The Central Bar

It’s a Wetherspoons in Shepherds Bush, in a shopping centre.
You’re gonna get exactly what you think you’re gonna get. It’s not classy, by any stretch, but it’s a good place to grab a beer before the cinema. Cheap and cheerful, and mind your bag.

Great place to sit with your friends and get some nice pub grub! You can get a a variety of different burgers and sandwiches plus a beer for 6.79£.
It seems busy when we came in hard to find a table but you actually take note what number your table is and go up to the bar and order and pay right away which is a little strange. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s really busy but the food was good and cheap so whatever.

So I keep hearing that this place is a pit of a pub chain in England. And yes… it’s like going to a boozed up Kelsey’s or Boston Pizza (for you Canadians) with the added bonus of really having to be aware of where your purse/​bag is and perhaps not the classiest folk hanging around.
But to be honest, it delivered what it promised quite well. The booze is well priced (especially when comparing the same beer/​cider sold at another restaurant) and the food was pretty decent. Of course I stayed within the pub food essentials and ordered fish & chips. And it turns out I like mushy peas. Weird…
And it does have a nice view out onto the road. We even got to see the obnoxiously drunk couple loudly flirting, later leave, start arguing, and throw bags at each other.
I hope you can see what I’m trying to get at. You don’t go to this place for service/​atmosphere/​romance. You go because the booze is cheap and seating is relatively relaxing with decently prompt and tasty food.

Wetherspoons is based in the shopping centre opposite Shepherds Bush tube station. It’s very chavy (in general) so don’t expect much.
Cheap drinks, cheap food and lots of good deals– the burgers, roast and fish&chips– quite nice, didn’t try anything else.
Normally, it’s very noisy and overcrowded. Sometimes it’s hard to find a table, but if you’re lucky, the best places to sit are near the windows.
Don’t sit in the back, near the toilets… it’s smelly…
Also, do not leave your belongings unattended, the thieves here are smart and fast.

Have only gone here during the Autumn Real Ale Festival. A nice experience overall. The beers are well kept and the prices are great. There’s a good menu if you want to grab a bite. The place is located right in the shopping centre, so there’s that. I don’t mind coming here now and again, but only when I know they have special beers going.

Wetherspoon is a very cheap chain in general so I wasn’t expecting much. First we sat down in a table next to the window, outside it was raining and kind of cold and inside they had full blast A/​C on, i approached the duty manager and said excuse me, is it possible to turn the A/​C off? I think is not just me but a few people cold and he promptly said, NO, not a chance which i found very impolite and not a all customer oriented. Anyway, I changed table inside the restaurant and had to look for the cleanest one, which was sticky, but not that much never the less I had a good time chatting with my mate it’s really cheap if you are in a budget but overall it’s dirty, service is really bad (specially from the manager, who must be very sad with the fact that he is working in a ****hole)

The Central Bar in Shepherds Bush does feel a bit weird, mainly because you have to enter a shopping centre to get to it. Once inside it feels like a normal Wetherspoons with the lack of music and sight of people who have been there all day. The only downside is that if you are a smoker, you have to go downstairs and outside the mall to have a cigarette which can be a lot of effort.
The one thing I like most about this pub is that being on the upper level of the mall, you get to look out over Shepherd’s Bush and watch the world go by. I really enjoy just watching the traffic jams and people getting annoyed at each other and feeling completely detached from it all.
Finding a seat has never been an issue here although you might not always get a window seat which are the best ones. I come here whenever I am going to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire or Ginglik as it makes an ideal meeting place as well as being perfect for grabbing a cheap meal before the night ahead.
The service has always been good here and I have never had anything to complain about. A good stop off point if you happen to be in Shepherd’s Bush.

The food and drink here are super-​cheap, just like every single Weatherspoons throughout the country. The do a nice chilli con carne and cheap surf and turf. The problem is that I can’t eat here because it smells! We used to come here for some cheap grub, before the smoking ban came into force. The trouble is, when the smoke was removed, we realised what it had been masking: the stench of BO and wee! It probably sounds really snobby, but sadly, I just couldn’t eat surrounded by that smell. It’s probably more of a bloke place; not for delicate flowers like me. Bring back the smoke!

Could do with a crash course in manners, and just darn basic customer service. I had a roast dinner carvery special meal there today, with carrots that were soggy, chewy meat and poor service. The roast potatoes and fresh veg were not very nice either, especially as we’d paid a lot for the reservation and booking. Then there was a kerfuffle when trying to order pudding, as staff kept making mistakes. Overall we weren’t impressed and value for money was poor, the food not very good at all, the staff sloppy and rude. and the puddings well, not delivered. Wont bother again.

Agggh! I just wrote a great review, succint, witty and informative, but the bloody connection dropped and I lost it.
Here was the jist of it, as I’m too angry to write out the whole thing again. Although, ironically, writing this explanatory section is probably making it up to as long as it was before, but obviously this is useless in helping anyone decide whether or not to go here.
The short answer is don’t. It’s a Weatherspoon’s, so come here if you want cheap drinks deals and cheap food. Do not come here if you require an atmosphere.
Brief anecdote: I once came here to unburden myself of waters, and it was almost a celestial feeling as I was so desperate I was about to keel over and die, but thankfully Weatherspoon’s Shepherd’s Bush was there to save me.