The Kings Cross area is bursting with new developments: hotels, restaurants, bars and more. The Waiting Room is the child of hotel chain Premier Inn: clean, tidy and nice, it just lacks some personality.

The Venue
The Waiting Room was a pub even before Premier Inn took over the building and made it a hotel. However, nothing has survived of its history: this pub is a brand new venue, boasting an airy modern decor, large (quite uncomfortable) outdoor patio, and lots of light from the floor-to-ceiling windows and indoor lamps. The furniture is distributed to give some movement to the L-shaped room and the semi-circular booths in light wood are particularly nice.

Since this is how things are in these hotels, The Waiting Room is immaculate: clean and tidy, it misses some charm. Maybe it will eventually gain a more of a lived in look; however, for now, it is a pub with an image problem.

The Atmosphere
Meant to serve primarily hotel guests, it is not rare to find gentlemen in suits consuming a rapid dinner with their suitcase under the table. The crowd, verging a bit on the old side, is a varied mix with only one common denominator: nobody is from London. There are large groups lodging in the hotel – people of any age, mostly in casual attire. The resulting atmosphere is quite impersonal, despite social elements like the prominent pool table and TV screen for sports, and the fact that the busy bar staff are often quite rude does not help.

The Food
Serving mostly pub grub, only with fancier ingredients, the food is cooked in a proper kitchen and is well presented. The sharing platters offer a good choice – including a vegetarian option. The selection of mains (£7-£11) is nothing special but some dishes are more attractive than others, in particular the salads (£8-£11) like the Tuscan-style bread salad. In line with the new Italian trend spreading through some pubs, they offer pizzas and pastas as well (£6-£8), with the theme also reaching the desserts – try the unusual vanilla risotto with raspberry compote.

The Drink
For those dropping in during the early hours, it is worth mentioning that The Waiting Room serves Costa Coffee: decent expresso guaranteed. For those more interested in the booze, this pub has a decent selection of wines: some of their whites are particularly adventurous like the Alabarino Valmior, Rias Baixas. Most are sold by the bottle (£12-£35) with just a few being served by the 250ml glass (£4-£5). The descriptions are good and definitely helpful.

The beer selection is fairly boring but the prices are alright: you can buy selected pints on draughts or bottles for under £3.

The Last Word
The food is quite good but this place is pretty soulless. The Waiting Room looks nice and it is definitely a very clean pub; however, it should ditch some of its neatness in favour of a bit of character.

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