Read the YELP reviews they are much more indicative of the real Dove. The place is great. It looks traditional from the ourside but when you get inside everything changes. The place is a tardis. Sistine chapel adorns the ceiling, a Leffe altar, sparkly mirrors, board games and more...the beer list is magnificant. How often have you been into a bar and been offered too many options? Belgian beer, real ales, ciders, perrys, wines, champagne etc. The food is equally good and not over priced. The service is not chichi - I would not want it to be be - but it is pleasant and efficient. If this is your local you are soooo lucky and if you you do not like it - good, more space for those who do. Go enjoy!

A quirky tardis with oodles of drinks to choose from and delicious food. It is worth my long journey to this gem. There are now many places to eat and drink on Broadway Market but this place is not full of the left over Hoxtonites and is not boring or too loud it should not be overlooked.

I had a horrendous experience in this pub last friday eve where I obviously overstayed my welcome! I was sitting talking quietly with my other female friend when the bell rang for last orders. The bouncer (a middle-aged woman I can only describe as a bulldog chewing a wasp!) came over to our table and told us that we had three minutes to finish our drinks. I had half a glass of shandy left but drank up as quickly as possible. The rest of the pub was still fairly full at this point. I guess it was exactly 3 minutes later that she stormed over to us and demanded that we give her our glasses immediately! My friend handed over hers but i still had a few mouth fulls to drink up (of my shandy!!!) so i replied, 'oh i just have another mouthful if that's ok...' She stood over me and put her face literally two inches from mine and shouted in my face "give me that glass NOW" in my opinion she was so overly aggressive that I was quite in shock. I reluctanly handed it over to her actually fearing that she was about to pull me outside by my hair! But as i did that she pointed in my face and told me that i was "a very rude young woman"!!! I couldn't believe it! I'm no asbo-welding teenager. I'm a 30 yr old woman! I felt completely victimised especially considering the pub was still more than half full! As she turned her back I replied to her that she was in fact very rude herself at which point she turned back to our table, pointed in my face and told me "never speak to me like that again"! I for one will not be visiting this pub again. It's a shame as the reason i went there was to have a look at the menu as i was considering holding my birthday party in their restaurant. However I haven't heard such good things about that either.

Last night my East Asian friend was accosted by the landlord who assumed she was hawking dodgy DVDs. I will never spend money in this pub again. What a nasty piece of work that man is.

Read some of the reviews and feel compelled to stand up for this great pub. Whenever I have been in, which is often, the staff are friendly and courteous. The food is very good and reasonably priced. The beer list is like a telephone directory. There is always something new and interesting to try. It is not a place for loud music and drunken groups...but great to take anyone and have a chat and play one of the many free games in the back bar. Lovely place.

What a location! What a truly awful, horrendous and bad tempered Landlord! I paid very hard earned money to be treated appallingly by a thug with an alcohol licence.
I would never visit this pub again and will tell anyone thinking of using it to stay clear. There are SO many good pubs very close by.
It takes year to win a customer but only minutes to lose one - they lost one!

This area is always busy so its great when find a place that is busy but still manages to offer such great quality and service. I went there with a group of friends and they even asked other diners if they would mind moving to accommodate us? We had the sharing Thai platter which was really great and the waitress suggested some cool Begian beers to go with.
All in all it was a really great experience and I really do not agree with the reviews below. It has to be busy for a reason and I know what that is now. Go there and try it for yourself.

Obviously hasn't changed much since 2008 with the negative reviews on here. I went to the Dove with 9 friends - the food was average, but when we came to pay we were treated appallingly by an elderly matriarchal lady. We all paid our share of the bill, but she then miscalculated and accused of us of not paying £45 of our bill- she was rude, obnoxious and sullen and did not have the courage to apologise when she realised that she could not add a bill together. Definitely will not return for food.

I would give 0 star rating to this pub if it was possible. I felt really uncomfortable with the manager standing at the corner like a pimp; he won't let you stand on the pavement if you're not holding a drink. Very rude staff, horrible atmosphere. Avoid at all costs.

As a CAMRA member I go here for the real ale. However I recently went to a FREE beer tasting here with my Dad and it was amazing.

I really don't see how they make money out of this! I tasted over 10 beers and there was even free food.

Stayed on afterwards and had a bit of a hangover next day.Place is buzzing, staff friendly great food.

The manager is extremely rude and unpleasant. The bar staff are arrogant. You really get the impression that customers really aren't wanted. My friends and I have vowed never to go back and urge everyone not to go.

I must say i have never had any trouble with the staff in the Dove but then i generally pop in for a bite to eat on my lunch hour when its much quieter. So generally i've found the service good and the staff amiable. Portions wise i always go for the beef burger with cranberry relish its delicious and its huge. I've tried the gourmet fish and chips a couple of times and its a lil hit and miss, last time my friend ordered it it looked overfried and soggy.

So your taking a chance when ordering it. What i love about the dove is of a lunchtime its quiete and cosy. Somewhere you can have a nice glass of wine, some food and a catch up with your friends. So if your down broadway market between 12-2 i would definitely recommend popping in, even if its just to sample their gourmet burgers. lol

I think people that have bad experiences will naturally go out of their way to rate poorly. Whilst I appreciate various problems that people may have had, I would think to treat them as isolated incidents.

Myself, I went to the pub for my birthday some months ago. It was bustling, the food was good and customers were great. I was more interested in my company than the staff, as it's not really the sort of place you'd go drinking on your own. Selection of beers is fantastic, and it's nicely placed just outside of London. I say 5/5; also check out The Dovetail in Clerkenwell - smaller, but equally good.

This used to be my local when I lived in the area, apparently it's under new management (what a shame, where did they get this manager from??)I have to agree, that this is the most unfriendliest pub I have ever been to. We were there on Saturday celebrating a friends birthday & engagement. We too were told that we were not allowed to sing Happy Birthday (because it wasn't that sort of pub???)...by this point the pub was packed out and I don't think anyone else was too bothered by it! In fact the people on the next table joked about the hilarity of the manager being so stuck up! We then stupidly bought a bottle of champagne to toast our happy couple and after the money was exchanged the uptight Manager told us he wouldn't serve us anymore drinks! My friends and I will be not returning and soon enough there may not be anymore punters for him to moan at, as we'll all be at the Cat & Mutton up the road having a sing song!Natasha

Officially the last time i will enter this pub. I have generously given this pub (and its socially inept and down right aggressive staff)more than enough chances to make a better impression on me after an horrifying intial visit(as other reviews-no singing on birthday policy is still alive and kicking), but after my most recent visit never again. Not only was the service bad- aggression, mixed up orders, indifference to customers- but we actually had to stand and argue with 2 waiting staff about an order that was mixed up!'The customer is always right' attutide does not hold at the pub obviously. I can see however that they are a busy pub and there can be a strain on the staff/kitchen but pubs nationwide deal with this same problem with ease and friendliness. This is the only pub i have ever been in that would actually prefer it if there were no customers in it!
Bad bad bad.
(oh and i agree with the bull dog bar staff-terrifying)

I really like the Dove as a nice social place to go to. Lovely looking pub with a good selection of beers.

But after going on Sunday for a friend's birthday meal I was once again reminded never to bother to eat there. I ordered the seafood Waterzooi - a traditional Flemish creamy fish stew. It had 3 mussels, 2 prawns and 4 pieces of salmon in it, and 3 pieces of bread to soak up the sauce. That was it. Think more teeny-tiny starter, then main course for £11! Tasted nice, but an incredible rip off. Especially when I asked for more bread and was charge for the it!

Friends who had the roast beef seemed to fare much better on quantity.

Waffle for pudding was ok, but not homemade and not a hot waffle with icecream, more a lukewarm waffle with icecream. And again overpriced for what it was.

And they used to do a good selection of bowls of mussels, but now you can only have mussels with Thai sauce or tomato & chorizio.

The chippy a few doors down was a much better option in the evening!

i went here last Sunday lunchtime to introduce a Polish friend to a good old Sunday Roast... what a mistake... the whole place smelled of stale beer, service was surly, charge on debit cards (whatever the amount!) and the sunday roast was horrible! Roast potatoes tasted deep-fried, meat was grey and bland, apple sauce was from a jar and i reckon the Yorkshire pudding was from Aldi! For a TENNER!!!Avoid.

This is one of the most UNFRIENDLY pubs I've ever been to.They don't care about anything in there, but making money! So much for the social aspect of pubs!Do NOT go there if you're planning on a nice night out or even worse: celebrating your birthday in there. You're not allowed to sing happy birthday, nor eat a piece of your birthday cake and the bouncer will watch you buy a drink if you want to use the toilet!!!It s****!!!

Wow free Belgian Beer tasting !!!!!!!! I love this place. Just moved here from Bristol and on my first visit would you believe they had organised a beer tasting event. And it was FREE - free beer and free food and a lovely guy called Phil who is a real pro and knows everything there is to know about belgian beers. What a treat.
Only slight downside was very busy, so we all squeezed in together. But what a knight !

As a long standing regular of the Dove I must say I think the posting below is highly dubious, sounds like a 'carry on film' Are we bitter and twisted by any chance?

The Dove is busy and thats because its good. The food is great and the staff for a busy pub do everything they can to be friedly If you are a regular then you know you can't run tabs - what other pub can you ? If someone nicked you food
( what!!!!???) then surely that is the people who nicked its fault and not the guy behind the bar.

Sounds like going out is a bit too much strees and perhaps this busy poplular venue it not the right place for someone of a sensitive nature.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS !!!

As per reviews below... bad temper staff, cold and delayed food and the inconvenience of no open tabs and long wait for drinks.

Staff with no experience in catering or customer relations/satisfactions skills.
(for some strange reason the manager is never present when asked ?!)

Appalling service and... as bad as everything else, no open tabs so I had to leave my food on the table getting cold, in order to get up to order and pay for a Guinness at the bar ! Not only had to wait for my turn to be served, pouring a Guinness is a lengthy process ! When I got to the table, my food was gone still half eaten !!!

No one could care less about my missing food and we were rushed with the our table being cleaned and set up again, even before we had a chance to order our desert.

Since we had to pay again for that separately, we decided to leave straight away.

Why can't I rate 0 (zero ?) and why does it show as 5**** after all the (extremely) bad reviews ???

I went to the Dove for Valentines day and it was FAB! My boyfriend chose the place and I have never been there before. They had really pulled out all the stops with the oysters and sea food menu. Roses on every table and beautiful table cloths. The staff were efficient and I really hate it when people complain if the staff try and keep the tempo down, we dont all want to sit next to a table of cackling party goers ! If you want to there is witherspoons. Anyhow there we smooching couples everywhere and the food was divine. I would prefer to trust the VIEW LONDON REVIEW than a disgruntled guest no matter how much they spent.

I'm so glad to read other reviews below and to find other people had the same experience. Went there saturday night for a friends leaving do. I was very impressed with the pub and looked forward to a light hearted evening. However, this was not to be the case. There were at least 2 members of staff constantly paroling the pub like prison guards - wild eyed, and all together rather menacing. One of these threatening creatures soon came to our table to order us to keep the noise down - ironically as one of my friends was telling a story about the last time he'd been in there he'd been asked to stop laughing. We were told it wasn't that sort of pub and that was that. We had numerous warnings for laughing and standing in the way and generally enjoying ourselves. My girlfriend overheard one of the male bar staff make a very threatening and aggressive comment to his colleague regarding one of our party and so we eventually left. We must have spent at least £600 in there between us. Never again. If i wanted to be savaged by a pit bull i'd go to a dogs home.

Greatly improved!
I stopped going to the Dove a while back when I changed jobs. Having gone back there I was greatly surprised and pleased as to how it has improved. Much brighter and cosier than I remember. But the beer and the ambience still the best in the area. When somewhere is that busy its got to be doing something right.
Sunday lunch a must but book and get there early.

Christmas meal ruined!

Last night we went for our house Christmas meal to the dove. It was fairly early (around 4pm) and there were only about ten people in the pub. We ordered three steaks: two rare and one medium, and a bottle of red wine. We asked if we could set up a tab and were told that we couldn’t so we paid £15.50 each for the steak and then more for the wine.

The food arrived promptly but upon inspection we discovered that all three steaks had been cooked medium. We complained to the bar manager and he came to our table. He took two of the steaks away but after standing in front of us and prodding them with a fork for a while he proclaimed that, in fact, only one of the steaks had been incorrectly cooked.

I decided to forgo my complaint for the sake of the occasion, however my friend was presently brought out another steak and immediately cut it in half to check that it was cooked correctly. Not only was the steak more well cooked than the previous offering but the quality of the meat was more akin to gammon than fillet steak.

We said we weren’t happy, but the surly and sullen bar manager declined to cook it again and when my friend asked for a refund he was refused. My friend asked to speak to the landlord of the pub and was told that this wasn’t possible as he was off the premises. It transpired that this was actually a lie as this unhappy incident culminated in the landlord (who had been sat two feet away and had witnessed the whole incident) standing up and telling the bar manager to give my friend a refund before demanding that our group finish its drinks and leave the pub!

On this occasion the staff of the Dove displayed no customer service skills, a severe lack of culinary expertise and no interest in customer satisfaction. It spoilt the day and I certainly won’t be going back there.

Do NOT drink or eat at this pub! I have been frequenting this venue once a month for a year, with many of my colleagues. We have had problems on every single visit - most frequently being asked to clear the passageway to the bar or kitchen (sorry - we only sat on chairs that you placed here!) but tonight was the last straw. The Dove will now charge you 50p for EVERY card transaction and you cannot set up a tab. Our packets of crisps / pints of chips / glasses of drinks were cleared before we finished them. You cannot have your Hoegaarden in a Hoegaarden glass, as they use them all for their "pint of chips". We were asked to "keep the noise down" - apparently 20 people having conversations on a leaving do on a Friday night creates too much noise. When we joined in with singing "happy birthday" with another group of drinkers, we were all asked to leave, as apparently we had had 6 warnings. "we are a quiet pub and do not cater for that sort of thing". The bouncer then escorted us to the unisex toilets, waited for us all to finish and then walked us out to ur taxi's. I attempted to have a conversation with the manager, who stood aggressively with his legs spread and arms crossed and informed me he had worked there for 15 years. I calmly asked what exactly we had done wrong and apparently he could come up with nothing more than "you are too loud". The bouncer then frogmarched me out of the pub. Needless to say, this will no longer be our monthly pub of choice, despite the range of beers available. I will also no longer be going to my local The Dovetail in Farringdon, their sister pub. My rating is only 1 star, because apparently I can't rate it as 0 stars!

The Dove is still doing what it does best - Great beer, great food (try Sunday Lunch)

Keep it up!

After having read the reviews I was nervous about visiting The Dove, but the table was booked for 10 of us so we gave it a go. Good thing really as our experience was totally different from the poor reviews! The food was tasty, hot and very reasonable. The manager was attentive and charming, the waitresses quick and effiecient. The Dove gave us a great evening - try it.

Although I've spent many a great time in my local, The Dove, there comes a time when one too many bad times add up to a break-up!


The last one was a Sunday disaster. The dining area was reserved without anyone actually turning up, even though the place was packed. The food, when it arrived and hour and a half later, was stone cold. The side order of vegetables was actually raw. How on earth they thought the buter on top would melt is anyone's guess.


They did refund our money but this was the last time I'll give The Dove the benefit of the doubt.

This pleasant pub is ruined by the most obnoxious restaurant manager I have ever come across. Twice now I have had a meal at The Dove ruined by his apalling attitude to customer service, and the food is pretty average. Steer clear of The Dove unless you just want a pint.

The Dove has good grub, good beer and good staff - there's not much more that you could want from any pub.