We trudged through the snow with the prospect of that great feeling when you arrive, shed your cold coats and settle into that warm pub atmosphere and enjoy a Sunday lunch. We didn't get that here. The place was cold and empty and I'm afraid it didn't get much better.

Almost every request made of the waitress required all three of the floor staff to enter into a meeting:
-> What are you serving for Sunday roast?
-> Can we have a wine menu?
-> Asking for beer took all three of them to pull it
-> etc.

The staff are easily distracted and a bit ditsy. After making one cocktail the girl wandered of to consult with the kitchen staff, started making something else, talked to the other staff, I reminded them about the cocktails, a guy came over and asked how I wanted my cocktail, he went back showed the girls how to make my cocktail [snip of all the other events]. Cocktails served, we ask for a stirrer, waitress wanders around, my GF gets up finds a stirrer and sits down, waitress arrives with stirrer presented on a plate.

I started timing the staff as by now we were laughing at their meanderings and total time for serving cocktails was 19 minutes! Watching all three pull my beer was entertaining too after the waitress asked if they served Asahi which was on tap.

The salad starter was okay - I don't know which supermarket it was from as I couldn't see the packet the chef was opening. Apparently asking for medium rare beef means you get it nice and crispy - mmm crunch, crunch. The food was replaced. The plates the food was served on were as cold as the room.

The place has no atmosphere or buzz, the food was standard and the service was awful. Good martini and gravy though.

I recently went to the Hartley (actually on the cusp of Elephant & Castle) with my fiancée on a Friday night, on a pre-bought dinner for two at £60 (allegedly half price).

When we arrived, my heart dropped. Their website paints a picture of a fresh Borough market-type gastro. The reality was a far cry from that. Three shady types loitered on the door while very loud Ibiza dance music pumped from inside. However, not wanting to be unfair, and given the deal was non-refundable, we decided to give the food a chance.

We entered into the mismatched lounge bar and thrown together dining area. The bar was manned by a friendly, smartly dressed guy. We introduced ourselves and the waitress took us to the seating area right by the open, grimey kitchen, giving us a good look in. Bad move. We were the only table to eat there all night, with a couple of local couples propping up the bar.

For the starter, we both chose the chicken Caesar salad, which the two chefs busily got to work on. This apparently involved cutting two iceberg lettuce heads into block quarters, placing less than pleasant, stringy chicken fillets on top, and an undercooked poached egg on top of that – finished off with white goop. We were served a couple of very sour Whisky sours made by the barman with some enthusiasm. My inability to finish the blocks of lettuce left the waitress less than impressed.

On to the main. We ordered Hartley burgers. Sadly, despite lots of flashes of fire coming from the kitchen, we were served up with a blatantly frozen burger, deep fried frozen chips, and a teaspoon of ‘Italian coleslaw’. Really not OK for £60. Shame on the Hartley.

My advice is to View London: I really think you should send someone along for a second look at the place for an update review, because your current review is wildly misleading. The Hartley sadly does not deserve its 4 star status. 1 is generous.

Went there on a Friday night with a few friends, loved the cocktails, we had the lamb cutlets and seabass with potato salad and black olive salsa for mains, the food is amazing. the chef and the waiting staff where very friendly. This is a highly recommended place.

s is a pleasant enough local boozer and staff were pleasant, but that's all. Food is terrible, tasted like it had all come out of the freezer (we actually saw the chef taking the chips out of the freezer) , over-done, tasteless and slow to arrive. Gastro pub it aint. And its pretty far from Tower Bridge, rather in the middle of nowhere and not worth the journey. Their website sells it as somewhere that does great, locally sourced food (sourced from "Iceland" I suspect), wines and beers (they only had a choice of 3 white wines). It's simply not the case. Sorry "Hartley", but this was, frankly, one of the worst meals I've ever had. They should try and make a go of being a friendly local and forget their ideas of grandeur.

I'm so glad The Hartley came to this part of town - before, the best you could could get food-wise was a soggy place of chips. I hate the word 'gastropub' but The Hartley is exactly that - none of the food is battered to within an inch of its life or comes with oven chips. Love it.