Wetherspoon (London)

Today, I braved the crowds and went shopping in Oxford Street before meeting some friends for lunch. It was absolutely freezing and the shops, as I expected were very crowded. I had a very fruitful morning - Cadburys and Starbucks were handing out free samples and I managed to buy the jumpers I wanted from H & M, although a rather bizarre woman keep following me to see if I put down any of my lovely products. Therefore, when I reached Leicester Square ...
...a great mood and very, very hungry! After talking for about half hour in the cold attempting to decide what we actually wanted to eat and what was suitable for our student budgets, we settled on a pub lunch at The Moon Under Water, a Wetherspoon's branch.

J D Wetherspoon

The company opened their first pub in 1979 and now have over 670 pubs spread over the UK. On their website (http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk), they argue ... more

Today, I braved the crowds and went shopping in Oxford Street before meeting some friends for lunch. It was absolutely freezing and the shops, as I expected were very crowded. I had a very fruitful morning - Cadburys and Starbucks were handing out free samples and I managed to buy the jumpers I wanted from H & M, although a rather bizarre woman keep following me to see if I put down any of my lovely products. Therefore, when I reached Leicester Square at 1.00 pm to meet my friends, I was in a great mood and very, very hungry! After talking for about half hour in the cold attempting to decide what we actually wanted to eat and what was suitable for our student budgets, we settled on a pub lunch at The Moon Under Water, a Wetherspoon's branch.

J D Wetherspoon

The company opened their first pub in 1979 and now have over 670 pubs spread over the UK. On their website (http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk), they argue that the company is 'committed to offering a friendly and comfortable drinking atmosphere, with good-quality, great-value food that is served all day' and overall, I have to say that I agree with that sentiment. The website boasts about the companies use of unique and unusual buildings, however the branch we visited was very a normal building. Additionally, I cannot comment on whether the bathrooms were 'groovy loos' - plush and fancy - as I did not use them. The company has also tried to give back to the community; helping CLIC Sargent - a charity assisting children with cancer, and helping the environment with a central distribution centre for recycling.

The Moon Under Water

The pub is very accessible from Leicester Square station and when we entered at 1.30 pm, the pub was very full and busy. From the outside, I have to admit that it is not very impressive and I was not particularly keen to go inside because the Yates next doors look modern and interesting. However, as they say you should not judge a book by its cover and I was very pleasantly surprised. The inside is very bright and does look fairly attractive, however, we could not see many of the furnishings because the pub was so busy - it was lunchtime after all! The pub allows smoking indoors but nobody was smoking near the eating area so maybe there was a specific smoking area. Luckily, two couples had finished their meals when we, a group of five, arrived. The eating area compared to the rest of the pub is absolutely tiny and I would imagine that on weekends and in the evenings, people would have to wait for a table. The tables were arranged for couples, one table which was just the right size for two drinks and two plates of food and two chairs. We managed to get a the table which was slightly tucked in a corner and pushed another table next to it so we could all sit together.

The Menu

We spent about twenty minutes examining the menu because we could not believe the choice! The menu was really well laid out and very simple to understand. The menu mainly comprised of traditional English food like fish and chips, burgers and chips and various pies. The menu is available online at http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/food, but the prices for London are higher than advertised by about £1 for each item. One of the deals that we were particularly interested in was 'two main meals for £6.99' which seemed like an absolute bargain. However, by the time we had made our minds up a different offer was available. After 2 pm, it was possible to order burger and chips and a drink for £4.99. Therefore, our previous ideas of what to order were swiftly abandoned for this cheap but very yummy option. The burger choices were chicken, beef, minted lamb and vegetable and we ordered two chicken, two minted lamb and one vegetable. We also decided to have one starter to share but there was significantly less choice for starters. In the end, we prompted for nachos, which was £4.99.

Ordering

This was the tricky part. The bar was absolutely packed with men, many of whom I assumed were on their lunch break. The bar staff were on the whole very stressed and pretty miserable. I am not too sure how the queue was supposed to work but it really put me off as we were waiting ages to be served. The bar staff were trying to serve the drinkers first but surely it would have made more sense to quickly take the food orders to stop us from clogging up the bar. Additionally, one of my friends had visited a different Wetherspoons in London, where a separate queue system for food had been established. We all paid individually, received our drinks - a choice of beer, wine, Pepsi, J20, tea/ coffee or water and we told that the food would take about ten to fifteen minutes. I opted for a Pepsi, which was a good large cup size, full of ice and a lemon slice, and I did not need another drink while I was there.

Starter

The fifteen minute wait passed very quickly as we were chatting and drunk our drinks to pass the time but we were all starving as the time was nearing 2.30 pm. Then suddenly one of the burger meals - minted lamb arrived before the nachos. Therefore, her food was slightly cold as she ate nachos first. The nachos were lovely, a nice big oval plate full of attractively decorated tortilla chips covered in guacamole, salsa and slices of jalapeno pepper. There was not a lot of cheese on them, which I personally liked but my friends wanted more! There were a lot less tortilla chips then sauces so at the end the plate looked a right mess with splodges of guacamole and salsa all over it. However, as we shared it between five, it was well worth £1 each! As soon as the rest of the burgers arrived, the nachos plate was removed to make room for our plates.

Burgers

I opted for a chicken burger with chips and a Pepsi. The chicken burger was of a really good size and 100% tastier than a McDonalds burger. The burger comprised of a chunky piece of chicken, which was very warm and tender, lettuce - lots of mixed leaves and a reasonable portion of red onions, all served together in a toasted seeded bun. I found the burger a little dry so I spread a sachet of tomato ketchup (which were free as were mayo sachets) on top of the chicken. There were various additional options like BBQ sauce and onion rings which could have been added to the burger but I decided not to have any, as they did not really appeal to me. The generous portion of chips was lovely - thin and soft, they tasted great with the free tomato relish they provided in a small container. The main course was very filling and because we were in a pub, we just picked it up and ate it, rather than using knives and forks, although they were provided with napkins. I got very full - probably because we ate the nachos and then went straight into munching our burgers or else they would have gotten cold. We ate relatively slowly, chatting away and we did not feel any pressure to hurry up and eat, which I have felt in other places. Once we finished our burgers, we sat and talked for about twenty minutes, to digest our food and then decided on dessert!

Dessert

Definitely my favourite course of the meal by far. There were seven options to choose from which were equally drool-worthy but as I am a chocoholic, chocolate fudge cake served warm with vanilla ice cream for £2.85 was my only choice! My friends choose Chicago cheesecake served with raspberry sauce, Belgium waffle with ice cream and banana and apple pie with custards (all £2.85 I think). This time, only two of us went up the order and pay because otherwise it was just too manic. We waited about ten minutes and these gorgeous massive plates of heavenly puddings were placed in front of us. I have to admit that mine looked the best - I had a huge slice of chocolate fudge cake, which had been warmed so the fudge had melted slightly into the two scoops of rich yummy vanilla ice cream. However, the real test is in the taste and my dessert was delicious! If only I could make cake like that at home - well actually it is a good thing I cannot or else I would be the size of a house! The cake was really moist and filling. The Belgium waffle dessert and the cheesecakes went down very well but my friend was not too keen on the apple pie and custard because the custard was only lukewarm and the pie was a bit stodgy. We told her to complain and get it heated up but she refused.

Service

The pub is very, very busy so the poor workers were extremely stretched. However, a few of the bar staff seemed very grumpy and unhappy which put us right off. There were two people who collected our plates and they could not be more different. One was very odd and kept repeating our order to himself and came across as rude, whereas the other one was more friendly and helpful - brought us spoons for our desserts - can you eat ice cream or custard with a fork?!

Would I go there again?

The answer to that is simply - yes! Although, the queue system was awkward and certain staff were miserable, the quality and taste of the food was brilliant. I have never tried Wetherspoons before so I was a little wary but my mum always raves about them so now I see why. I did pay full London price and I think if I went to one of the Wetherspoons pub closer to home, it would be cheaper. However, we were in Leicester Square and many of the restaurants and cafes nearby would have charged us double the £9 we paid each. The environment was warm and relaxing in stark contrast to the hustle bustle outside and we had a really good time. The food was simple but delicious - how pub food should be!

I will definitely be trying a Wetherspoons pub closer to home and see how different the quality is between branches.

We didn't stay for drinks so I can not comment on whether the drinks were reasonably priced. At late lunchtime, I would not say that the pub is hugely family friendly, although there was one family eating at the same time we were. The pub is very noisy and dominated by men so young children could be a little frightened.

I was reviewing The Moon Under Water in the West End
28 Leicester Square
West End
London
WC2H 7LE

020 7839 2837

Open : Monday - Saturday 10am-11pm, Sunday midday-10.30pm 

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