I was hoping very much that the Queen's head and artichoke followed in the wake of the The Anchor & Hope, another gastropub that I visited a few weeks ago and which I was very satisfied with, but unfortunately it wasn't like that.
It may have been the wrong day, the limited number of people who did not create the atmosphere in the venue, or simply that the service and quality really fell short of my expectations, the fact remains that my dinner in this gastropub was quite disappointing. The place is located near the tube of Great Portland Street, very easy to find, so at least from that point of view we had no problems, but the atmosphere inside was quite dull and cold, beyond the fact that there will be say ten people.
The staff was with his head in the clouds and the waiter who served us spent 3/4 of his time behind the counter drinking apple juice and ignoring what was going on in the dining room. The pub consists of a single room, entirely in wood, which recalls the typical style of traditional English pubs, complete with a fireplace and leather sofas to enjoy the warmth while sipping a pint; perhaps the lighting it didn't make the atmosphere 100% but I would say that it is a detail that can be overlooked. Or rather, I would have overlooked if everything else had been positive.
Slow service, half an hour to prepare the dishes seemed a bit excessive as we were the only customers who had ordered food, but at least the bread was included in the cover and we got to nibble something while waiting.
The menu, as always, offers dishes from the English tradition adapted to satisfy the most demanding palates and eager for more complete flavors, but unfortunately the quality was not up to the 4 stars that TimeOut has dedicated to this pub, since both me and the guys who dined with me felt a lot weighed down, despite not having taken anything particularly elaborate.
For some reason I miss the temperature in the toilets was hovering around -2 degrees, as if they had forgotten to turn on the heat or wanted to save on gas, and the musical choice had not been the best, since dining to the soundtrack of Shindler's list is not exactly the height of joy. The icing on the cake was when I found gods black residue in the carafe of water, and when I pointed this out to the waiter (still the one with the apple juice behind the counter) he made no mention of apologies, which seemed to me more than necessary.
In short, if you come to London I would say this pub is to be avoided.
