Wattenden Arms - Croydon

Nice and friendly, food nice. Remote location with 3 hrs only free parking if using the pub seems odd given location and dog friendly pub.

Warm, friendly with a great ambience. A proper pub! The team are welcoming and more than helpful!

My partner and I visited on Friday lunchtime, for the first and last time. We 're not from the area and had traveled 3 hours to see our young nephew for Christmas. I had booked a table the day before via telephone and explained to the man who took our call that we had two small terriers. Upon arrival we were not greeted by either of the two young women stood behind the bar; we didn 't even get a smile. This was a very different response to the friendly and helpful telephone call with the man I spoke to the previous afternoon. I let them know about our reservation to which one said, 'I didn 't know about your dogs '. We were pointed to a table and told to order at the bar; we had to ask for menus and then ask again for a children 's menu. As a vegetarian, there weren 't the most options and at 36 weeks pregnant I just wanted something light. My partner went to order me the mozzarella, tomato and avocado sandwich to be told first there was no avo, then no mozzarella and finally none of the focaccia. We asked for a vegan cheese substitute as mentioned on their menu and what arrived was a cheese and tomato on white bread. The cheese was like a white crumbled feta consistency and completely tasteless. My nephew was upset by the lettuce and ketchup added to his burger which wasn 't mentioned on the menu. We scraped that out and he enjoyed his food. My partner rated his steak sandwich too, so they were happy. I treated myself to a dessert, as lunch was so disappointing and just wish I hadn 't bothered. The chocolate creme brulee fondant topped with strawberries and chocolate brownie chunks is not what arrived. The chocolate is just a cold custard, not fondant, the strawberries were less than one quartered and just on the side of the plate, and the brownie was 3 tiny pieces of diced millionaire shortbread. Despite the discrepancies with both dishes, we were still expected to pay the price on the menu, which seems pretty cheeky when it 's not what you 're getting. The pub became very busy, with a lot of dogs and there was a very near miss between two, right next to our table which was distressing. We overheard after ordering that they were not taking orders for 20 minutes, to allow the kitchen to catch up, which I 've never experienced anywhere before. Had our nephew not been with us, we 'd have left at the point of ordering, but we persevered for his sake and didn 't want to make a scene. I was also exhausted. My partner enjoyed his food, but mine was very disappointing, and the atmosphere and service was terrible. One of the women staff was bordering hostile and spent a lot of time on her phone behind the bar. We were initially excited to find another dog friendly pub with a kids menu that we could go to when visiting our nephew, but after our experience, we will not be going back.

I had a wonderful experience at this charming pub. The staff were professional and friendly, the establishment was clean, the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was lovely.

I only stayed for a few hours, but it was a charming and welcoming pub.