The Stargazer pub at The O2 in Greenwich has been ranked as the eighth-worst Wetherspoons in the UK, according to a study analysing almost two million Google reviews.
The pub scored an average of 3.61 stars from 513 reviews, placing it among the bottom 10 of the 793 Wetherspoons included in the ranking. Researchers looked at a sample of the pub's one-star reviews, with rude or unhelpful staff the most common complaint.
Customer complaints about staff and cutlery
Of 45 one-star reviews containing comments analysed by mobile bar hire company Spin and Shake, 16 criticised staff. One customer, who left a one-star review in February, wrote: “The cutlery is absolutely manky here.”
Another complained in May: “No straws despite having hours to close and also much more expensive than any other spoons for whatever reason.” A July reviewer also complained about their drink, claiming: “Ordered a drink and it was more ice than drink.”
London's best and worst Wetherspoons
The Stargazer was one of two London Wetherspoons to feature among the 10 lowest-rated pubs in the study. Coombe Lodge in Croydon was ranked the second-worst in the UK, with an average of 3.12 stars from 381 reviews.
However, London also took the top two spots in the national ranking. Walham Green in Fulham was named the UK's highest-rated Wetherspoons, with an average of 4.60 stars from 474 reviews. The Sir Alexander Fleming in Paddington came second, averaging 4.44 stars from 481 reviews. The Moon Under Water in Hounslow also made the top 10, coming eighth with a rating of 4.35 from 2,368 reviews.
Study methodology and impact
Overall, 92 London Wetherspoons featured in the ranking, averaging 4.08 stars compared with the UK average of 4.04. Spin and Shake said it pulled the Google Maps listing for every Wetherspoons in the UK on October 2, including Lloyds No.1 bars, hotels and pubs in airports, railway stations and holiday parks.
It ranked 793 pubs which were open and had received at least 100 reviews, covering a total of 1,956,362 reviews. Instead of using the rounded ratings displayed on Google, the company calculated an exact average using each pub's number of one, two, three, four and five-star reviews. Where two pubs had the same average, the pub with the larger proportion of one-star reviews was ranked lower.
Bryan Levato, director of Spin and Shake, said: “Wetherspoons is about as consistent as a pub chain gets, with the same menu, the same prices and the same app wherever you go, so you'd expect the reviews to look much the same too, but they really don't. When a new pub opens in a great building and the team behind the bar gets the basics right from the first week, people can't say enough about it.”
“Anyone who has worked behind a bar knows the first few months are the hardest, and when people are kept waiting or the food turns up cold in those early weeks, the reviews stick, because a pub with a couple of hundred reviews takes a long time to climb back. Google is usually the first thing people check when they're deciding where to go for a drink, so those stars really matter, and nothing earns them faster than a friendly welcome and a drink in your hand without a long wait.”
