Ye Olde Kings Head Shoppe

Haven't been to Ye Olde King's Head in a few years. Since I was in Santa Monica last weekend, I thought I'd give the othe old place a try for dinner. Rude service, very slow to be served my meal and the quality had certainly gone down the tubes, friend ordered the fish and chips, and I had a steak and kidney pie. The fish was overbattered and overcooked, chips were certainly not freshly cut and fried, tasted more like a frozen variety. My pie was below exopectations, mostly a tasteless gravy and not much in the way of steak or kidneys. I found out the ownership had changed a few years ago, that could explain the decline in qualtiy at this old standard. Gave the shop next door a try for some tea, way overpriced........I'm going to one of the other shops in Santa Monica, on Wilshire Blvd next time I need my tea fix.

Terrible service. I came here with a friend early one night, at 5. We were seated all the way in the back room, and the hostess seemed cold and dismissive. So did the waitress. We ordered one king sized fish and chips to split, 1 DISH!!! We ended up waiting more than an hour. All the while, other people were seated, a party of 8 was seated, a party of 4, and they all ordered many dishes. They all got their food within 15 minutes, even those that ordered fish and chips, while we waited an hour for our one dish which we ordered at least half an hour before all of them. Our water glasses were never refilled. With no apologies or explanations, (it would have been nice if our waitress came over and explained to us why we were being ignored), when our food finally came, I told her that we had been waiting for more than an hour for our one dish and wanted to know what happened. She merely chuckled in a patronizing way, and said "i don't think it was an hour". I said yes, it was, we came in at 5, and now it was 6:10. She said it was a slow day. I told her everyone in the room had gotten their food within 20 minutes after being seated after us. She said in a horribly condescending tone "Well I don't know what you want me to say". I was flabbergasted.

RUDE. RUDE. RUDE. avoid the fat lady with the belly.

It amazes me this place gets such high reviews. When we ate there it was terrible.

1) Service was extremely slow (waited 20 minutes for our first drinks)
2) They don't know how to cook a steak. I ordered a medium steak and it overdone.
3) Fish and chips were dry and inedible
4) They screwed up french fries. How do you screw up french fries?

This place is, at best, marginal bar food. If you want to hang out in a smoky, noisy pub and eat mediocre fried food then you might like this place. If you want a good meal in Santa Monica look elsewhere.

I'm a British Expat feeling the need for some old fashioned fish and chips and a pint of draught cider. They had a wide selection of draught beers and the menu was full of great British fayre. The person on the table next to me had a steak and kidney pie that smelt lovely. Although his veggies looked overdone.

Food: The chips were not traditional British chips, just the regular frozen variety found in markets everywhere. It was topped with a huge piece of battered cod. The cod turned out to be a small piece of cod encased in a batter that was solid and over an inch thick. Sawing through caused it to crumble into little pieces. The cod wasn't able to hold it's shape, it crumbled too. It was accompanied by a lovely tartare sauce that tasted home made. No vegetables, traditional peas or even a small salad, just a sprig of parsley.

Dessert was rice pudding, tinned but warm and a treacle pudding with custard. The rice pudding came out in a glass trifle dish on a glass plate, it tasted ok. The treacle pudding was served on a dinner plate with a strange pattern around the edge. It looked as though they had been to a garage sale for their settings. The plate allowed the custard to develop a skin and get cold very quickly. And the treacle pudding was a dry, stale, square with a slightly sticky crust. It was so stale it had the the same aftertaste you would find in a soggy, stale cookie. I can't imagine what they were thinking serving something that had clearly lain around for quite some time.

Service: This was slow and tired despite the patio having just four parties. Glasses of water arrived after dinner. I also noticed that, despite the fact that most of the tables were empty, she made a party of three move over to share one small table suitable for only two diners, then pulled the tables apart to allow a couple to use the other table. Made no sense at all.

All in all it was a very disappointing meal.

I came here one Friday night with a bunch of buddies and had a blast! Their beer selection is excellent and they have darts which are fun. Their bathrooms could afford to be tidied up a bit.