Dissenting Academy

Great deal on 2 – 1 burgers mid week, tasty food, good portion sizes. Very chilled atmosphere, friendly staff

Friendly staff. Great pub atmosphere. We had the bangers and mash and the fish and chips both were good. The gravy for the bangers and mash was clearly the best flavor of the meal, the sausages were excellently prepared. The cheese plate is enough for four people.
As someone headed to the Vortex after dinner the soundtrack for dinner was perfect.

The London Mess is the new venture from Head Chef Jim Thomlinson. Jim is well known for putting his own interesting and innovative twists on classic dishes.
When you walk into this venue, you get a sense of the characters that would have frequented the original dissenting academy that was on this site. Great bright layout with eye catching pieces of art. Loved the vibe guys!
We enjoyed a mixed starter of battered monkfish cheeks with pea purée, and pork neck with purple kale and wonderfully crisp pieces of crackling. Both light and flavourful.
Next we feasted on mains of mutton, which had a wonderful depth of flavour; light, flaky baked brill; and a juicy London Mess burger (which we shared to ensure we had room for dessert).
We sipped prosecco whilst enjoying our dessert of strawberry jelly, rhubarb, crumble, set vanilla custard, chocolate brownie and ewe’s yoghurt — and the whole thing brightened up by the edible flowers.
Highly recommend visiting to experience all that The Dissenting Academy and The London Mess have to offer, especially the amazing food art created by Jim. Will be back again very soon!

We live just round the corner and despite the many options, the dissenting academy is our favourite pub in the area. It’s got a really quirky décor, with pop art, a cow hanging from the roof and doors stacked on the wall. The drinks are fairly standard and the staff have been courteous every time I’ve been there. It’s impossible to pin down the food as its a pop up restaurant set up that changes regularly. There is also a weekly pub quiz and sometimes live music
I read the 2 star review earlier and really glad they sacked that bar manager. What a joke. Well done Unilocal,power to the customer

I never thought I would give a pub 5 stars but the Dissenting Academy ticks all the boxes. The pub itself has a low key and comfy atmosphere with a cool splash of urban décor. There are some fabulous Tony Riff drawings on the walls as well as other cool pieces of artwork. They have a super selection of beers on tap and a rotating pop-​up restaurant fueling the yummy plates coming up from the kitchen. Currently, it’s the Cornish Project. Although the menu is short (steak, sausages and risotto), everything we ordered was spot on. The onglet steak was cooked perfectly medium rare and came with a yummy bearnaise sauce. The french fries set the benchmark of what fries should be — crunchy and hot. Others at our table ordered the sausage and mash and raved about how delicious the sausages were. We were all very well impressed.
Excellent staff as well who were ready to have a chat. Their enthusiasm for this lovely pub really shines through.
The only drawback is location — can’t you guys relocate to south London to make it easier for me to visit?!

In one group table setting on Aug. 18, 2013, this restaurant served still bloody chicken AND a burger with a bone in it. But that’s really not the worst of it, in a way. I just read a moving blog post about racist, sexist and quite disparate treatment by the white, male manager here. If a black woman is served still bloody chicken and complains it is undercooked, you best cook it more, replace it or refund her money. Not talk down to her and explain how it’s fine because it’s organic; how you will NOT accommodate her. She asked 3 times. She did not eat it. You are a service business! And when a bone is then found in a white man’s burger, who is sitting at the same table… to him you apologize and give him drinks on the house. After that, when a white man and woman at the same table complain on behalf of their friend with the bloody chicken at the disparate treatment, you finally say you will refund. Only that does not happen either. Instead she gets another chicken, finally, but understandably has entirely lost her appetite. She had asked for a refund, not chicken… Manager, how dare you. Feel free to find the blog at ‘the diaspora diva’ on Tumbler. It is called ‘blood, fried chicken and and that wonderful intersection between sexism and racism’.
Update: To be fair, it’s now 2 days later, and via its FB page, the restaurant has, imho, responded properly. Best they could could do in the circumstances, and I give them credit for that. So I’m upping my review to 2*, because they still did serve that food. Now, the kitchen is going to do better and the ‘manager’ is no longer working at the venue, and will not. So, good. Give them a bit of time and try again. They wrote: «Just to let you all know, our manager has now spoken to the customer in question and discussed her complaints. The management were not present at the time of the incident, but we have taken on board all the customer’s comments and will be taking action to ensure that all complaints are dealt with efficiently in future. Failings were made in terms of customer service and the staff member in question should have refunded or replaced the meal without quibble. We would like to confirm that the customer has been offered a full refund and a sincere apology… We can promise that steps have already been taken to ensure that all customer complaints are dealt with efficiently and fairly. The bad publicity actually alerted management to the incident, so we’re grateful to be informed and able to address this. As a small local business, building relationships with our customers is of tantamount importance to us. We hope you might visit us in the future and see for yourself… Since the incident, the employee has not and will not work again at the venue. There are no new steps for the customer to follow, all they should have to do is make us aware of their complaint and for the staff on shift to then deal with it quickly and effectively. Great customer interaction and service is something we pride ourselves on and it’s very rare for any issues to come up, making this incident all the more upsetting for us. More in-​depth training with employees will be held with clear cut responses laid out to follow if problems are encountered, thus ensuring the expected customer service is delivered. We are running a pop-​up kitchen scheme at the moment and the current franchise has launched their own investigation into ways to implement more effective quality checks on the food going out. The feedback we get on the food from this franchise is overwhelmingly positive (otherwise it would not continue) and the kitchen team greatly regret this matter. It should be clear that we in no way condone the consumption of bloody chicken. This was a one off incident down to an individual bad call, which should have been resolved immediately by simply replacing the meal quickly and without fuss. The DA.»

They do a solid Sunday Roast and their burgers aren’t bad, either! 2 for 1 burgers on Tuesdays and on Thursdays you get 2 mains and a bottle of house wine for £25. Nice staff, good beer selection, and cozy atmosphere… lots of space just past the bar!