Old City Arms

I visited this place for the first time as a work lunch with a large group of people. The first thing that struck me was that this is essentially a pub but it only really serves thai food. (not a problem, just an observation). We all ordered our food at the bar and then sat down across three tables. Some of the boys ordered a few pints and had a few games of pool.
Eventually the food started coming out. The waitress, a small Thai woman, had no idea who ordered what so she would simply stand at one table and say, who ordered this. At one point she came up with a dish and took it to the end table. Over three tables there were four people who didn’t have their food, but the guy (we’ll call him guy A) at the end table didn’t realise he wasn’t the only one without a dish so when the waitress said, ‘this is the last order coming out, there’s no more food’, and he looked down at something he didn’t order, he just thought, okay they made a mistake but I don’t want to make a fuss so I’ll just eat it.
Five minutes later the three others without food were wondering why they were the only ones without food. One dish came out satisfying one of them, another was so pissed off at being made to wait so long while everyone else was almost finished she went up and told them to put it in a takeaway box (this still took another 25 minutes to come out.) The last guy (guy B) who was waiting asked who we assumed was the owner or the manager. He went away to check and five minutes later came over asking if the food had arrived yet. Our guy said no it hadn’t, to which the owner/​manager sweared loudly and stalked off.
The waitress came back and pointed at guy A who had been given what we now realised was guy B’s dish and said, ‘He ate your food, there’s only one ticket for that dish so it’s too bad’. Guy B said, ‘well we both ordered and paid for food, whether or not he ate my dish, I’m still expecting to be fed.’ The waitress was not impressed and started yelling at the table about how Guy A had eaten the food. Finally she came out with a chicken pad thai which is what Guy A had originally ordered. (Guy A had been finished his meal for at least ten minutes, that’s how long his real dish took to come out). Guy B said, this isn’t what I ordered. The waitress said, ‘yes but this is what Guy A ordered and he ate yours so you eat this. This isn’t my fault, you all need to remember what you ordered.’ I’m serious, she was yelling, waving her arms around. In reality, if she hadn’t told Guy A that the dish was the last dish to be coming out for our group there wouldn’t have been this problem. The waitress huffed off and the owner/​manager came over and said ‘Sorry about her, she’s rude as shit.‘
On top of that, the food was actually really bad. Essentially it was flavourless apart from the spicy dishes which were absolutely drenched in everything to make it hugely spicy. The service was horrific and the time between the first and last person who ordered to get their meals was 45 minutes. Needless to say, none of us will be returning. Overall it was a very disappointing experience.

Came here for a few drinks before walking the river on a short pub crawl. It’s a stones throw from the river and a nice stop if your doing a walk along this area.
Again another one of your typical London pubs, with the same beer they have in any other venue, but I recommend based on location. It’s a good start to the walk along the river!

Someone once said to me, ‘The only reason we go to the OCA is that they let Sean’s dog in.’
Whether they would let Sean’s dog in now, three years on, I don’t know. But it seemed a rather strange reason to go to a pub. I had visions of strays running around the place and knocking over my pint.
But it’s not like that at all. With a good juke box, pool table and Sky, you can’t go wrong as far as I’m concerned. They’re also one of those places that does cheap Thai food for some reason, but it’s really tasty. I really don’t know who chose to serve Thai food in a pub, but I like it!
The staff are friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed. I have been here a few times on a Friday after work and it’s not packed, but there is a good buzz about the place.
Definitely worth popping in for a match or a pint after work, dog or no dog.