Marlborough Arms

We had our welcome dinner (study abroad group) at this establishment and I have to say that apart from the excellent company and the kinda cute bartender, this place seriously put me off. We were served really bad fish and chips and weak ale. Not the best pub for first impressions.

My group and I stumbled upon the Marlborough Arms after we checked in to our living quarters and were lucky enough to dine here for dinner. Being American, we had to learn to order our food and drinks at the bar and then find a seat, which wasn’t a problem.
Being as I had been on London soil less than 24 hours, I of course had to try to bangers and mash. Impeccable! For a pub, the food was plated like it just came out of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant and tasted that way too! I could not have been happier.
The reason it doesn’t receive all 5 stars from me, is the staff was not as friendly as other pubs we went to and it took a long time to order a beer. Maybe I was there at the wrong time? Not sure.
I would definitely go back for the food!

A bit soulless here, as a lot of pubs in this chain seem to be, despite resembling proper pubs. The paintings on the walls are rather nice mind you!
Few beers, not bad ones either.

Had a pint here whilst waiting for a mate to check into his hotel. Spacious bar area and a well stocked gantry. Reasonable service. Maybe not a pub to spend hours and hours in but good enough for a couple of quiet drinks.

Please do not frequent this pub.
I used to come here as a student at UCL and have two lunches for six quid. they cost three quid, and were edible, so that was fine. They did and still do have a reasonable beer selection. I think lunches are now a massive 4.50 but in any case, tempting for a student.
It’s not that the place is terrible — it feels like a cosy boozer — it’s that we got treated so shockingly unbelievably badly on saturday night that I hope this place gets boycotted. It won’t happen but I’ll tell the story anyway:
My friend had booked the back dining room for her party. She rang to say there would be fewer than 40 people, the manager told her that was fine she’d still have the back dining room. Two weeks later, we arrive, and none of the staff know about it. not only do they not know about it, they swear quite loudly and stomp around in front of us when they find out. Nice.
A massive argument ensures with the NEW manager who informs us she ‘wouldn’t have taken on a booking for less than 40′. Erm, OK, but someone did, you have to honmour it unless you tell us otherwise. She walks off without saying anything. No apology. Doesn’t come back. Eventually, we get a lawyer friend to say some legalese and get cross in a controlled way, and we get the dining room.
(Which, by the way, is great — high banquet chairs and feels like you’re eating in a stately home’s drawing room).
Then we start ordering food. It takes ages. It comes without cutlery, so we had to pilfer that from the bar. Mine came without garlic bread, despite it being on the menu. Someone else ordered ham and eggs and it came without eggs. Believe it or not, the eggs turned up on a plate after he’d finished, and the manager tried to tell us that’s how they always do it (!). My food arrived and I put my hand up to indicate where I was, the barman put it down on the surface nearest him — 2 tables away — and walked off. On a number of occasions, the staff barged past us and almost knocked people off their feet, they were having loud arguments behind the bar, swearing, and not even disguising their disdain at actually having to serve people beer.
All in all — horrendous service, and all these people, especially the female manager, deserve their jobs to be given to people who deserve them.
The food is nothing special –pies and burgers — and overpriced. The bar was covered in dirty glasses and half eaten food.
The mulled wine was OK, and they do serve Crabbie’s, but not even that can redeem them. Zero stars if I could — this experience made me really angry.

Marlborough is frequented by thirsty university students and the older men who troll for them. To be honest, it really is quite a strange mix most of the time of twenty-​somethings and middle-​aged business men. Regardless, the pub consists of one pretty expansive room with tons of tables of all different heights and sizes and a few roomy booths. The best part about this pub is their £5 lunch.

I had the pleasure of being a Marlborough patron from 2003 to 2007, through both its slightly shabby beginnings and its renovated new look.
I honestly preferred it with the slightly peeling paint, the odd hole in the sofa and the few stains in strategic places. Yet hey, one has to keep up with the times.
Marlborough never disappointed me. I like their beer selection and the food is great pub fare.
I believe the «local» is well deserved. I can distinctly remember a couple sitting at the same table (right at the door, second along the wall) who’d be a permanent presence imbibing numerous pints, or the occasional slightly creepy hobo-​esque guy at the bar during lunchtimes. You don’t get that at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants.
If the place hasn’t changed much, it’s a good haunt. Check it out.

The food was good, the bar good enough, the staff a bit annoyed by our American-​ness. Sorry chaps, I truly am trying to blend in, but I fear donning a fake accent would do more damage than good at this point.

Seems a pleasant enough pub, very spacious and newly decorated in a traditional style. Popular with the local UCL students. When I visited they had three ales and a couple of Belgian beers, and seemed pretty cheap for a central London pub.

Marlborough Arms was right down the street from the hotel I stayed in on a recent trip to London and this was the first pub I ate/​drank at while there. It wasn’t exactly what I expected when I walked into the place as it was clean and nothing seemed dirty… then again I’m used to America’s version of the pub. After chatting with the bartender for a moment and settling into a nice wooden table, my friend and I found this place to be very comfortable and we spent several hours drinking and relaxing after our flight from the States.
I was impressed with how good the food was, though it wasn’t as cheap as some of the other pubs I visited in the area. The bartender recommended several beers to try and I liked all of them. I think this is a nice neighborhood place and would definitely go back next time I’m in Bloomsbury.

I have an instant suspicion of any pub that feels the need to put a chalk board out front declaring itself a «local» pub. I popped in here for a quick pint of IPA at 2pm on a Sat after trawling the gadget bazaars of Tottenham Court Road, but it was dead and unremarkable.
To be honest I thought it felt a little depressing, but I’m sure that would soon be fixed with an injection of people so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on that count. But the whole place just screams standard from the predictable menu down to the carpet.

In this bit of London, a pub that is open on a Sunday is a rarer thing than I’d like. This one has good food, friendly bar staff, a nice atmosphere, and big screens that are concealed by pretty pictures when not in use.
Pricier than some of the other local posts, but the service is excellent, and the food tastes good. For the last year it’s been a regular, because it was opposite where I lived.
There’s also a great function room, that can be booked, with own food brought in, for not much. Altogether well recommended

This pub is a friend’s «local», and so have been here a couple of times. First thing to note is that it is a decent place to eat! A reasonably wide menu, with tasty food and reasonable service — although the waiting time between ordering and getting food can be a little long on busy evenings.
The other major plus is that it’s a big pub — quite a bit of space, and ample seating and tables to sit at; it’s a rare night when there isn’t a seat available at all!
Other than that — it’s a pub! The bar staff are friendly and competent, and it’s a comfortable and unpressured place to eat and drink. Considering its location just off Tottenham Court Road, this actually makes it quite the gem.

Victorian renaissance — the new cultural trend of the decade. Marlborough Arms has reinvented itself in this fashion. Now more than a pub its a ‘public house’ or ‘bistro’.
Could this new grandeur mean they want a more senior audience. Or are we getting back to polite and caring etiquette? There does seem to be a revival of cultural practices. Its a good sign; we want to get better. Not meaning that we are not; but customs and traditions which have rituals are a force to human nature that brings out qualities to be admired.
An always charming place for a drink with friends or colleagues; which could speed up the service to those in a hurry. But such a place is not meant for ‘hurried’ pleasure; ‘slow’ is the new movement.

The best thing about the Marlborough arms is its size. It’s not often you can have a pint in London without jostling for elbow space but in the Marlborough I actually found somewhere to sit, on a busy Friday night… in central London… I was almost overwhelmed with happiness.
Not that the pub wasn’t busy, there was a steady crowd of young professionals, students and even a couple of actors at a nearby table, all of which I observed from my lovely chair at my very own table. The atmosphere was unpretentious and the bar staff were friendly, there’s a big screen and a pool table and even wireless internet access and even though the drinks were a little expensive (usual for central London) it was worth it for the arm space alone.

I haven’t been in here before but it appears newly refurbished. Nice atmosphere and feel. good beer and my sandwich was very nice if a little simple.

This could be a decent enough drinking hole but the food here is an affront to human decency. The so-​called burger consists of a piece of something that looked and tasted like cardboard slopped onto a soggy roll. The pie, accompanied by peas warmed to body temperature and chips (which were edible, but then again they are only chips) must have been heated from frozen in the microwave. Go somewhere else.