Marksman Public House

Poor Sunday lunch with greasy, watery gravy, lukewarm food and terrible wait for it to be served. About an hour in fact. Prices ridiculous for standard of food. Manager not apparent at any time despite our complaints. Will not be returning and it is hard to recommend such a dismal experience.

Had the three course menu on a Sunday. The cured trout appetizer and roast chicken mains were quite good but the salted caramel and chocolate ice cream dessert was a big miss. Service was up and down. Fly in drink and hair on food. Food came out slow. Beer was also pricey. Generally okay but wouldn’t come back.

Great food at this neighbourhood-​joint-​turned-​culinary-​destination. Robust, inventive pub food in convivial settings. Only shade of shame is derived from disorganised wait staff, but on the whole strikes a fine balance between gastronomic peacocking and comfort food strutting.

The food is amazing and the wine selection is ok (if not taking a bottle). I had the fish and potato croquettes as starter. It was delicious so crusty in the outside and warm and smooth inside. Although fried, it was not greasy at all.
I love fish but I did not like my main so much. It was skate fish. I thought the herbs on top (which name I don’t recall) were not tasty. And the rest of the plate did not match well with the fish which lacked punch. The crusty anchovy doesn’t add either.
My friend was luckier he had the duck and a side of fries and it seemed delicious. The chicory salad he had as a starter is not worth its price.
For the desert I was not disappointed by the house special — the honey tart is à tomber ! It’s worthy of respect !!!

It was all going so well. Sunday lunch and two courses for £24 or three for £29. I’d read on timeout that this place was one of the top ten places for a roast dinner on a Sunday and it was walkable from our house.
Service was good and friendly and continued this way throughout. The starters were excellent. I had a chicory and quince salad with some hazelnuts, it made me excited for my roast. I’ve been eating a lot of red meat lately so when ordering I enquired about the chicken, I wanted to know was it bony as I don’t like bony roast chicken dinners (Jones Family project and their whole baby chicken is not my idea of fun trying to get the meat off when it’s covered in gravy). I was told it was a breast and a leg. Brilliant, I thought.
However, what arrived was certainly not a breast and a leg. It was only half (if that) of both. They had literally taken a small chicken (their words) and cut it into 4 pieces. I had barely a mouthful of breast meat and one drumstick to scrape scraps of chicken off. It’s the sort of chicken you have left over AFTER feeding the family but here it was being served up as a full meal. Being polite I decided to just eat it but it didn’t get any better, some of the vegetables had been puréed for some reason so resembled baby food on the plate and the gravy was beef only. The Yorkshire pudding was good. We did have to ask afterwards why we were promised breast and leg but only given half of each, the chef (I think he was the chef) came along to explain how they divide the chicken 4 ways and we had the wider piece of the breast, he made it seem like he’d done us a favour giving us those bits and some poor sod had had worse!
We skipped desserts (even though they graciously offered to give them to us to compensate for our lack of bird) and went elsewhere for them. I don’t like complaining and felt incredibly awkward so wanted to get out of there asap. Our friends had the beef which (unusually for roasts) had more meat than the chicken for sure.
So avoid the chicken, unlike other places where the roast chicken is the more substantial choice, here you’ll be disappointed. If you make better choices than us then you’ll probably have quite a nice meal.

Google «Jay Rayner Marksman», It’ll save me a lot of typing. If you’re in the area, stop in. If you’re not, make the trip.

Visited this pub for the Sunday lunch and while the service was great, the food itself left a lot to be desired. The potatoes were horribly tough and starchy, the meat was overcooked and the gravy was thin and lifeless. I’d come in again for a pint, but would skip the mediocre food.

The newly relaunched Marksman is an unassuming but stylish pub along Hackney Road with a food menu that certainly stands out in the area. I’ve read that the guys that have taken over their kitchen are ex-​St Johns crew and was keen to try the new food as this is my semi-​local option for pubs.
Went with the pork shoulder with broadbean and kale, a beef and barley bun for a starter and some great local beer options. what else could you want on a weekend?
They are opening a dining room later this summer as well. Check it out! Their Sunday roasts are meant to be epic, still waiting to get my friends to commit to coming over for one.