The Garrick Arms

Good night out

The Garrick is a decent pub with great service and an amazingly well stocked bar. Its not just great after work, its heaving all thru the weekend. Its difficult to get a table in here and often the empty ones have 'reserved' on them, so you can book if you really want to.

Shocking

What a dump The Garrick is. It's a typical 'closest pub to the office establishment'. The atmosphere is only created by most of the employees of a certain nearby radio group who outnumber all other customers most nights. The drinks aren't great, service can be slow and clumsy. The toilets are a disgrace, their only claim to fame being the place where Richard Bacon once received a beating from a couple of blokes. I think they should bring back smoking in pubs, if only to improve the air quality and general ambience in this distinctly lacking hostelry.

Not great

I wouldnt call this place great, unless you are a student and dont notice the unusual smell. Its a bit tired now and only really attracts those that work near by. The wine here is quite expensive, over 4quid a glass.

Perfection. In a pub. And pint. And other words beginning P.

'The Garrick' pub reminds me somewhat of a lazy sexual encounter with a loved one on a sunny Sunday morning: laid-back, familiar, musty.

I have frequented this dear boozer only two or three hundred times over the last four years, and each time I have left feeling pleasingly soiled.

Amidst a soundtrack of banging Euro-techcore on a Friday night, some of the brightest media minds converge to create an ambience that is unrivalled in the area. There's nothing like a pub that generates great discourse and banter from within its very core. And 'The Garrick' is nothing like said pub.

I ruddy love it. So will you.

The Ghastly Garrick

There's only one reason why I keep going to this pub and that's because it's opposite work. You get a good work crowd in there on Friday nights but the drinks are overpriced and the service isn't the best. It has a traditional boozer feel and great central location but those are the only 2 redeeming features. I haven't tried the food so can't comment on that but Its not somewhere I'd recommend unless you wanted to go somewhere for a quick drink before the theatre next door

Ghastly Garrick!

Well what can I say - This is a public house I frequent at least once a week and for one good reason only - I walk out of work and there it is!

Also known as the Ghastly Garrick, the whole of our company are there most Thursday and Friday nights - good for our company but not so good for the members of public.

Food I have never tried and drinks could be cheaper.

AVOID!

Harumph. It's tourist prices, so stupidly overpriced. It's cramped and the staff are far from friendly.

I've never eaten here, but looking at tourists plates it's your standard, poor quality English pub grub - fish and chips fresh from the freezer.

Throw a stone in any direction and you'll probably hit a better pub. (Actually, you'll probably hurt someone - so don't do that. It's just a figure of speech)

The Local

Ideally placed for after work drinks and not a bad starting point for Friday night adventures.

A mixed bag of work colleagues, theatre goers and tourists mainly populate the bar and as it's an after work haunt it can be pretty packed from 6pm for a few hours...

Some high prices on their more continental draught lagers, but overall a pretty solid public house!

I've only been here once...

...but it was brilliant. The nachos are on another level. The bar staff are incredible, the beer is amazing, sometimes you even get a seat. Just awesome.

If you buy 2 glasses of wine, you get the bottle FREE! They serve pear cider too, which some people enjoy a lot. You may even see the occasional celebrity in there!

Solid Boozer

A good pub, nice atmos - and beer doesn't seem to steep (Leicester Squ, there are no cheap pubs). Do a good selection of bottle beer. Word of warning though, watch out for radio type people spouting off a load of muck - pretending to be somebody's.

After work drinks

If you need a place for an after work drink then this is a great place! Staff are friendly, toilets are always clean and the food is good too! You can even reserve a place for you and your gang of (probably media) friends. Only bad point is the bouncer can get a bit over zelous with his door monitoring.

Love it hate it

Spent many a night here, resting on sticky bar tops, and rubbing against the sweaty Friday night crowd. Although this place is not very glamorous.. it always seems to have the after work crowd in there. Service is a touch on the slow, scary side... but so long as you're with a group, you should have fun.

Well I liked it...

I spent an afternoon drinking in the West End recently and this was far and away the best of the bunch.

I was drinking the Ruddles which at £2.90 I thought was very reasonable considering the pub's location.

I found the staff to be nothing but charming and the clientele also very friendly. The service was also excellent.

OK, the toilets leave a bit to be desired but you are only there for a few seconds to do what needs to be done so what's the problem?

So good was it that I went round another 4 pubs in the locale and eventually came back to the Garrick because it impressed me that much.

I even saw a minor celebrity in there! That "comedian" who looks a bit like a girl. Alec something. Taller in real life!

my work local…what can I say?

I really don’t know why we spend so much time in this pub. Drinks are expensive, staff is usually slow and grumpy, the food isn’t great either. However, I have to admit that I’ve had some great nights in this pub and will probably keep going there for a bit longer as it’s the only rather decent pub around where I work.

Over priced but near

Not the best of places but it is at a good location. Daytime tourist hang but a night time workers cram.

Drinks are by far over priced and the service is not good either. Thursday and Friday nights are especially packed so if you are heading to the bar forget just getting the one, get at least five?!

A wonderful traditional English Pub

This place is a real find. The patrons are a friendly bunch and you might be able to spot a celebrity or two in here on a Friday as I think there's some kind or radio station nearby.

I saw Sue Pollard in there a couple of weeks ago.

The beer is served a couple of degrees warmer than in most pubs which I think makes it easier to drink and the bar staff make sure that you have plenty of time to consider what you want to order by not rushing you the minute you walk to the bar.

"...Or we could just go to The Garrick like we always do?"

Rachael B is pinching my stories! I was the one who was offered fish by someone (nice bit of salmon actually), I was the one who had his ear chewed off about Birmingham City FC for three hours by someone with questionable hygiene (for TWO weeks running), watched a passer-by rummage through a patron's shopping whilst standing outside and witnessed an arrest in the Mens lavatories. Whilst we've established that you are likely to see something entertainingly random in there this is not through the making of the bar itself (or is it?)

The over-bearing smell of urine can actually be of some use as it does serve as a reminder to quickly relieve yourself before you leave (never had a problem being caught short in there). The over-priced Peroni is also handy, as it reminds you to drink something else.

Further gripes include the fact that prior to going there some people manage to start a sentence with "I think I'll reserve a table in The Garrick..." when I would imagine that sort of thing is more pertenent for more prestigious venues. Surely if there's no space to sit or stand you'd just go somewhere else, very frustrating...Too many tourists are in there but then again it is on Charing Cross Road.

In short its like my old Student Union - wasn't in love with the venue itself but went because I knew everyone in there and know there'll be some good chat on the go. It is for that reason I will sadly be one of those whingers from across the street actually in there in 20hrs 54mins time...

My Works' Local

It's overpriced but the measures are big, so it's easy to get drunk. I like their White Zinfandel, it's like drinking squash...not many pubs serve that. They do jugs of Pimms in the summer. A man tried to sell my friend fish in there once, from inside his jacket. Another old vagrant-looking guy one night approached everyone rambling solely about football. You do get random characters wandering in. I guess a pub is made by the people who drink there, and as those are friends from work, its an ok place!!

Lack of Alternative

You wouldn't go here unless you worked across the road! It has to be one of the worse pubs in London. It always takes ages to get served and the wine on offer is horrible. I still go there though so it can't be that bad..

The best closest pub to work...ever!

It's way over priced for what it is, the staff are always in some kind of trance and the music is just awful BUT it's also just across the road from work and no matter how hard I try it's always to much effort to go anywhere else!

Does the job!

Part-Time Drinkers

Don't believe the moaners,

This is surely the best bar in London,

Friendly helpful staff, very fast service, (If you bother to turn up more often than just a Friday evening) handy place to get cash, saves the long walk to cash machine over the road.Top pub food, good banter and attractive outside seating area and certainly not over priced. Only let down but the part time drinkers and moaning wingers who pile in on a Friday night from that large radio station across the road.

If you can't stand the smell then keep away from the toilets or let me smoke my 40 woodbines indoors each night, problem solved !!!!

Not Great

Often smelling of sick, this is located just behind Leicester Square.

There's a wide range of drinks on offer from ale, cider, WKD and really sweet, but nice Rose Wine. They also have Ocean Spray Cranberry in a can which is quite unusual.

Go only through necessity.

Noisy, with nasty toilets

As Nina said, we end up there because it's there - mostly on Friday nights getting very drunkard after a long week. There's no real atmosphere to speak of until our lot turn up and drinks are averagely priced for London.

My biggest gripe? The toilets smell to high heaven and are ridiculously small...

First Class

The Garrick Arms is likely the apotheosis of drinking establishments. Situated conveniently on Charing Cross Road, it attracts a high standard of clientele. Reasonably priced with friendly door staff and an expansive outdoor smoking area, I would wholeheartedly recommend a visit to 'The Garrick'.

Ok work local

This pub is where everyone from my place of work ends up in at 5.30 on a Thursday, Friday and any other day they may feel! Therefore it gets really busy very quickly and can be difficult to navigate round and especially to get served. The drinks are over priced in here and the measures are served as 35ml so if you ask for a double you technically get a triple so beware of the drunks! lol! The pub also reserves tables in here which is very frustrating for the clientele that use this pub every week and cannot get a table. The door man are rude and shout at you for blocking the door. The bar staff are friendly but some smell a little. All in all it's ok to go for drinks after work but that's about it really. Oh and the food is ok, some of the platters are a bit fancy though for pub grub.

It serves drinks...just

This could be a great pub...its not! It is close to servel places to work, which is why it is packed on a friday night. The service is slow the drinks are expensive and the food is poor. The decor is dull and the loos are horrid...mens urine wiffs up the stairs... Stinky!

Why?

This bar takes advantage of being the closest to several places of work!

The drinks are too expensive, food very low quality, and the staff are mostly rather rude (there is a couple of exceptions)

I agree with the other comments, it is just too rammed after work! In desperate need of a makeover.

If something else did open next door, the Garrick would be out of business.

The toilets ming!

It's near and that's why we go

I totally agree with E.P. above. The Garrick is where you end up at 5.30 on a Friday because it's the nearest to your work and for some reason it has turned into the work local.

Staff are reasonably friendly but try sitting on a reserved table and they turn into vultures.

The cheesy chips are the way forward after a few glasses of overpriced Peroni though.

Over priced, poor service, cramped etc

What a shame we've got this as our work local. The service is less than friendly, the beer is too expensive and it get's rammed too quickly due to a poor layout. I can't believe our staff give this place so much money every week. If another place opened up next door, this place would go out of business.

Good after work drinking

The Garrick is good for after work drinking, although i have to admit i'm yet to try the food! Worth giving it a try if you work in the local area.