Sam Gibbons
Google
Decent Saturday lunch date. We've just moved to Beckenham and we'll come here again :)
The best thing about this place is the staff. Warm, proactive and eager to please, they made us feel very welcome and couldn't do enough for us.
The atmosphere is overall, very nice. The building itself is a beautiful, classic old town public house. The fruit machine and the slightly tacky decorations (sorry... I'm sure many others enjoy them but not for me) mar what is otherwise a gorgeous rustic aesthetic.
The food lets the place down a bit. Don't get me wrong - it's fine and good value for money. The menu does give you a great variety of choices. £11 for burger and chips these days is good, especially in London. However, from a well established, independent pub that offers four different burger options I'd expect something special.
Cheese and bacon burger: The "brioche-style" burger bun is a non-brioche toasted bun. Brioche would've lifted it, whereas the result here is the burger seems dry. The patty looks to have been frozen and the lettuce and burger sauce have a school dinner/supermarket feel about them. Fair play to The George for being reasonably priced, but they could consider raising the bar a bit. I'd happily pay £3 more for a juicy fresh burger with a brioche bun.
The Hallumi fries and onion rings are okay, again pretty bog standard and varying between juicy and dry, but for the price they're okay. Food overall just a notch above Wetherspoons.
The drink selection is good. I was boring and had a Brewdog on tap, next time will sample the ales.
4/5 - a decent lunch date. Interested to see how the atmosphere is in the evening.