The Albany Dining Room

nell4tune

Excellent value for your money... 12th August 2008

2 found this helpful

Although I have classified this place under Pub/Bar it has a dining room that is hip & modern. You do not need to dress up to eat there - as it is pretty casual. I would recommend the surf & turf where the steak is cooked to how you requested it. The meals are so well presented and the taste goes with the presentation. The food is absolutely tasty and if you want to pay less they have a promotion night - on Monday evenings you pay only 50% off your bill (this does not include drinks I am afraid). Already the food is reasonably priced and to make it even more pleasant 50% cheaper makes everything even better - I am sure you will agree. I have become a regular there whether we want drinks only at the pub area or even for a meal. It really is a pleasant place to go to chill out. Usually it is 30% full with tv screen strategically placed (with sports of course showing - like all pubs). Rugby match days it can get very noisy. Please note the pub cum restaurant is actually right next to the rail tracks which should be easy to find but not a hindrance at all. In fact we hardly notice the trains when they go by. There is a great selection of food including an absolutely delicious hamburger to die for. They have a house speciality - ale and beef pie - which is highly recommended. On the other hand you can go for the spicy prawns with puy lentils... absolutely lovely. All I can say is this place is pretty under-rated and you get many regulars that frequent the dining room for it good value & ambience. I understand that they now have another promotion in the dining room which is 2 courses for £15 on Tuesdays which I intend to try out soon. If you down Twickenham way deviate over to The Albany and you will not be disappointed.

ARW

Oh dear......... 9th June 2008

0 found this helpful

Sunday afternoon and the sun is shining what better place to have a quick bite to eat but my old favourite the Albany Tavern, well I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Firstly it never helps when you are dinning in the Mary Celeste, however having eaten at the Albany several times before I encouraged my guest not to be put off. Another mistake as it turns out. I started with the Half a Pint of Fresh Atlantic Prawns, well I would most certainly dispute the idea that they were fresh, the prawns were warm as if they had just been defrosted in hot water, as was the dirty glass they came in. This would have been bad enough but they were small Prawns which are always fairly tasteless and normally full of prawn eggs. My guest went for the Thia Pork rolls which were greasy and over cooked, and just to complete the taste sensation they were served on a deep-fried bed of Savoy cabbage which was unnecessary and burnt, anyway like there wasn’t enough lard on the dish already!
So after having the offending dishes returned we shared a plate of mediocre humous and char grilled toast, evidently the traditional compliment of lightly toasted Pitta Bread was a step to far.
And so on to the true predator in this crime on food the main course. As the restaurant was adverting Mussel Madness and being a sucker for a good bowl of Moule Frites I gave the order for two bowls of mussels in cider. When the food arrived and we open our bowls the aroma was somewhat funky to say the least and after trying three it was decided that enough was enough and that we may well end up in some difficulty if we continued with the meal.
I have to say the one redeeming feature of the unfortunate experience was the Staff, genuinely concerned that our menu had been below par and were very good about the whole thing. Sorry Albany Tavern but I rate you a big fat 0 out of 10!