The Plough

What I shame that they advertise themselves as the best fish and chips and it was the worst I’ve had!
Am really curious if the chef even had the decency to try it! The batter was not season and the fish came out completely bland.
I know British folks are not known for their cuisine however a bit of imagination and effort could have taken the dish to a different level.
Service was also bland. The man behind the bar counter did not smile and gave the sense he did not want to be there. Very uncharismatic. You have to order at the bar and get up and also pay at the bar. Thank god atleast or food was delivered to the table. Even then the man didn’t even have the curtesy to ask if we needed something. When we asked for extra tartar sauce it felt like we were bugging him. Hello! Your in a service industry, people are going to ask for things! That’s the nature of the beast. Geesh

Typical English pub and fare. Lively Friday eve., but not overly crowded like some we saw. Fish and chips not as hot as we’d have liked given that we waited a fair time for them.

Seems to be your average London pub… though its half locals and half tourists as its near the British Museum. Lots of booze and draft pints to choose from. My £11 Steak N Ale pie… simple and tasty enough.
Tourist Tips: This isn’t America. In real pubs you order everything at the bar and someone will later bring the food to your table. No tipping required.

The place is located well but the food is average. We came in and asked where to sit and the guy said we could sit anywhere we liked. We sat and looked at menus for 15 minutes before we realized we had to order at the bar! Yep, we’re American tourists.
Ordered the food and waited and waited. Food is sent to the main floor by dumb waiter. Our meals sat in the dumb waiter for at least 10 minutes while the bar attendant helped others. A manager was washing glasses and roaming the area but never bothered to look in the dumb waiter. By the time we got our food we had been there 40 minutes.
The man approached the table with our food and asked who had what. That was the extent of communication. We never were asked how the meal was. We weren’t asked if we needed or wanted anything else. Not even a «thank you» when we left.
The food was okay. Like others said, «nothing to write home about». Too bad we paid for our meal when we ordered and I included a generous tip!
Skip this place.

The service was ridiculously slow, about 40 minutes. The fish & chips were quite average. The sausage & mash, however, was good.

Tasty pies by Dunkley’s and the craft beer and proximity of the British Museum make this place great for a quick bite.
I visited on a Sunday after 1800, place was comfortable and lively.

Nice and cosy. Good selection of ale. Nice large servings of food. The classic fish’n’ships is nice.

Give this pub a miss. The horrible pub food isn’t even as shockingly bad as the service. Except for one of the bar staff all of them ignored us although we were in queue before other customers. It is a shame that this sort of behavior exists in London much more at an establishment that is down the street from the British Museum.

Had a couple pints and were feeling peckish but the kitchen was closed. Had some nuts and a round or two. Not a bad pub to get a beer.

Enjoyed our steak and ale pies, but the sides (veg & chips) weren’t great. This place was packed for lunch! They didn’t have many beers from the menu available… but we were able to eventually find something on draft. Service was quick and thankfully there was seating upstairs so we were eventually able to squeeze all six of us together before our food arrived.

Wow! What uninterested bar staff. It was raining (surprise) and we were meeting up with a friend so we popped in here for a drink. The place had about 10 customers, surprisingly, being just near British museum, and a shame as building itself is historical. But I could see why bar staff hardly paid attention to us and when we ordered not a word was spoken except for by us! And being it was around 9pm, 10 customers inside, yet glasses and cleaning fluid just left on bar.

This place used to be a lot better before it was purchased a few years ago by Russians. It used to have good food, good selection of ale, nice atmosphere. Ah well, I’m sad to say that it deserves nothing more than a three star rating now.

This used to be a very special pub in the 60’s & 70’s
because publishers Art Monthly & Martin, Brian & O’Keeffe
were established directly opposite, & all manner of
famous writers & artists would congregate here.
In the 1930’s this was the meeting place of two great Celtic
Nationalists, the scots poet Christopher Grieve (Hugh McDiarmid)
& Cornish Valda Trevlyn. I met them here in 1966
Since both publishers have gone, the pub has changed
enormously. I only go for nostalgia’s sake, but the rudeness
towards female clientele is marked (or as Siany says above
no interraction) Wise up guys.

Holborn is a strange place to find yourself in on a Friday night. There’s nothing much here, but every single pub is somehow still packed. And while I like the Princess Louise, it’s not really great for summery drinking.
A short stroll later and we found ourselves at the Plough. Space outside, and a friendly enough crowd. But that’s where my liking for this pub ended. Football screens inside and an average selection of ales would have cemented a three star review. It’s just down from the British Museum so tourist central as well. Not an issue, tourist-​wise, but we were approached by homeless people around five times throughout the night.
So why the two stars? The bar staff. I ordered a drink without one of the guys even saying a word to me. Not one. Even to the point where he couldn’t be bothered to tell me how much my order was and just held out his hand for my card. I don’t want someone’s life story, but I do expect some sort of interaction.
And while there’s no interaction, I won’t be back.

Went here two Thursdays for karaōke in the rear section of the pub with its genial landlady. Had some wine, had some food; both were pretty standard and priced as you’d expect for the area. The back room was rammed, which made for an excellent friendly atmosphere. Songs were butchered, many laughs were had. I shall return.

On the way to the British Museum we were struck by a blizzard, and decided to drop in here for a quick pint and bite to eat. The pub is divided into three sections: The front room is relatively nice pub area; the backroom devoted to a huge plasma screen TV; and the upstairs a fairly unpleasant dining room. Our food was OK, but but really nothing to write home about. The beers OK. There may be some locals here, but the large part of the trade must be tourists on the way to the British Museum, and without repeat business this place suffers. My overall sense that this wasn’t a terrible place; just nothing particular special either.

This pub is decent. They serve a maximum of 5 ales, but usually 1 or 2 have run dry in my experience. They serve food and have a couple of TVs for the sport. Service was relatively quick considering only 2 people were serving. The pub is a bit of a tourist trap, but there is a lot of that kind of custom in the area so who can blame them for luring in travelers with their ‘famous’ fish and chips.
There is a room upstairs if you want to have a private function of some sort there.
One of the urinals is virtually impossible to use without extreme leaning skills due to the presence of a condom and pill (you’ll like it she’ll love it… whatever ‘it’ is) machine in the space where you would generally want to stand.

A solid enough boozer– actually quite good for being bang in the middle of Touristville, UK. Situated, as the address suggests, just down the road from The British Museum, they have some good ales as well as the usual lagers. What makes this place a better option than The Crown on New Oxford street is the good selection of wines– from Chile, Spain and South Africa in particular.
It’s also easy to access the tables outside if there are smokers in your group. The upstairs is a good space for a private function and served me well when I worked in this part of town for work dos. In general, not a bad option for a couple– and it doesn’t get too overcrowded after work which is a rarity round there!

With the quantity of pubs London has, I really wouldn’t bother with this one. We came here for some food and a pint or two after a long and exhausting day at the British Museum.
It wasn’t a busy afternoon at the pub, and yet tables were dirty and sticky. Pint of Guinness to accompany by uncooked burger and soggy chips. My friend who had been there before was surprised with the standard of the food, it had lowered «tremendously» she said. Even the salt and pepper shakers were sticky and almost empty.
The staff was very unapologetic when I sent the burger back to be re-​cooked, it came back almost burnt. It seemed more like a nasty revenge than an improvement. Even the massive plasma screens (two of them) with satellite TV don’t save this pub from the abyss.

The Plough is a busy old man’s boozer hidden just far enough away from the main stretch of Holborn to allow you to still shoehorn your way in on a Friday evening. We inevitably end up here when everywhere else is too rammed. The drinks are affordable, the food is passable (pub grub — pies, fish and chips and so on) and the tables outside are lovely in warm weather.
It was here that I first tried the ill-​advised ‘Rose on the Rocks’ — Gallo White Grenache in a huge glass over ice. Nice for about two weeks in July, really naff the other 50 weeks of the year (also available at West India Quay’s cinema, of all places).
Side note for the C-​list celeb spotters — saw Les Battersby from Corrie in there once and he was very friendly to everyone.