Newman Street Tavern

Classic Elegant Pub.
The venue itself is rather nice. Standard pub kinda feel but a nice pub!
The food is good — has all the classic, but also a few more sophisticated options, including crab etc…
Nice place to take clients (its located in the heart of media land!) or even for a tourist looking for a classic pub experience.

I went here for the bottomless brunch on Sunday, I have to say it was a very poor experience.
The service was slow and inconsistent. The staff didn’t bring all the lunch and we had to ask for it several times, the food was cold on arrival and we had to keep asking for things like side plates to glasses for water. Finally, we removed the tip.
I wouldn’t recommend it.

I celebrated a birthday here and really enjoyed it. We had a set menu with a nice selection of starters to share, a choice of 3 main courses and some plentiful desserts between us. Organisation before the night was great — all the communication was really prompt and helpful. The food was well prepared and tasty, good sized portions and the restaurant were accommodating of various dietary needs. We felt well looked after during the meal and the dining room itself is lovely — it feels intimate but grand all at the same time. I’ll definitely come back.

Came here for brunch with a friend on Sunday. Whilst it wasn’t a blow-​away experience, it was good overall.
I ordered the lobster roll. Being used to Burger and Lobster standard, I was slightly disappointed with the quantity of lobster in the roll. Overall, it was less meat and more veggies and seasoning compared to Burger and Lobster. It was okay, but I’ll probably go for the chorizo & potato & egg next time which my friend had and looked good.
Ambience was quite nice — pub-​like but also a bit more sophisticated and brunch place-​like.
Service was okay as well — generally prompt and polite.
Overall, would come back for a small bite and drinks!

This place was amazing. We came here with reservations at noon on a Sunday expecting it to be pretty busy. The place was quiet with only one or two other groups eating.
Our waitress was really sweet. She came multiple times to make sure we had everything we needed. The water is served out of these fish jugs that are weird and adorable all at the same time.
I ordered scrambled eggs with salmon and a side of spiced cauliflower for breakfast. Probably the best spiced cauliflower I’ve ever eaten in my life. It was mixed with chard, or some sort of crunchy other vegetable. Amazingly seasoned– and I’ve eaten a buttload of cauliflower. The eggs were creamy and delicious, and the salmon was so flavorful. You’d think I’d had a few mimosas by the way I’m describing this cauliflower. Nope, I was sober.
The fiancé (I pronounce it like Beyonce just for fun) ordered the eggs benedict with a side of tomatoes and chard. What do these people do to their vegetables? (yes a tomato is a vegetable to me) They’re absolutely divine! The tomatoes were so fresh and tasty, I honestly considered popping in the next week and just ordered 4 things of veggies. I probably will, being the goober I am.
Overall the price was around 22 pounds per person and we were all full and satisfied. The waitress was always very attentive despite it getting busier and busier.

This place did not impress me. Service was confused & slow and the food was tiny. They want to be a brunch spot, but I wasn’t given a feeling of being able to relax with my (small amount of) food. The freshly squeezed juice was really nice. So that’s a plus. But otherwise, I just wasn’t thrilled.

Surprised by the many low ratings here, I feel compelled to say that this place is not that bad, at least not according to the time I visited in Feb this year. Just an old-​fashioned English tavern in the heart of London; more rustic than vintage Newman Street Tavern offers a one-​page range of food from which to choose as well as the usual variety of pub drinks. There are the likes of crab, salmon, and mussels available as well as the age-​old fish&chips and water is conveniently provided on each table in a funky jug shaped like a fish. Although there’s not much in particular to cheer about, I saw nought wrong and so I report nothing amiss.

Our group of 3 came across the Newman Street Tavern by chance, after our first choice had an hour long wait. The sign out the front promised «Eggs the way you want» and this was enough to get us inside.
As soon as we went in I was struck by a strong odour, something almost sulphuric, which was quite unpleasant. After being greeted by a nice enough young chap, we were seated near the door and so the smell stayed with us for the duration of the meal, although it did ease up somewhat.
Two of us started with coffees which were the highlight of the meal, very tasty. My friends both went for eggs Benedict with salmon, a ‘large’ portion costing £14. This seemed quite steep considering the modest portion size. I don’t think they were overly impressed with their meals, describing it as a bit bland.
I opted for the full English which sounded tasty and substantial; the inclusion of suckling pig was particularly enticing, the laver (seaweed) less so. Sadly it was all very underwhelming. The pork was cold, the sausages were tasteless and gritty, the crispy bacon was anything but and one piece was almost all rind. I’m a bit particular when it comes to how my eggs are done and opted for scrambled with my breakfast, thinking that the promise of the sign out front would mean they’d really nail them. Alas this was definitely not the case. Rather than being scrambled they seemed like diced up hard boiled eggs and did not have the rich flavour of quality eggs that you would expect a decent restaurant to use. The mushrooms and tomatoes however were both pretty tasty, unfortunately they’re the things I least look forward to in a full English. I took one bite of the laver and left the rest, it was stodgy and the flavour didn’t pair well with anything else on the plate. That said, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so no surprises there. I’ve never seen laver included in a full English breakfast and will avoid it in future. Interestingly I noticed that the two people on a table near us who also had the full English both left it on their plates as well.
The service was decent enough, everyone was friendly and things arrived promptly. Sadly the good service wasn’t enough to compensate for the food, which was just thoroughly disappointing.
Next time I think we’ll just stick out the queue at The Breakfast Club.

Newman Street Tavern were giving away free pancakes with your coffee or tea for Pancake day. A good excuse to go to a undiscovered pub.
I ordered a latte and had a good look around. definitely a lovely interior. But I was here for the food. There was no sugar on the table and the place was swamped with the breakfast crowd. Only one waitress on the floor and at least 15 tables to serve.
My latte remained sugarless and tasted slightly burnt. I had some pancakes and did look at them with that same smile as I have had as a kid before pouring syrup all over them and eating them in less than a minute.
Much due to the lack of staff on the floor, the pancakes were cold. And took longer than a minute to finish.
I still enjoyed them as it was Pancake day — would I go back for some food? Maybe. but certainly not breakfast.

I was pretty apprehensive when my sister chose this place for dinner given the less-​than-​stellar reviews that the place has garnered but if you never try, you’ll never know, right?
We went in on a fairly quiet Tuesday night. The place itself feels pretty nice — it’s going for the cosy pubby feel with mid-​to-​high end gastro prices. Sneaky, right? The ceilings are pretty high (the bar is also stacked impressively high) but the overall feeling of the place is pretty homely and I rather liked the lighting (what the hell? I rarely make observations about my surroundings in restaurants…). They seem to change their menu very frequently, something I really appreciate in a restaurant.
Fortunately we encountered no service problems — perhaps because it was quiet, but overall I thought the staff were reasonably attentive and accommodating. I thought there was a pretty long wait between starters and mains, but it wasn’t unbearable and to be fair, there were 7 of us.
Onto the food: I had a steak tartare for starters. Not bad at all, I thought it was well-​seasoned (although my dad complained that they didn’t put out the tabasco and Worcestershire sauce) although I thought that there was a little too much parsley. That’s just a personal vendetta against a useless herb (except for gremolata), I just thought it tainted the rest of the dish a little. But other than that I was pretty happy. I also tried a little sip of my mum’s red mullet soup which had a really strong flavour. I love flavour, so I kind of wish I’d had that.
For mains, I had a squash bubble and squeak with wild mushrooms and sage (and a side portion of chips, obvs). The dish was a nice idea although I felt it was missing a little something in its execution — the flavour of the mushrooms was a little bit off. The chips were decent, crunchy and flavourful.
Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the food. It’s not bad (and my brother-in-law’s oxtail looked pretty spectacular) but it’s pretty pricey for what it is — starters clock in around £7 and mains at £15+, most around the £17-£18 mark (the veg sides are also £4 a pop). I don’t doubt the quality of their ingredients, but I just feel that there’s a bit missing to really send the food over the edge, and given the quality of numerous other gastropubs in town, I’d be hard pressed to recommend the place, given the other options in the area. That said, it wasn’t a 2* experience for me, and I wouldn’t be opposed to going again. Hopefully they can make some changes here and there as it does have some potential and it’s a nice space to dine in.

I walked in with a friend on a Friday evening and was treated like some 2^nd class citizen. Was told –upstairs for dining only.
–yes we are dining. Followed by wait here. 5 – 6 minutes later and still waiting we decided to go upstairs and grab a table. Got chased by another female staff just as rude. –just diners upstairs, have you made a reservation? And then she told us to wait and wondered off. (The place is half empty and so is upstairs). By this time we got pissed off and thought they are lucky there’s a thunderstorm outside or we would be on our way. And on that thought we decided to walk out in the rain. I have in my 15 years in London never seen worst service or ruder treatment of a customer. The place looks like your average local pub but has the attitude of a 5 star restaurant!
We went down the road to Benito’s hat and had the best service you can imagine and such a lovely staff.

My partner and I organized a large group dinner at Newman Street Tavern, and overall, I felt it was a good take on traditional British food with some bad service issues.
While we were in London, we hosted a dinner for seven people on the top floor of the restaurant. Newman Street Tavern came to our attention because we asked the concierge at the Dorchester what is a good gastropub in the neighborhood, and this is the place that he said. We were able to make a reservation for large party about a week in advance, but the restaurant was full when we were there.
I will say that I agree with some of the previous reviews that downgraded the service at Newman Street Tavern. Our servers were not very knowledgeable at all. We ask them where their oysters were from, because I’m not from the UK and I did not know where Colechester and West Swansea is. One waitress told me she had «no idea» it would get back to me (but never did), and the other one told me it was in «southwest London, near Cornwall.» Perhaps she was just giving me some point of direction, but southwest London is nowhere near Cornwall, and Colechester is actually near Essex (since I looked it up on Google maps using their own Wi-​Fi). How did you not know where the oysters are from, when they are shucked downstairs in plain view of everyone? However, unlike some of the reviews below, I did not have a horrible time with service, it was just a bit haphazard.
As for the food, there are pluses and minuses. The oysters that we didn’t know where to look from, they were only okay. There was some grit in them, and I’m not a huge fan of oysters from the UK in the first place. The food dishes were a bit harder for me to comprehend, like «Ray wing & chips» or «Lancashire & Bath Chap rarebit.» The Ayeshire cream dessert was only mediocre. Wasn’t overly impressed with the food…
Overall, I don’t think I would recommend Newman Street Tavern. Had a good vibe but the food quality didn’t match the prices.

Quite literally the worst service I’ve experienced in London. We were a table of 5 girls out for a long overdue catch up. We were spending well — oysters, starters and mains (and then we squeezed in dessert) — all washed down with Prosecco followed by mid-​range wine. This shouldn’t matter… but it makes the fact that we were made to feel like we were a nuisance even worse. Everything we asked for we had to ask for several times — at one stage we were waiting on wine, water and Tabasco. Repeated asking did not bring any of these things any faster. Repeated asking was met with eye rolling and sighing. And asking for several things at once was met with an arsey «would it be OK if I finished serving your food first». However as the queue of things built up it was impossible to not have several requests at one — «excuse me, any sign of the water, Tabasco and wine please» cue a look of absolute contempt from one of the two or three waitresses who should reconsider their careers in the service industry. It got so uncomfortable that asking for stuff (another bottle of wine or a condiment for example) was downright nerve wracking and on a few occasions I just didn’t bother. I must add here, that whilst I have been known to turn my temper on in situations like this I actually dialed up the niceness with every roll of the eyes from our waitress because the way we were being treated was so aggressive that I have no doubt that had we called them on it, a full on confrontation would have ensued which none of us wanted. For this reason, we even paid the service on the bill. I simply was not prepared to have a stand off with these girls.
The food was actually very good. But this place doesn’t deserve to have it’s food written about. A total disgrace. Avoid at all costs.

Had lunch here twice on a recent visit to London. Oysters were excellent. Other dishes were well-​prepared and showed some creative flair. Only issue was that 2 of the wines I picked (incl wine of the month) were out of stock.
Friendly & competent service. Will return

I arrived at Newman Street Tavern with fairly high expectations after hearing good things. Upon arrival it was apparent that they had somehow screwed up the reservations, they repeatedly claimed that our table would be ready in a few minutes while at the same time running around like headless chickens trying to figure out where to seat our fairly large group. After waiting 15 minutes past our reservation time they had managed to squeeze us on at a clearly to small table. The waitress repeated how sorry she was but no offer to have a glass or something on the house, we received menus and then the poor service appeared (or rather no staff came) again so long wait to be able to even order. We had some questions on the menu and in general the staff seemed uninformed and provided limited information.
Did eventually start with some red wine, attractive prices (glasses starting around £3.5), good selection of wines by the glass. Beer selection was disappointing though. For starter we went for the pork brawn, one of the dishes we asked what it was and the limited information provided did make a few around the table disappointed as they were expecting something warm but this was a pâté like dish with a standard toast. Flavor was good but it was a bit too much of the same, could have been a much smaller dish and it would have been better as one grew tired of dish. The person around the table who took the onion tart did however seem to be the winner, a perfect little tart full of flavor.
I followed this with a pork faggots with gravy and mash. A very tasty combination that was very well executed. Nothing fancy but just a great dish that left me fairly happy. At this point the service had however already annoyed me many more times. First of all the water was served in tiny carafe’s that were not even enough for half a glass for each of us around the table (and the glasses were also small). Staff repeatedly promised to come and refill the water but it took 3 or 4 reminders each time for them to manage it, others around the table had the fish and chips that looked very standard and the beef which seemed disappointing so a mixed bag.
Desserts were also a bit mixed. I was very happy with the apple crumble but it should have been smaller, no need to get a huge dessert. The almond tart was according the description dry and lacked flavor. The chocolate brownie seemed good and the same went for the sorbets. Coffee was actually drinkable but at the end service was once again bad, long wait to get bill and the long wait to pay. In general service was poor and disinterested.
I did otherwise like the feel and design of the place. Warm and cozy with nice big windows but the poor service annoyed and the food was just better than ok so not enough to come back for that — can live with poor service if the food is extraordinary.

I haven’t been this disappointed by a restaurant in years. Extremely slow service, meagre portion sizes and (for what you pay) really poor quality food. Steer clear of the Galloway beef (poor cut of meat, tasteless) — If i pay £20 for a bit of meat, it better be fucking good. This wasn’t even good enough for the butcher’s dog.
Plenty of politely disappointed looks from around the table when food arrived (tiny, tasteless portions). Was the chef having a bad night or is it always like this? I won’t be coming back to find out…