The Woodman is a nice pub in Battersea

The Woodman is a nice pub in Battersea, not completely ruined by its recent refurbishment. It is odd though when you end up drinking with a local who has been going to the pub for twenty five years and you get a more than thorough overview of pub fashions over the last quarter of a century. He admits we are at a lowish ebb Woodman-wise at the moment, mainly because the food is indifferent and a number of locals seem to have drifted away (the Fullers pub over the road is also pretty good). On the food issue, I can concur:

I ordered the beef casserole with thyme and mustard dumplings. I was asked how I would like the beef done. Not unsurprisingly I replied “in a casserole”. No, the young lady countered, rare, medium or well done. “Um” I replied not quite sure haw a lovingly prepared casserole of braising steak would work if the meat were rare.

But okay, I put her naivety down to the fact she was waiting cum bar staff cum potman. However my disappointment grew when, halfway through the perfectly acceptable casserole I still had not discovered any dumplings.

I let this slide but the final straw was the dumping all of my tonic into my G&T. The Woodman is a nice pub, but they really need to sort out the service.

But on the bright side we won the quiz.

1. Mary on December 17th, 2007

   You sound like you have never EVER worked in hospo before - The staff at the Woodman are awesome and they do a great job with putting up with the moaning and groaning of wanna-be yuppies like you Pete. I mean, Pete, the whole world must have gone topsy turvey for you when they put TONIC in your GIN AND TONIC..How on earth you survived the ordeal is a mystery. But at least it gives you someone to moan about on the internet.

2. FT's Alan on December 17th, 2007

   Pete obviously in a picky mood that day, but… wannabe yuppie? ouch. Pete, stop running that aspirational student bar and fight back!

3. CarsmileSteve on December 17th, 2007

   is using the phrase “hospo” a sure sign that one is australian? born to serve etc…

   i think pete’s point was that he’d like to pour his own tonic into his gin rather than just getting the whole bottle (may have been related to another post on same around the same time)

4. FT's Pete Baran on December 17th, 2007

   Yes, I run a bar (but I don’t work in “hospo”), and always tell my staff to give the tonic to the punter to decide how much they want to put in themselves. Don’t want to drown the gin, do we?

   The Woodman has always been a nice pub,. and this was indeed a low point. It has bounced back of late, and last time I was there the staff were excellent. This post just goes to show that in “hosp” its the little things that count.

   I understand that for the Rugby World Cup final this year, The Woodman was already booked out for a wedding, so the landlord booked another pub, loaded his regulars in a charabanc and off they went - which is really rather an excellent thing.