Ordering at the bar
What it really means
In most pubs there is no table service: you go to the bar, order drinks and food, pay straight away, and give your table number for food. There is no formal queue — the bar staff notice who arrived first, so just wait your turn.
Context, tips & common mistakes
The pub food sequence inverts restaurant logic and catches every newcomer once: claim a table first, note the table number (on a sign or the table edge), then order and pay at the bar quoting it — food is brought to you, drinks you carry back yourself. Nobody comes to take your order at a traditional pub table, and waiting hopefully at one is the classic tourist tableau. Chain pubs increasingly offer app ordering from the table, which does the same thing on your phone.
Kitchen hours are shorter than pub hours: food often stops mid-afternoon and again by early evening in quieter pubs — check the 'food served' times before settling in. At the bar itself there is no queue but everyone knows the order; catch the bartender's eye, never wave money or click fingers, and tipping is not expected.