It’s been well over six years since the Three Kings Pub in Mitcham closed down. Now it’s been taken over and turned in to an all you can eat Chinese Buffet restaurant. I take a brave step back into my child hood to see how far this business has come.
I have to admit, I have never been in to the three kings pub my self but the stories that my parents told me about it as a kid made it seem magical. To this day I still picture the beautiful, Tudor building as something wonderful and magnificent, something a princess would be proud of.
However, upon first arrival on 14th November, its magic seemed lost amongst flashing Christmas lights. Inside the pub feel is still there, but its emptiness is all to present. There is no atmosphere and the squashed in tables and chairs seem to make the place feel so much smaller. Barely audible music played overhead and it wasn’t much help for atmosphere.
We are shown to our seats by one of apparently only two staff that appears to be working that night (excluding the chef). Instead of velvet table cloths, we are met by horrible, cheap paper table cloths. Rather disappointing and hardly welcoming. Drinks are ordered but we are again faced with disappointment by non existing J2O (though it’s listed in the menu) and diluted coke, each costing £2.20.
Soon afterwards, we start digging into the buffet which is around £8 per head. However I am soon met by cold, undercooked rice and carrots. Deeply disappointing, but is caught up by perfectly seasoned dried seaweed that I couldn’t help grabbing extras of, and juicy mushrooms and succulent king prawns that had a nice spicy kick to them. Noodles had no taste to them but the sauces were fantastically nice. After much deliberation with my self I decided to go for some onion rings (which are my favourite thing in the world) but was quickly put off after just one bite. The batter was doughy and undercooked and clashed horribly with the raw onion. After that I swore that I wouldn’t take another bite and quickly pushed it to the side of the plate.
Organisation was no better as dishes weren’t labelled on the buffet cart and no allergy information was provided. Being a vegetarian I had to tread carefully and ask my boyfriend to taste each one to check for meat. As for desert, that was completely non existent and only consisted of a few pieces of fruit, fine for a health fanatic and again, deeply disappointing for a sweet tooth.
It was generally a boring night; in fact the most exciting part was watching five fire engines fill up their tanks at the pond outside.
Overall, I’d give it a 3/10. Generally nice food but was let down by service, undercooked and cold food, bad organisation and letting such a beautiful and magnificent building be abused like this.
