Kings Arms

One of the best pubs around. They serve the best ales and the food is amazing. As every good thing the place has a bad side too. It is always packed and too noisy for a quality conversation. I don't like it when there are too much people around me when I eat so maybe I wouldn't be a regular here.

Wow, what a gem of a pub.  It's not on your typical foot path from Southwark.  Cosy upfront, but if you look in the window and it looks to busy for you, there's a huge hidden room in the back for drinking and dining.

Was pleasantly surprised by it.  Great mixture of crowd from more artsy/indie types to business people. 

Really friendly bar staff as well.

Very, very lovely pub. They now have EIGHT ales on tap and still a large selection of Lagers & Ciders on draught too including draught Singha which is my all-time favourite lager! Thai beef chilli is amazing but has a pretty hefty spice kick to it so be warned. New manager in there really knows his beers & wines and is happy to discuss the various ones on offer when he gets a breather from serving! This pub gets very busy so arrive in good time to bag a good spot. Also great for celeb spotting, I’ve seen loads of England cricket & rugby players in there & also Helen Mirren so keep your eves peeled when visiting, who knows who you might be at the bar next to!

not your typical railway pub, very cosy inside with friendly staff who dont tend to keep you waiting very long and the food is also good which is hard find in pubs now days

This pub is on the whole fine, but I can’t believe none of the previous reviewers have mentioned the drains. I would say I must have been in here 100 times in the last six years. Just around the corner from where I work and i catch the train home from Waterloo nearby. But I would say that on one in four occasions the drains stink the back area out. Not nice if you have ordered food. Also at least the have stopped with the practice of reserving all the tables in the back area for those they claim will be eating soon. Although strangely if you sit there and then say you will have something to eat you can stay and the reserve sign is whisked away.

This pub is a victim of its own success. Set in quite a charming back street somewhere between Waterloo and Southwark, serving a handful of real ales and with a lovely room at the back where they serve nice smelling Thai food….this place could be a real find.

If so many people hadn’t found it already! As soon as I arrived I couldn’t wait to leave. It was only a regular weekday but every single nook and cranny was filled by someone supping and when it started to rain and the groups of people who had been gathered outside started to pour in it I felt like I was in the bunny warren at Watership Down as every hole and tunnel was filled by dirt:

Smokers came. Filled in the doors. Couldn’t get out. There was a strange sound. Glass breaking. The air turned bad. Doors blocked with beer bellies. I couldn’t get out. Everything turned mad. Pub, beers, bottles, chairs, all pushed into the floor.

I do love going for a post-work pint at this pub. It gets busy, but very rarely overly so, and the beers are good. The area is great too, although some proper bike parking would be greatly appreciated.

I am giving this 3 stars because of the service by one barman when I was last here. The restaurant staff are fantastic, but the barman with the bald head and beard was rude to me and someone else who was there with me. I asked if they had any measures between a half pint and a full pint (which pubs are being encouraged to offer, and many do) and all I got was a stare, a rolling of the eyes and a huge sigh. "No!", he exclaimed in a tone as if to suggest I was causing him real problems and that the question was stupid and insulting. I got nothing but a demand for cash and absolutely no semblance of appreciation that I was buying a drink in his pub and contributing towards his wage packet. My confused "OK" to his attitude towards my initial question was lost on him. Then when someone he knew came in he was all sweetness and light. This put a real dampener on the whole experience. So thanks, mate. It turned out his attitude was also pretty shoddy with my companion when he had ordered a packet of crisps.

Amazing pub, mainly for its natural old school chic: it's like a normal boozer from back in the day, to the extent that even the telly is small and perched high on a shelf so it's nigh on impossible to suss what's happening when you watch the sport; just like the good old days.

The (gas-fuelled) open fire adds a cosy winter feel to one of the bars and the walls are adorned with all manner of items to keep you entertained if the people you're with are boring. Even as someone that doesn't really drink I was excited about the range of real ales and the port quaffing that followed later in the night.

And finally, they had Tayto crisps just like I used to scoff in Ireland as a young fella. Tucked away on a charming little Waterloo side street, this was nostalgia central for yours truly.

I spotted Kat Brown tweeting about the drip tray incident and felt compelled to post here too. I also saw this happen back in June this year. I decided not to say anything as I couldn't believe I hadn't somehow got the wrong end of the stick. But I made sure to watch my pints very carefully as they were poured from then on.
Apart from that: nice food, nice space though busy with a poorly located bar area, and sullen barstaff.

Is it legal to top up pints you are in the process of pouring from the drip tray? Not that you ever would, I imagine, as that’s clearly disgusting. But it’s probably something you should find out as it will most likely happen to you at The Kings Arms.

My boyfriend and his friend popped into the Kings – always so busy that the pavement is a defacto extra bar area – on Saturday for a pint. They were were shocked to see the barman, a bald man with a moustache, pouring a woman her pint, and making up a quarter of the glass from the drip tray while she couldn’t see.

I don’t mean that she complained about the size of the head on her pint and he topped it up, I mean he MADE UP what should have been a fresh pint from the tap, from the tray underneath the pump.

Have you ever poured a pint yourself? Well, if you have, you’ll know that the slop in the tray doesn’t just consist of beer. It consists of bacteria, crisp shavings, and whatever else it on your fingers, because in order to get into the tray, chances are it will overflow from the glass and run down the hands of the person pouring it.

I don’t know if this is illegal or not, and my boyfriend – a technophobe who asked me to write this review on his behalf – certainly got an earful from the barman for angrily picking up on the fact he was doing it at all. They had a look for the licensee’s name above the door to find someone to talk to about the fact that this was happening, but no name, so presumably it’s owned by a chain who won’t care anyway.

What I find particularly staggering is that this isn’t happening in some scummy area of town. It’s in Roupell Street, where a two-bedroom house will set you back a cool £900k.

I had a very pleasant gin and tonic and crisp evening in the Kings Arms the last time I went. I won’t be back to repeat it, and if you go for a pint, make sure to keep an eye on that bald barman and what’s happening to your glass. A pox on such poor behaviour, and not just the one all over the drip tray.

I worked around the corner from here when I first arrived in London - was one of 8 girls on a sales floor of about 40 guys so spent almost every week night in here without ever having to buy a drink - a fab introduction to the city! The food is gorgeous, and fast service at lunchtime, a great mix of suits and locals, looks teeny from the outside, but has a huge conservatory with an open fire, but it gets pretty packed but manages to add to the charm. Very very fond of this pub and don't visit it half as much as I should now I moved jobs!

A gem of a pub moments from Waterloo. Make sure you're armed with Qype Radar/Google Maps on your phone, this pub is pretty darn hard to find!

Plenty of ales on tap and this is the kind of place that serves beer in jugs (which i love!). A good selection of crisps and nuts behind the bar, but unfortunately i was too late to try the Thai food. Some might call the Kings Arms an old man pub, but you'd be surprised how many youngsters are attracted to this place on a Friday night and it was pretty heaving by 9.30pm.

Smokers beware - Staff will usher you to a small alleyway to the rear of the pub for your crafty smoke. I'm not entirely sure why, but those are the rules!

Decent London boozer in the pleasant Shepherds Market area. It has a reputation so it does get extremely busy for post-work drinks on either Thursday or Friday night, busting out into the streets on a sunny day. In an area which isn’t blessed with too many good pubs this is one venue of choice, a rest from all the expensive but ultimately disappointing hotel bars. Fine ales on tap and food is edible enough

A walk down Roupell Street alone is worth it. It is one of these rare streets which don’t seem to have changed in the last 100 years. And the main bar at the Kings Arms fits in well. It stocks a good selection of beers (both lager and bitter) as well as wine. Mind you on our visit last Friday, all four bitters and one of the lagers was off - the place was heaving, so lots of disappointed customers.
The main attraction of the Kings Arms, however, seems to be the Thai kitchen in an extension at the back. It’s not the best Thai food, and not exactly a novelty anymore, but definitely still one of the better quick nosh options in the area.
Food orders can be paid for in cash only, but they do cash-back in the pub, so everyone’s happy.

This pub is fabulous. I love it here. It’s packed on a Friday, but you can somehow still find a corner to sneak into. You can understand why it’s so busy as well.

The Thai food is fantastic here. Though when you’re told that something on the menu is hot, pay attention. It really is. Great portions for about £7. Worth every penny.

The pub itself is pretty nice. Good enough ale to keep the old fashioned of your group happy. But they also serve really great red wine as well which I’ll be trying again next time I’m in here.

It’s tucked away in Waterloo and it’s not the easiest place to find. But when you do it’s like a little Dickensian picture postcard. It’s on one of the only streets not the bombed in the war so it’s gorgeous. That’s why Dr Who is filmed here lots. It’s a shame we’ve never been here when David Tennant has popped in for a swift half, but that’s just another reason to come back.

I rate this a 3 star only because I don't think it had done anything extraordinary to set itself apart.

The service has been fine when grabbing a pint. I'm not sure I understand the craze for thai food at London Pubs. As a foreigner, I wouldn't mind a little nostalgia of London Pub Food.

This pub does has quite a large back room which works very nice for a group. If you visit during the daytime you will enjoy the light washing through the skylight ceiling (conservatory). It is a welcome surprise the the many dark settings you will find within London Pubs.

As mentioned the menu is mainly Thai food with a few typical pub starters. The green curry was quite good.

This pub is a godsend for homesick Irishmen, THEY STOCK TAYTO! For the poor old english among you, this is the King of Crisps, forget Walkers, Tayto are the Dogs... you know what I mean. That is one reason why you should come to the Kings Arms Waterloo, and frankly I don't see why you should need any more. But it does have it's other plus points.

Firstly the massive conservatory out the back, where they serve excellent Thai food, not what I was expecting at first viewing, it's more than the traditional english pub it looks from the outside. It's also a good vibrant pub, always buzzing, always doing a good trade, it's a perfect place for an afternoon pint and a good old laugh and a chinwag, over a pint and a bag of tayto.

Hidden away behind the noise of Waterloo is a secret pub. Ok, it;s not that secret, as it is popular and almost always busy, but it doesn't feel like your typical railway pub.

The Kings Arms is on the old Victorian-looking Roupell St, (famed for its use in Doctor Who and many period films), and is a small traditional looking pub. One of its greatest features is its inconspicuous look, as in the back they have a huge conservatory filled with large wooden tables where you can order Thai food, or snuggle up around the fireplace.

The front of the pub is more conservative, but very cosy, with a round bar and 2 sections. The staff are very pleasant and helpful, and for a pub this busy at 5pm, they are very quick to serve people.

This pub should also be noted for its awesome range of snacks including Tayter crisps, which I'm reliably informed are hard to come by outside of Ireland; and Scampi Fries, which are currently experiencing a resurge in popularity.