I have been a regular of this venue for about 4 years and sadly I feel its in decline. Originally, it offered a great relaxed environment with high-quality reasonably priced food. The latest few times I have been the food has been sub-standard and hideously over-priced. Today, I had to send my food twice before finally cancelling my order

1) is freezing cold
2) the plate was hot but the food was still raw

As side of those avoidable issues I felt overall the food portions and presentation were inadequate in relation to its price

This is dissappionting as it amazing venue with great staff and atmosphere but is let down my increasingly poor quality food with slapped together with a mega price tag.

I feel I will take a break from the venue. Who's maybe it will improve.. I hope I am surprised.

The atmosphere upstairs is OK with a pleasant but small rear garden but the niceties stop there I'm afraid. The food is horrifically over priced and sub standard food. £6 for a bottle of Magners, £7.50 for a veggie breakfast. They also tried to charge me extra for substituting the eggs (I'm vegan) with an extra slice of bread! I must admit that's a bit of a chip on the shoulder.

Just a short walk from Oval tube station, The Oval Lounge is a hidden gem. I popped by last week for drinks and dinner with friends and it was one of the best evenings I’ve had in a while. We had a lovely, relaxing time in the cosy atmosphere of this pub/restaurant which is perfectly named.

The restaurant menu is varied, offering a mix of classic staples alongside some interesting sounding original dishes.
We nibbled on delicious sweet potato wedges and juicy olives with a Prosecco aperitif and then ordered our main meals.

I decided to try the “Steamed sea bass on a bed of pistachio & courgette pesto” – the fish was gorgeous, moist and tasty & went so well with the melt in the mouth courgette pesto. My friends had the “Chargrilled 8oz rib eye steak” and “the Oval Lounge Beef Burger” - The meat was cooked to perfection for both, exactly as asked for.

As for drinks, there is a great selection of wines, beers and cocktails, we tried some lovely wines. I recommend trying the “Cuma Torrontes Organic” dry white wine and the gorgeous dessert wine “Pelee Island Vidal Icewine” which is a yummy, easy to drink wine even by itself if you’re too full for dessert.

It’s a popular place without being too noisy and has a lovely back garden which is open all year as it is well protected and heated.

Efficient and friendly service, good quality food and drink, reasonably priced, comfortable and relaxing atmosphere...what more can you ask for? Definitely a place I can’t wait to go to again.

Ate at the Oval Lounge last night, really enjoyed the atmosphere, the steak and wedges were second to none..
Staff were prompt and very pleasant. All in all a great experience I shall make it a regular...

PS - the beer is very crisp and clean, not like most pubs with their dirty beer lines these days.. Perfection seems to be the order of the day in the Lounge

Pros - Good unpretentious food; staff pleasant and helpful; warm, cosy environment; impressive range of spirits (see note below).

Cons - Service slower than it should be; wine list lacking inspiration; ales and ciders lacking.


A few points: This is a very good local bar, with cosy interior and welcoming feel. The staff were helpful, polite and with good intentions, but seemed not to know too much about the impressive line-up of spirits they were serving. Drinks on the whole prepared competently, but slowly. (My hot Winter Pimms was particularly well prepared.) Food good. Not gourmet, but well-cooked. My group ordered 10 meals. They all appeared at the same time, well presented and hot, and all went down very well. Food fairly priced.

Some areas of drinks severely lacking, and some overdone. No draught ale - the only ale offering is one severely overpriced basic bottled beer. No quality English cider - only Magners and Kopparberg, both at over £5 a pint. I wonder if the owner has a particular liking for rum, as there are ten of them, as well as six American whiskeys/bourbons, yet only two single malts.

Wine list on the short side, nothing inspired me here.

It would like this bar more if it showed support to local industry by stocking Beefeater gin and Meantime or Sambrook's beers for example.

So, if you are reading this ... sort out your wines, ales and ciders; get some more single malts (drop a couple of rums if you need to); send your staff on a spirits course, and don't turn the heating down.

I've visited the Oval Lounge couple of times and on both occasions have only had good things to say about the venue. The atmosphere is relaxed, the background music unobtrusive and the food simply delicious.

My flatmate and I have been going to the Oval Lounge regularly for around six months now and it just gets better and better. Always eager to please, the staff will mix up any cocktail that you desire and will look after you after too many. Perfect for a hungover Sunday morning/afternoon, the eggs benedict really make me feel a whole of a lot better. The best thing about this bar has to be the staff, who make you feel incredibly welcome from the moment you enter. Recommend for after work cocktails and/or next day hangover.

It's a good job they've got that book shelf stocked up with an eclectic selection of books.

You could have got through at least the first chapter of Eric Hobsbawn's History in the time it took them to come and take our order, and then probably digested a detailed synopsis of the Napolonic Wars whilst you waited for them to bring the food.

We were terribly hungover but the waiter seemed less with it than us. When the food (a full English and a veggie breakfast)finally arrived it was cold.

The toast was burnt and shattered when you tried to butter it, the 'freshly squeezed' orange just tasted waterered down and the tea was barely more than a shot.

The cafe itself is a bit poky and feels slightly claustrophobic, and the crappy jazz-lite music they had going on it the background was annoying and did not help the headache.

Paying over twleve quid for all this totally unpleasant expereince was a complete rip -off.