The Tin Goose

The Tin Goose is not as dedicated to the presentation of real ales as the Wetherspoon pubs (including the Heathrow branches). After last and this year's visits of the Campaign for Real Ale's Great British Beer Festival in early August, the Goose's tasting tray offer (three third-pint glasses with English cask ales) sounded tempting to me. But they never had enough appropriate draught beers available. Last year, they served me two glasses of the same ale; this year they threw in Irish Guinness. The waiter told me that this is a permanent problem which won't get fixed until October (when they will make changes to the pub, as far as I remember). Instead of offering something they can't provide they should remove the tasting tray offer altogether ...

Good food for an airport spot. 3.5 stars

Food: 3, Atmosphere: 4, Service: 3
Cost to worth it rating: 3.5
Return worthiness: yes

Highlights:
- Chicken pie: we actually liked this one better than other legit pies in town
- Bacon and egg sandwich: English bacon so more like ham but a lot of it folded on top of each other. Salty without overdoing it, loved the egg, and good solid toast.
- Doesn't take too long: especially if you choose the faster items with the clock icon next to them
- View: right by where all of the planes are parked by the gate
- Great selection of juices: from orange to pineapple. And served with ice which my friend likes and I decided I do now too.

Midlights
- Service: can be hard to get their attention even if they're right by you.

Lowlights
- Fish and chips: tasted reheated and not too crispy or flavorful

Impressed given its location. I've already been back twice and probably will be again.

I only went here because there was a really big queue at Giraffe. Now I know why. The atmosphere is good, the server was nice, but the food was a massive disappointment.

I had the "HOT" (quotes and emphasis is theirs) smoked salmon sandwich with chilli lime mayonnaise. Lets be clear. It was a bit of salmon salad (I.e. mushed pulpy salmony stuff) on a roll with some lettuce. This looks like how subway scoops their "tuna" with an ice cream scoop and plops it on a roll. There was no chilli hotness to be found or even seen. There was no chilli lime mayo to be seen either. The roll was completely devoid of any spread of any kind. I'll post a photo from my phone. When I mentioned it to my waitress she said it was all mixed in together and this is how it is supposed to be. She was willing to either replace it or take it back and not charge me for it. Frankly, given how much time I had, I preferred to just eat it. And if I eat it, I am OK paying for it. If I had more time, I would have sent it back.

Next time, I will wait for giraffe.

One of a chain of bars with different names around London (nearly 20!) and one of 3 from the same chain in Heathrow (one in T1 - this one, one in T3 - "The 3 Bells" and one in T5 -"The 5 Tun") from the Geronimo chain.


Looks well, but like so many other pubs, bars and such places in the UK they have a problem with invisible and vanishing staff. Waited and waited for somebody to show us to our seats before we just seated ourselves.


Menus soon arrived thankfully and I was surprised that I didn't have to sell an organ to pay for it.


Ordered and food did take a while (hopefully a sign of fresh cooking....), 4 of us with me getting the curry (very nice), another getting fish and chips (a little greasy), another getting the prawn dish (Heathrow is far from any shoreline so Aldi or Lidi mini prawns seem to have been used, sliced brown pan bread also used in the dish with the crusts removed..?) and our other colleague ordered a chicken and bacon sandwich.


We nearly had all our main courses eaten before the quickest to prepare dish (the sandwich) arrived!! Looked very nice and full and served on a wooden platter. Pity he was rushed to finish it.


Then the hunt for a staff member to pay the bill was on. It was like a shooting party for the Dodo bird. In the end we corned one of them and just handed them cash as strangely enough we had a plane to catch!!! Interesting as it's situated in an airport.


Not a bad place overall just give you self plenty of time and make very fast friends with a staff member.

This is a decent place to kill time before a flight. I only spent an hour or so here, and just had a pint so I can't give too much detail.

I wouldn't say my experience was a bad one; I was just about to go on holiday and I had a delicious pint of ale in my hand, what's not to love? So why the 2 star review? Well, the pint cost over £4, the place was weirdly draughty and the bloke that served me at the bar was a little rude. I'm also big on real ale and only had the one beer to choose from. Poor show.

I'd still come here again, it does the job. But I couldn't recommend it.

Located in Terminal 1.

Specify how you'd like your burger cooked or you'll be served with a hockey puck." - Quick Tip written while peering over my grayish/black hunk of meat.

Unless you want it super well done, make a note to tell your server.

Now, The Tin Goose is certainly a decent option if you'd like to kill a few hours or minutes getting some grub or a few drinks in ya before a long (or short?) flight. I had about an hour before departing to the States and decided a real meal was in order. I saddled up (quite busy due to the holidays!) at a two-top and ordered a burger, with a sunnyside egg, Diet Coke and a water. All the necessities.

What first appeared looked quite fantastic, a big juicy egg, fluffy bun, pickles, fresh lettuce, tomato. But, unfortunately...when you pull away the fixings and the inside is dry...well, you know. Just AOK. I ditched the bun (so overwhelmingly big compared to the burger) and had a nice egg/burger concoction that suited me just fine. I was full, that's about all one can ask for.

The price tag was the real kicker: for the Diet Coke and burger: almost 20 quid. Pretty pricey for what it was, then again...the service was good and their menu will tell you which items come out the fastest, so I probably should've known what that meant for my burger.

Pro-tip: layover or delayed? Grab one of the couches by the TV and a few glasses of wine.

The decor was cozy, but the food just doesn't stack up, especially for the price they were charging. We ordered burger medium rare and got it super well done. The quality of the meat was also not that great. Fries lacked seasoning. Overall just a big disappointment.

Also they do not allow patrons to connect to their wireless network, claiming that Heathrow blocks it... riiiiggghhhtttt.

There are many other eateries in Heathrow (the Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar for example). Don't think we'll be returning here again.

This has become a ritual at the end of a regular 2/3 day stint in London, I try to get to LHR a bit early and stop at the Tin Goose for a burger and a pint of Stella before the long walk to gate 82. It is perfect comfort food and, despite the fact that it's in a very busy airport terminal, it doesn't have the usual rushed feel as other places in the airport. Only complaint is the blunt knife which wouldn't cut butter, much less a burger, but that's more down to 'external forces' than the management of the restaurant. I reckon I've been here 10 times in 6 months for the same meal and I'll probably keep coming back as often as I can. It's not 'fine dining' but, then again, that's not the deal. Good honest food, well presented and served with a smile.

I was so devastated that my colleague and I did not discover this bar earlier on our most recent trip through Heathrow - instead we wasted a large amount of time trying to get served at Bridge Bar, which was slightly closer to our gate. By the time we angrily stormed out of there and made it to Tin Goose we only had about 30 minutes left before boarding time. Damn! I would have spent the whole 5 hour layover in there if I could.

What is great about this place? I love just having a laid back area to drink and watch TV when I am in an airport and this place is perfect for that. They have a very good beer selection, an ambiant and pleasant atmosphere and very friendly service. I loved our bartender - he was nice and attentive and made sure to get us out of there quickly once we had to go to our gate. I only had time for one beer - the Wobbleknocker or something and it was delicious and reasonably priced for an airport bar. There is a flatscreen in the back and to the side is a huge window to watch the planes. It is fun to watch the planes circle around for a landing off in the distance and then they touch down somewhat close to you. They have seats facing the window so you can just sit back with a beer and watch the planes. Great!

I can't say much about the food because I didn't try any. The menu looked like classic British dishes and there were definitely items on there that would interest me if I were hungry. But I just wanted some beer!

Skip all those other places in the earlier section of the shopping center and come back to Tin Goose. It isn't as crowded and it is an awesome place to sit back and have a quality beer and watch either TV, planes or the departure board. Your choice.

I'm not a big fan of heathrow because of how busy it is but the Tin Goose makes up for it. I have been there a few times and food is always good (no more) and proper British cask ale is always available.
The full English breakfast is always great and if you combine that with a couple of breakfast pints, you can't go wrong.