you if you don't like their food and tell them. despite the fact I have always been very complimentary about one or two things on their menu they gave me hell tonight when I gave an honest reasonable opinion on their roast veg and hummous pie with mash. I was still hungry after eating it,the portion was pathetic,even a child would still be hungry . I tried to give my comment in the most polite way I possibly could but was met with defensiveness and aggression. My comments were not validated,they just seem to think they are above complaints,that their food is impeccable and 'who are you to complain 'attitude is all you recieve. I couldn't believe that they could honestly believe this shallow small dish with about qaurter of a courgette and pepper,a tiny dollop of hummous and a thin filo pastry with a small spoon of mash would surfice .They charged about £9 for this pathetic attempt at a vegetarian meal .clearly the chef and those in charge are meeat eaters and don't understand basic nutrition. A meal should be balanced with protein,carbs and vegetables- this meal was not substantial and was not filling and the dish was small and shallow and could hardly be called a 'pie'. I was met with hostility and basically abused and left their fuming. A woman calling herself the owner then at the end of evening came to talk to me. we had a taxi waiting and were about to leave anyhow but as our conversation became heated due to her ridiculing me and continuing to defend the chef and themselves and scoffing at my comments by pulling those 'yeah right' types of faces she ended up telling me to leave and not come back. she couldn't and they could not handle being told the truth or at least my opinion.the customer service is appalling,you would never get this in america. I'm fed up of paying good money for bad food and service. I tried my best trying to explain it was tasty but there just nee

nice Sunday lunch, good quality meat, seasonal veg, crispy on the outside soft in the middle roasties, yummy yorkshires and lovely homemade puds, service is what you would expect from a pub, although seems odd they go the extra mile on food, perhaps this place needs to distinguish itself as a restaurant or a pub, anyways i shall be back

popped in for na quick bit with a few friends tonight (tuesday)
we all had traditionalpub fayre, burgers, sausage and mash etc, i had a burger, which was simply fantastic, crusty bun, homemade burger meat, amazing chips! and homemade coleslaw, fantastic little pub, would highly recommend

after reading the mix of reviews i decided to give the castle a try, impressive decor, warm welcome and a blazing fire, things were looking good.
we sat down and decided to order some food, i chose the parfait, which was delicious, wrapped in a white butter and served with poached figs (very festive!) my wife tucked into a goats cheese salad feom the specials board, which i assume was good, seeing as i wasnt allowed to try!
main course we both had the fillet of beef, cooked pink and served with the most amazing chips ever!
i couldnt manage a dessert although my wife had apple and blackberry crumble with homemade custard which also went down a treat, this was monday last week, have since returned twice, once for a quick snack, (burger and chips) i couldnt resist having those chips again! and my wife had gnocchi, which was delicious (the tastiest veggie dish i think ive ever tasted) we brought our nephews and niece for sunday lunch, and they were very accommodating with the children, and the roast went down a storm,to summarize the ambiance is fantastic, the service is what you would expect and the food fantastic, we are already planning our next visit

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!. Sunday dinner tasted like a £1 frozen Birdseye ready meal. Totally tasteless bland frozen veg and potatoes of very poor quality I felt quite sick after eating this expensive slop. Disgusting food disgusting downright rude arrogant service from the staff and the OWNER. You have to pay upfront so checked my receipt to see how long i waited before my meal arrived' the wait was . .1hour 10mins !!! extremely surly response from staff when asked after 40mins how much longer to wait.On leaving i spoke to the OWNER about the ridiculously long wait. Her excuse about being busy i would have accepted if i hadn't seen other people who come into the pub after me being given their food before me. No apology from the owner . Her customer service response was to imply i was lying and had only waited half an hour for my meal gathering her staff and my server to agree with her !!!!!!. When I challenged her she told my daughter and I to get out of her pub. My daughter who talks in whispered tones and quite shy told the owner her customer service is bad. can you belive it the staff and owner ganged up on her too!! my daughter was horrified. Totally offensive and appalling behaviour.The irony is I have been eating at The Castle regularly for many years . I took my family loads of times my in-laws etc. Introduced friends to The Castle as my favourite pub. Today was the first time back in a while. Must have new owners. Previously the food was good, the staff a little bit more mature and extremely pleasant . we had a good banter with them. The food and service was 1000x better, Other reviews have mentioned the New Owners disgusting bullying behaviour so seems im not alone. Don't go there. Besides the food being absymal the odious owner doesn't deserve 1 penny of your money or custom.

19/11/2011

We just intended to have a drink here before moving on to a restaurant in the village.
However the pub was nicely filled and the atmosphere very comfortable so we decided to give the food a try.
We were not disappointed. We both had the sea bass that was perfectly cooked and the sauce served with it was excellent. The vegetable accompaniments were also good. I also ordered a portion of the hand cut chips (I just cannot resist them) and these were the best I have had for a long time.
All in all a great meal and I do not normally like Gastropubs. We shall certainly return soon.

J&P

OK but not a Gastropub -- A Gastropub for me means above average pub food and friendly pub service. We found neither on our first visit to this self-styled Gastropub in London's upcoming E17 Walthamstow Village area. The venue used to be a fairly ropey local pub that has clearly been lovingly transformed. In fact, the first impression this place gives is really very impressive. However the food does not live up to the ambience. We spent £40 on a light lunch for two, including drinks: one starter (Terrine of rabbit and pork) and two mains: gourmet burger, fries and coleslaw and a gnocchi dish and drinks. A generous slab of terrine was served with a miserly single slice of toasted baguette. When we asked if we could have another slice we were told it would cost an extra £1.50 for a portion of toast, with the money being demanded then and there! When we complained that we really only wanted another slice we were met with a surly response from wait staff AND managment. This was a really unfortunate first impression, I suppose ... me means above average pub food and friendly pub service. We found neither on our first visit to this self-styled Gastropub in London's upcoming E17 Walthamstow Village area. The venue used to be a fairly ropey local pub that has clearly been lovingly transformed. In fact, the first impression this place gives is really very impressive. However the food does not live up to the ambience. We spent £40 on a light lunch for two, including drinks: one starter (Terrine of rabbit and pork) and two mains: gourmet burger, fries and coleslaw and a gnocchi dish and drinks. A generous slab of terrine was served with a miserly single slice of toasted baguette. When we asked if we could have another slice we were told it would cost an extra £1.50 for a portion of toast, with the money being demanded then and there! When we complained that we really only wanted another slice we were met with a surly response from wait staff AND managment. This was a really un

Our favourite pub in Walthamstow.

The staff are friendly and the food is good, albeit a limited menu. There is no pretence or showing off, its just a decent pub.

DJ's on Weekends play proper music.

this place looks better - nothing amazing but that's about it. I have been to a lot better pubs in Walthamstow and I don't think that this place warrants a second visit. It is now run by I understand a brother and sister. On our visit they were as inviting as a wet weekend. Clearly only in it for the money and have very little interested in the local community. The evening me and my girlfriends went in the female of the two siblings was screaming at one of her bar staff for making a mistake!
The bar staff on the other had were really nice. The food is ok very very limited menu which tasted like average pub - nowhere near the gastro pub standard. One veggie option only.
All in all ok but not very welcoming and very little atmosphere........lots better more better in the area run by people who have a sense for the area and a smile on there faces.

I live just around the corner from The Castle and have to say that it is a great local,the food is great and will be sampling the carvery on Sunday. Resident dj plays some funky soul and the New Years party was just that! If you havnt tried The Castle yet it is a must and the owners are friendly unlike the last lot that didnt even give you a second look! We love it!