St John's

The quirky atmosphere in the dining room is great. The food can be hit or miss.
Another great place in Archway is Hideaway. I think their pizzas are brilliant. Superb options for vegetarians!

I highly rate this pub where the food is delicious and the dining room at the back one of my favourite dining backdrop. One negative point: a very unwelcoming, unsmiling, arrogant manager, who received us without a hello or even a shadow of a smile, nor deigned looking at us! This does not match the high standard (and prices) of the place. A Maître D is simply NEVER above his or her guests and should always make them feel welcome. This lady has a lot to learn from the charming French waitress who did exactly that: made us feel welcome and valued as guests!

As an N6 resident for 11 years I have been to St John's more times than I care to mention! What I especially like is the eclectic mix of people who frequent it, it's a relaxed place to go & a local for a lot of residents nearby. I like the atmos & personally have found the staff charming & welcoming . We were in last week for a steak & chips& even though we hadn't been there for nearly a year (having left the area) the Manager remembered us & offered us a digestif at the end of our meal. it's really lovely when it's a bit colder as they have real fires in the pub & the dining room, settle in with a good pint & the papers.

I work at the Whittington Hospital, which is about 5 minutes away from this pub, so for a long time it has been our fail-safe "go to" place for leaving do's, Xmas parties etc etc. However, after 5 years of giving them a good crack of the whip, we've decided to take our substantial business elsewhere. The portions are getting smaller and smaller; the cooking standards are getting worse and worse; the stroppy service is getting stroppier and stroppier; the prices are getting higher and higher.... The "posh" fish and chips of battered monkfish comprised 2 - 2! - small pieces of fish in a claggy batter, with about 10 chips and stone cold minted peas.... The lamb cutlets were so rare as to be bleeding all over the plate; a request for them to be cooked a little more was met with a dismissive "don't you know how lamb is meant to be cooked?"..... Yes we do, but we don't want food poisoning, thanks.......

On Monday 1 November 2010 I went with a group of friends to St John’s Tavern for a birthday dinner. This is an excellently decorated pub with a big dining room, high ceilings and gorgeous fresh flowers. The menu is varied, although the range of vegetarian meals could be easily widened –there was just one vegetarian main course in the menu.
The food they served was well prepared but our evening was darkened by the service we received from the management personnel. Forget about politeness, kindness or any smile. They are very slow at cooking and serving you, not letting you know in advance how long it takes for certain things, such as desserts, to be prepared.
They brought our coffee orders before pudding was ready and when some friends asked if they could have some cocoa powder on their cappuccinos they rudely and arrogantly replied that they did not serve them that way, not offering any other option and not even apologising for not doing so. Some people had already finished their coffees and our desserts hadn’t still arrived so we approached the manager and asked her if she knew how long would it take for our orders to be ready and explained that our coffee had already been served. She bluntly replied that sometimes it took up to 20 minutes to prepare some puddings and gave no further explanation. A little bit later she came back to our table with our desserts and she told us that she had already reprehended the waitress that took our orders for the coffee incident and that we didn’t have to pay the service charge if we weren’t satisfied with the service. All this happened without any kind of cordiality, kindness, apology or even a smile.
We did pay our service charge, since this was for our waitress, who didn’t have anything to do with these incidents, and all understood that the problem this place has is its horrible management, who don’t have any clue of how to deal with customer service.

The dining-room is big, with high ceilings and gorgeous fresh flowers. The menu is varied, although there could be more vegetarian options.
The food was alright but the service is the worst problem in this place. Forget about politeness, kindness or any smile. They are very slow cooking and serving you, not letting you know in advance how long it takes for certain things, such as desserts, to be prepared. They brought our coffee orders before pudding was ready and when we asked how