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Railway Telegraph
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edd


Posts: 147
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #21
27-09-2014 07:33 PM

We were there yesterday - happy to claim it as our local. Fantastic food - and even a fruit cider to please us lager-haters!

I had duck, with great potato mash and redcurrant gravy. Could have done with a nice bit of properly spiced red cabbage instead of the lentil mash, but even that was tasty, if rather unorthodox. Laugh

The other half had a huge steak, done exactly as requested, and the kids were both beaten by the size of their meals, even though at 7 and 10 they generally handle adult portions ok, especially after a busy Friday at school. The home-made burger was brilliant, apparently, while the chicken and bacon in some kind of sage (?) sauce was extra special, and won over a daughter who's not always willing to try new stuff.

The chips? Oooh, the chips...... Love

But no, nothing to see here, FH folk. Wink

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pchome


Posts: 8
Joined: Mar 2013
Post: #22
13-10-2014 12:37 AM

It would be even better if they had Kronenberg on tap or even Stella which is the most popular lager instead of the so called premium lagers which all taste a bit salty.

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tincan


Posts: 27
Joined: Apr 2012
Post: #23
20-10-2014 08:50 AM

2nd visit this sunday - atmosphere and beer still good, and bar staff great but bit disappointed by my roast.

Roast potatoes not very inspired and the Yorkshires seemed like out of a bag frozen type...all in all a bit like a NHS offering.

I think the chef needs to go and have a roast in the Victoria ED/Peck rye - as they are great, and consistently so.

I only say as I want the railway telegraph to be a great success.

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Bcm


Posts: 187
Joined: May 2010
Post: #24
20-10-2014 09:10 AM

After edd's glowing review I tried the burger on saturday and it was exceptional. One of the best I've had.

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robbrockley


Posts: 91
Joined: Jun 2013
Post: #25
20-10-2014 08:18 PM

Went for Sunday lunch this week for the first time and was woefully disappointed. Two roast chicken dinners - seemed like frozen packet Yorkshire puddings and possibly frozen roast potatoes. Lack lustre other veg. The chicken was odd - two tiny pieces from the smallest possible chickens that tasted like it had been dipped in BBQ sauce. Sort of like the spit roasted sort you can buy at Sainsbury's but not so good. My daughter asked for the vegetarian roast and explained she is vegan. All she got was vegetables - no vegetable roast at all. And no explanation. And charged full price - which stupidly I paid. Service was desperately slow - took 15 minutes to get drinks (it is a pub!) and very standard meals took ages. Waitress seemed a bit lacking in experience and training.

So a poor start. I will not try Sunday lunch again as they have blown that. I might try an evening but I already do not have high hopes.

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Pippi


Posts: 105
Joined: Nov 2013
Post: #26
21-10-2014 10:51 AM

Yes, we've been trying it out intermittently since the first re-opening and I didn't want to say anything negative about such a fledgling and well-intentioned enterprise, but I've not found any major improvements - bar cosmetic - in the last year. There's always a weird vibe in the bar area; call us wusses but we feel slightly intimidated by the 'regulars'. We've eaten there twice and it was a bit 'meh' I'm afraid. I like the sound of this burger tho! But it seems that people on here have such wildly disparate opinions on what makes a good meal/pub/restaurant/whatever, one person's meat can so easily turn out to be another's poison! I'm not loaded, so I do worry about giving continuous 'second' chances to places only to end up disappointed and just that bit more broke : /

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rshdunlop


Posts: 1,111
Joined: Jun 2008
Post: #27
21-10-2014 11:13 AM

We went for Sunday lunch and weren't terribly impressed. A very long wait for both drinks and food. The menu was very limited. The food arrived nice and hot, but I ordered the roast chicken and got the tiniest pieces with barely any meat on them. Dessert was truly terrible. Bought in and poor quality.

We were in the 'conservatory' area and it's horribly noisy in there, something that should have been addressed with the refurb.

It sounds like the evening fare is much better, but as a family, it's Sunday lunch that will get our regular trade. We won't be going back until we hear that it has improved.

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Alice


Posts: 49
Joined: Jan 2011
Post: #28
21-10-2014 12:34 PM

I'm really glad the regulars are still there as so often they get lost when a pub changes hands. I don't find them intimidating at all and if you chat to them you get some good banter, which is surely important in a pub!?

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Pippi


Posts: 105
Joined: Nov 2013
Post: #29
21-10-2014 01:29 PM

I think if you look totally 'normcore' or whatever (lol) you may well be fine. Because my husband and I are, apparently, 'quirky-looking' (ie; not really that quirky looking....never had a prob when we lived in Peckham).....anyways, the sort of men (and the few times we've been there, it's been *all* men) who sit the length of the R.T. bar, are the sort of men who've given my husband a crappy time his whole life, and it gets pretty boring going to these sort of places and having the same predictable experience time and time again. 'Oi! Jarvis!' etc........sigh Glare
Now you might say we're judging them just as much yada yada, and no doubt they're all very very nice, open-minded, gentle folk. But the fact that we both get s**t just walking past the Chandos almost *every. single. day*....is dispiriting, a bit scary, and leaves a person uninclined to feel comfortable in similar sorts of blokey gatherings.
And 'banter' is my least favourite word, bleh! Laugh

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Alice


Posts: 49
Joined: Jan 2011
Post: #30
21-10-2014 02:09 PM

I can't believe my choice of word has been criticised by someone who seemingly without irony writes "lol", let alone "normcore".

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Pippi


Posts: 105
Joined: Nov 2013
Post: #31
21-10-2014 02:23 PM

I used the word 'normcore' with massive irony - hence the 'lol' straight after......very sorry if either offends!

LOL! Laugh

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nottinghillbilly


Posts: 654
Joined: Dec 2010
Post: #32
21-10-2014 02:29 PM

I hate that word....it sounds very naff I'm afraid.
And I bet my other half and I look a lot quirkier than you two but we've never ever had a problem in the area.
Yes..people may laugh at my boyfriends shoes, or something but what the hell....I laugh at what some of the girls are wearing leaving Weatherspoons on a friday night.
I like going to places with a mix of people, its quite hideous being in a bar full of clone 'hipsters'

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Pippi


Posts: 105
Joined: Nov 2013
Post: #33
21-10-2014 03:13 PM

I agree with you about clone-y places NHB, that's one of the main reasons why we left Peckham last year - it was getting a bit unbearable! As for quirkiness, we're not in any competition as far as I know Confused Plus I don't really care about these things myself (what other people think, tho' I don't like actual verbal abuse, which we do get from the Chandos crew), but my other half does care, having had to deal with so much more of it.
On a positive note, this is one of the reasons I like the revitalised Honor Oak pub; in my opinion there's a really good variety of people, old and young, a healthy mix of classes, races, and personalities, families, hipsters, office workers, you name it.......
Sadly the last couple of times I went the crowds had thinned considerably, due to the weird onslaught of negative online reviews.
I wish both the H.O. and the R.T. all the best, I really hope they thrive and stay open, and will keep frequenting the former, and occasionally check in on the latter, such is the wonder of personal choice and taste, yippee Thumbsup

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Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #34
21-10-2014 04:25 PM

Or to people deciding it's not actually that good. Just maybe.

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tomangel


Posts: 64
Joined: Jun 2007
Post: #35
22-10-2014 03:18 PM

Perhaps if you spent a little less time trying so hard to be ‘quirky’ and using English that no one understands (lol? norm-core? You what?), you might find yourself feeling more at ease with talking to people who frequent pubs, which by the way or for mingling and chatting to all walks of life, not just ‘quirky snobbish hipsters’, who are frankly are more conformist than anyone. The telegraph is a good pub, with good beers (apart from the Fosters!)

This post was last modified: 22-10-2014 03:20 PM by tomangel.

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AMFM


Posts: 306
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #36
22-10-2014 03:35 PM

tomangel - I think that was a little uncalled for.

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HannahD


Posts: 28
Joined: Jan 2013
Post: #37
22-10-2014 04:05 PM

I think Pippi should be able to take it given what she's written on other threads! It's a forum after all and everyone should be entitled to air their opinions whether close to the line or not. Isn't that right Pippi? Wink

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nork1


Posts: 15
Joined: Dec 2007
Post: #38
22-10-2014 04:12 PM

Don't worry. As people move into the area and it becomes more and more gentrified, pubs will all go the upmarket/gastro route and the old regulars will be priced out. Wink

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AMFM


Posts: 306
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #39
22-10-2014 04:18 PM

Opinions, yes. Ad Hominem attacks, no.

Tomangel is a regular poster and I have never seen him/her make a personal attack on another poster so I was just a little surprised, that's all.

And I've read Pippi's comments on other threads and while undoubtedly not afraid to offer an opinion, I don't think she has ever issued a personal attack on another forum member. Maybe I'm wrong but even if I am, it still doesn't justify personal attacks.

This post was last modified: 22-10-2014 04:19 PM by AMFM.

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Alice


Posts: 49
Joined: Jan 2011
Post: #40
22-10-2014 04:32 PM

I have to say I thought her post in response to my defence of the locals, who Pippi doesn't appear to have actually spoken to and seems to purely have an issue with because some completely separate blokes abuse her husband regularly at a different pub, was quite catty, criticising my use of the word "banter" etc. Maybe it wasn't an attack on another forum member, but it does seem as if some blokes who as we type are probably propping up the bar in the RT oblivious to all this nonsense, were criticised for doing absolutely nothing apart from drinking at a bar in an all male group...something that last time I checked is quite a typical occurrence at pubs!

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