Forum Topic

The Weir

I am really peeved - having spent fortunes in the market today buying stuff I largely did not want but feeling obliged to support anyone and everyone - my sister and I dropped into the Weir.  I asked for a bottle of wine and then asked whether they had stopped serving food.  They had not.  We bought a bottle of wine for £21 (which we could have got in any other pub for £16) but I was not allowed to carry it to the table (about 4ft from the bar) nor was I allowed to pay for it!  The menu boasted something along the lines of buy a main meal and have a starter or desert on us.  I ordered a ham/mushroom/cheese omelette which was minus the ham when it arrived but again I said nothing.  We were not offered a starter.  We ate the food but no-one attempted to clear the table until we were leaving therefore no one offered a dessert.  I was therefore surprised when I went to the bar to pay to discover a service charge on the bill.  The staff very all very pleasant but the only service we had which was different from any other pub just about anywhere was their insistence on carrying the wine to our table and refusing money at the point of purchase.  Sorry but I can just about accept a service charge in a pub if I actually get what I ordered and have actually received some service.  I paid the bill and I admit I said nothing which I should have done but the staff seemed to have changed shifts and it really wasn't the fault of the new barmaid.  However how up itself does a pub have to be to insist on delivering a screw top bottle of wine in a cooler rather than allowing you to purchase and pay for this at the bar just so they can charge you a service charge thereby increasing the cost of an already overpriced wine by a further £2.10 not to mention the fact that we never received the benefit of their offer of a starter/dessert.What exactly is The Weir a pub or a restaurant?  I have never before paid a service charge in a pub for buying a bottle of wine.  They didn't even have to open it I unscrewed the lid and frankly I have never paid a service charge for an omelette after all it's hardly haute cuisine particularly with it's main ingredient missing.

Bernadette Paul ● 5230d21 Comments

I'd also recomend the Coach and Horses, although the lighting is too dark!!As for the Weir, last time I went there I felt ripped off, and vowed never to return

paul wilson ● 5179d

Ta.

Keith Iddon ● 5180d

Good news. It used to be such a dump.

George Knox ● 5180d

Just over Kew Bridge on the right hand side. Opposite the cricket pitch

Claire Peleschka ● 5180d

Claire,Sounds like good value.Which Rose and Crown,where is it please?

Keith Iddon ● 5180d

I went to the Rose & Crown for Burns night and had a 4 course meal for £18.99 pp. Excellent meal, giant ice bucket for the wine and full, great table service. We were even asked if we required a break between courses. NO service charge included despite it being on par with most local restaurants. The Weir could learn a lesson.

Claire Peleschka ● 5180d

Sadly this tale almost exactly replicates the experience of an acquaintance that popped in for some lunch a couple of years back.  He and his wife were actually visiting to discuss rates for a wedding reception.  For whatever reason the bill came before the discussion and so they were so annoyed at the response when they queried it, for exactly the same reasons raised here, that they decided to use the Holiday Inn instead.  Running a pub is a tough job in these times and the ones that survive do so because they offer value, a friendly ambience and a welcome.  Sadly it’s been my experience that as soon as you’re greeted by someone in a waiters garb that seldom follows.  The Weir has received very mediocre reviews on most of the current review sites but it obviously has a regular clientele who can obviously afford to pay premium prices?  The old saying “No sense, no feeling” springs to mind? ;-)  There are still a few pubs that do good food AND keep the spirit and atmosphere of a pub but as purse strings tighten more are bound to close.

G C Brown ● 5219d

If you don't like the service, food, whatever, you are only under a legal obligation to pay what you consider fair.On that basis you ahould offer them a cheque for what you thought it was worth and that's it. They then have the choice of doing what they want about it.The police will not get involved if offer has been made.Do not give credit/debit card details or the thing slips out of your hands.

Ian Silver ● 5219d

Over the past few years I have been to the Weir a few times . I have always found it poor value for money with indifferent food and poor service. Never again!

Liz Price ● 5219d

My final comment on this - I have just checked the Weir website and had a look at their lunch menu and can now confirm that there is NO mention of service charge.  Their dinner menu and dessert menu both state that "the 10% service charge is discretionary" but the lunch menu is silent on this issue. Finally for what it's worth I believe there is a legal requirement to clearly display any service charges levied this is not the case with lunch menu and it's addition is therefore probably illegal.  As for service charges on bottles of wine this would appear to be totally random and based on whether or not they can force unsuspecting customers to "take a seat" and run a tab - equally devious in my opinion.

Bernadette Paul ● 5228d

KeithAt the Inverness Lodge Club, less than five minutes' walk from the Weir, that order would have come to £9.45.I'm not comparing the two for ambience as the two venues are entirely different in character, but that is one helluva difference.

Phil Andrews ● 5229d

Well - I'm convinced. Sounds like a rip-off. I wont go there.

Steve Taylor ● 5229d

Anthony what exactly do you not recognise?  Perhaps you too were unaware of this service charge nonsense.  Perhaps it only applies if you buy wine by the bottle rather than by the glass I have absolutely no idea but I'm afraid that in my book a ham omelette without the ham and a few frozen frites for about £9 plus service is not my idea of good food.  Perhaps that's because I am used to better I really don't know but I do know I could have had at least as good if not better in any of the pubs in Kew/Strand on the Green, Chiswick or Ealing and I would not have been charged extra for "service".  I understand the concept of service charges but not for a pub particularly when the service appears to be nothing more than dumping the wine (unopened) in a cooler and carrying it about 4ft to a table.  Do you think that's reasonable particularly when I was more than happy to pay for it at the point of purchase and carry it to the table myself?  No wonder they insist you take a seat and they will bring it over because they want to charge for the privilege.  In my book that is nothing short of sharp practice.  Surely the purpose of a pub is to sell drinks at the prices advertised.  If you want to make an extra £2 odd on a bottle of wine just put the blooming price up and be honest about it and people can either pay the price or go elsewhere.  If you have a different point of view I can only assume you have more money than sense.

Bernadette Paul ● 5229d

The 'Phoney Pony'has a bad rep. amongst many locals.Brentford is primarily a working class area and I know of some people who have gone into the pub in their work clothes,not dirty,who have just been ignored by staff.This was some time ago,granted.For me,the ales are not interesting enough to bother with.

Keith Iddon ● 5229d

I don't recognise any of these descriptions of the Weir. It's consistently the friendliest pub around in my experience; good food, good atmosphere and a nice place to spend the evening in an area that needs more like it.

Anthony Flynn ● 5229d

I want to like the Weir - nice little pub, lovely setting, great garden where I can take the dog in the summer - but half the time I've come up against poor service and/or poor food/drink.

Holly Hodges ● 5230d

This is very sad. I have had lovely meals in the Weir in the past and  was planning to arrange a big do there next St George's Day.It seems that the current management has lost the plot.Must get that changed.Let's organis a boycott and money will talk.

David Giles ● 5230d

Sarah is probably right I am annoyed at myself for not challenging this charge.  It's not the first time I have been there but it is the first time I have actually seen a bill.  A few months ago my sister and I were there and I arrived first and succeeded in buying a bottle of wine and paid for it.  When my sister arrived we ordered the food and later asked for the bill.  When that arrived the wine was on the bill and there was a steward's enquiry to have it removed.  I was so busy querying the wine that I clearly did not notice any service charges - I have to say that I have never noticed any mention of service charge on the menu supplied although I accept it may be there - I paid the bill and gave a substantial tip to the barman!  Needless to say this will never happen again.I am not annoyed at spending whatever I spent or whatever I spent it on I am however annoyed at the cheek of being charged a service charge for placing a bottle of wine in a cooler and delivering it to the other side of the bar!  I can unscrew wine bottles all day for nothing I am experienced in this. I post this message as a warning to other unsuspecting customers.  When I go into a pub and ask for a bottle of wine I expect to pay the price displayed on the wine list I do not expect to be charged a service charge and in future I will not pay one.  I have to say that even in fancy restaurants I object to being charged a service charge for opening a bottle of what is usually a seriously overpriced wine. Be warned

Bernadette Paul ● 5230d

I too avoid this place.It's so far up itself it cannot be serious.A friend of mine recently bought 2 pints,2 single whiskies and 1 bottle of coke.£23 odd.Disgustingly expensive.The Magpie is much better value,as is the Six Bells and O'Brien's.We bought some nice cheeses,black pudding,garlic sausage and cakes from the French market.It is not a cheap market and it is easy to get a bit carried away(I spent about £35)but what he heck,it's not very week.

Keith Iddon ● 5230d

Hi Bernadette, it sounds to me as though you're actually annoyed with yourself for not being assertive enough in the market or the pub? S.

Sarah Bradley ● 5230d

I avoid this pricy snooty place.

George Knox ● 5230d