Riley's IQ (Bar)

“Working in a Soho office with a fairly competitive set of pool playing fanatics, ad-hoc pool tournaments tend to figure highly in our social life. Finding a decent venue in Central London, however, is far from easy. After many very disappointing jaunts to Namco Station (terrible tables, lacklustre service and erratic kitchens), we finally decided to try Riley's on a friend's recommendation, even though it is all the way over past Victoria. After the first trip, we've vowed never to go anywhere else again. The tables are pretty good and cheap in bulk (£5 for a token that keeps the balls coming out for 40 minutes). The food is not cheap, but it's good (5-7 quid for a perfect and tasty burger), and the menu is appropriate in scope to the style and objective of venue. The drinks are of a fairly standard range and kept well with discounts again for bulk (4 pint pitcher of cooking lager at £8.50). While these points are important, they are only asides compared to what they do best. The quality of service is utterly fantastic, every time exceeding your expectations. They will cheerfully do table service, often coming to check if everything is going well and if you want anything, but in a non-obtrusive manner. My favourite moment so far was the realisation that after we had ordered another inexpensive jug of beer with full pints in hand, they waited with exquisite timing until our glasses were almost empty before bringing over a nice new juicy looking cool one - the”
Atmosphere: Value: Quality:
Allix Harrison-D'Arcy, London (12 years 11 months 6 days ago)

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