My girlfriend and I went to Joe Allen last night and I must say what a memorable experience we had. I had the soup to start or should I say warm dish water, followed by the worst liver and bacon I have ever had. My girlfriend had tuna steak which was cold, bland and had obviously died of natural causes some time ago.



We finished with two stewed coffees and when I asked for fresh, had them replaced with 2 of a similar ilk. I do however, thank Joe Allen for their friendly waiting staff.

Joe Allen is a dimly lit, not trying at all to be particulary posh or trendy, place which is always pleasant to find in Central London! Quite a few problems with our visit today though: it took us about 15 minutes - after already looking at the menu for 20 minutes - to attract the attention of waiter to take our order. My main course of omelette was very greasy and the rocket salad placed on my plate was well past its sell by - limp and ’bruised’.



However, the worst thing was the absolutely appalling lack of dishes for vegetarians. Roughly three out of around twenty five choices were non meat. There is absolutely no excuse for that, and of these choices: one was a vegetable stew with couscous, the other an omelette and the other a very simple salad! Are we living in the dark ages or something?



Joe Allen's is a typically stereotypical reataurant offering boring options because they cannot be bothered to use their imagination and end up coming across as prejudice towards non meat eaters.
When will restaurants learn that around 15% of Brits are strict non meat or fish eaters with a further 250,000 giving up meat every week for trial/diet reasons?! To offer three out of twenty five dishes suitable for vegetarians is just inexcusable when we have such a variety of foods and ingredients around to create really delicious dishes!

I've been going to Joe Allens for years, as it normally a reliable pre-theatre venue. Tonight it was really disappointing, the service was lousy and the food really average.

I remember it being an American diner. We ordered steaks which were tiny little things and chips were not included - you had to pay extra. The vegetarian pie tasted like school dinners on a bad day. Our coffees took 10 minutes to turn up - and this was after we explained we were in a rush.

We won't be going back to Joe Allen in a hurry.

My husband and I dined at Joe Allen on a Friday evening. The place was packed which was fine except the table we were placed at backed onto the bar and there really wasn't enough room. The entire time we were there I had to shuffle about to avoid passers by bashing into me - not very relaxing! I think it's a bit greedy to try to pack so many tables in when there clearly isn't room. We both had a burger which was delicious. The accompanying fries were a bit "droopy" though! The staff at Joe Allen were friendly enough but seemed a little jaded by it all. We won't be returning as there are so many much better places than this one.

I had dined at Joe Allen on 17.11.04 with a small group of friends to celebrate a Birthday. To cut to the chase we found the service unfriendly and pressured, the food average for the price and to top it all I was over charged by £80. I am still having a task trying to get my money refunded. When it comes to eating out I have frequented all that Covent Garden has to offer, I will not be going back.