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Hadley House does impressive weekend trade with local families, catering to both extremes of the age scale. Indeed, there were evidently plenty of returning customers during our most recent visit. Bright yellow decor, pink drapes at the broad roadside windows, wall art and chandeliers keep the large single room appealingly bouncy, helped along by chatty waitresses. A large menu board of specials, plonked on the table when you arrive, is reinforced by a printed list of crowd-pleasers that covers all the bases: burgers and gastropub sausages, pancakes and omelettes, crab cakes and seared duck breast. The cooking is very eager to please, then, but on this showing excessively so. The retro dishes were generally less fun than they sounded: the raspberry coulis we hoped might enliven parma ham and gala melon failed to deliver the anticipated kick of sharpness, and half-lobster thermidor remained as ponderous an enterprise as ever. Chargrilled asparagus would have provided some welcome lightness had the dish not also been freighted with a sturdy portion of chips. Better were baked sardines with rosemary and tomato dressing, and Asian-spiced chargrilled pork on sautéed spinach with puy lentils.
Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008
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I have been to Hadley House many times and recently went back after noticing new menu and appearance. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The food was fresh and tasty and the Arctic Roll dessert was especially yummy!
I agree with reviews below that service could have been more professional, but they were friendly and welcoming.
A regular at Hadley House I missed it a little during the refurbishment so was really looking forward to my meal there. The service at HH has never been the quickest but it used to be tentative and professional.
The service now is not only slow it's a joke! By the end of the evening it was getting painful asking for everything including our cutlery and drinks. I'm sure the staff did their best but they are just not trained.
The food faired only little better with chewy meat and served luke warm. Normally I would have complained but by this stage the whole evening had turned into a joke! No joke though when the bill came, top prices (comparable to GOOD resturants in the city) Left the restaurant with a heavy heart R.I.P Hadley House.
After my recent visit to Hadley House, I wonder if there has been a change of management for the worse. The decor has changed and is a drab yellow and brown with bare walls. I have dined at Hadley House on several occasions over the past few years and although the service has been notoriously slow the quality of food makes up for this. We had a reasonable meal but I was shocked when at the end of the meal we were presented with the bill and when I enquired about a £50.00 deposit I had given when booking, I was told the Manager was refusing it's return on the grounds of latecomers and a reduced number in the group. The conditions of the deposit were not explained when I made the booking or prior to us dining. I don't think I would have even been told that my deposit was being kept if I hadn't asked. The restaurant was empty apart from one other table so we hadn't lost him any trade! I would not return as I found the manager's attitude towards our group quite appalling. What a shame that one of the few good restaurants in Wanstead has gone down hill!
In my comments about Hadley House I should have said we left at 8.20pm and not 9.20pm
It had been a couple of years since last visiting and thought we would give it a try for a birthday treat. On being told that they were 'fully booked' from 7.30pm on a Saturday night we accepted a 6.30pm sitting.
On asking for a soda and lime we were told there was no lime juice. On being reminded there was an off licence next door we were told they had none either. Having placed our order we were told there was no mussles for starters and black pudding had replaced the chirozo sausage ( remember this was very early in the evening and we were probably only the third couple in there). The main course and dessert was nice but the service was slow and disorganised tho the waiting staff Im sure tried their best their inexperince seemed to show through.
The bill for 2 was £76 - ( no wine) with service included tho we were told tips weren't !!
We left at 9.20pm the dining room never it seemed more than two thirds full so it did make us wonder why we had to book for 6.30.
We wont be rushing back
HH has recently been refurbished and, overheard at dinner, under new management. We decided to drop in to it check out. The food wasn't bad - our starters were good, however the mains weren't that great, my partner's mash lukewarm and lamb chewy. However, what made it 10 times worse was the service - pretty awful. We sat for 10 mins before we got given a menu, got given the wrong drinks when we finally attracted the waiter's attention to order some that is. In fact, we had to keep asking for nearly everything, cutlery (served our main course and forgot to give us anything to eat it with,) drink refills etc. They were simply not trained properly and couldn't handle the number of tables (now crammed in a bit closer than before). 2 courses plus 2 glasses of wine was £70.. not far off central London prices but nowhere near as polished. We won't be going back.