Coombe Lodge, a Wetherspoons pub on Coombe Road in Croydon, has been ranked as the second-worst rated outlet in the entire UK chain, according to a new study of nearly two million Google reviews. The pub scored an average of just 3.12 stars from 381 reviews, placing it 792nd out of 793 Wetherspoons venues included in the analysis.
Customer complaints focus on waits and food quality
The study, conducted by mobile bar hire company Spin and Shake, found that long waits were the most common complaint among customers who left comments. Of the 89 one-star reviews containing comments that were analysed, 54 complained about long waits, 32 criticised cold or poor food, and 27 mentioned drinks being slow, incorrect, or never arriving.
One customer, who left a one-star review in September, wrote: “Ok if you just want beer but food is terrible.” Another reviewer claimed in August: “The food took over an hour to turn up and despite lodging a formal complaint on the spoon's website nothing has come of it.”
Only one pub ranks lower nationally
Coombe Lodge opened in December 2025 in the former Beefeater restaurant on Coombe Road. The only Wetherspoons to rank lower in the study was The Emersons Green in Bristol, which averaged 2.79 stars from 313 reviews.
Croydon was not the only London location near the bottom of the table. The Stargazer, inside The O2 in Greenwich, was ranked eighth-worst, scoring an average of 3.61 stars from 513 reviews.
London also tops the national chart
However, London also took the top two spots in the 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 with an average of 4.44 from 481 reviews.
Spin and Shake said it analysed Google Maps listings for Wetherspoons across the UK earlier this month, including Lloyds No.1 bars, hotels, and pubs in locations such as airports and railway stations. A total of 793 venues which were open and had at least 100 reviews were ranked, covering 1,956,362 reviews. The company calculated each pub's exact average from the number of one, two, three, four and five-star reviews, rather than relying on the rounded rating displayed by Google. Across all pubs included in the study, the average rating was 4.04 stars.
Spin and Shake director comments on results
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.”
