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.