please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
This used to be my local ten years ago, and i was stunned to find recently that it no longer sells draught ales, only the nitro variety. For a Sam Smiths pub this is incredible.
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This pub is very cheap... and there's a good reason why. Dark, dingy and the beer is flat and flavourless, plus more than two pints of the Alpine and all but the strongest stomachs will be feeling sick. (Trust me, I know!) If you feel like a quiet game of darts, avoid on a Thursday when it has become inexplicably busy in the evenings, and stick to the traditional lemonades.
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many fond memories of drinking in here with john dryden (not the dead poet). front bar has an open fire, and beer is cheap. back bar much bigger and there's an upstairs dining area, too.
a decent little pub.
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Thought this was a great pub, just a little too busy in the evenings for my liking, great(cheap) beer, nice atmosphere, friendly crowd and helpful staff,(i needed a little help with the strange choice of brews), i'll definately be back, especially after the smoking ban comes into effect!!!
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Anyone who has drunk in any number of Sam Smiths pubs will know the drill - Alpine lager, dark brown wood, lack of natural sunlight, etc. However this place sets itself apart from a number of the other ones in the area for the following simple reason.
Picture the scene (sorry - this is strictly for the guys here). It's Christmas on Oxford Street. You've been trawling the shops for an hour trying to find your dearly beloved the dress/shoes/handbag she asked for but it's not in this shop. Or that shop. Oh look - there's one that looks a bit like it.... and it's 20 quid cheaper.....but it's 'not quite the one'.
Will she notice? 90% probability she will. She'll notice the fact it doesn't have tassles on the handle.
Too much pressure in one go. Do you buy, or not buy? If she notices, you will be branded a failure and be castigated until you either buy her something even more expensive, or you get dumped. If she doesn't notice - you'll always be worrying when she looks in shop windows that she'll see it there and know it wasn't the right one. You need a beer fast.
The Red Lion to me represents an oasis from this situation, a saviour of sanity. Firstly, it is quiet. Deathly quiet on Saturday afternoons. Funeral parlours have more activity. Secondly, and as mentioned before, the poor staff here have a lack of natural light and look worryingly cheerful considering their cavernous surroundings. Perhaps its the lack of customers 'Hey it's a real person like they showed us in Sam Smiths Training'. Anyway, it makes getting a beer a cinch.
With pint, you can take the weight of your decision off your mind, ignore the third call from your partner demanding to know where you are, and generally enjoy Saturday afternoon with a little less stress, while you contemplate what to do with the rest of the day....probably not much shopping though....
And that is why it is the best Sam Smiths in London
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Was in here recently for a pint or two. Old Brewery is keg in this one. Strong sewer smell in the front bar which I was told was from outside but seemed to drift though to th rear bar later on.Maybe I was unlucky on the day I went.
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Typical Sam Smith's decor and beer, but even so, it's one of my favourites, if not the favourite of Sam's Soho pubs. As Mike D mentioned, the placement of the dartboard is ill-advised - as if the landlord thought "where's the worst place I can put this thing" - but a dartboard ANYWHERE in a Soho pub these days is a good thing.
Always a great place after being dragged out shopping. The pub is tardis-like, in that all you can see from the outside is a tiny front bar and narrow passageway, but the back bar is very large, and the upstairs enormous. You're almost always guaranteed to get a seat somewhere in this pub. I love the fact that the main bar is tucked away in the back with no windows, so you can completely ignore the hustle-and-bustle of Soho after a long day's elbowing along Oxford Street.
One gripe - This place needs to get some sort of dress code in place for its staff. Watching the staff stroll past each other behind the bar is like watching a catwalk show for Madhouse. Cheap t-shirts, oversized jeans showing more crack than a televised search of Whitney Houston's house. One of them I think only owns the one t-shirt. The cynic in me thinks there's no dress code because then Sam Smith's might have to shell out some coin for a uniform, but I could have sworn other SS pubs have some sort of standard outfit (ie. branded T and apron).
Any, presuming you can avert your eyes when ordering, a fine, relaxing pub to collect your thoughts in while deciding where to go next.
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It has a dart board! Next to the bar! DUCK!
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It's a minty fresh pub with cheap unspecified booze and plenty of seating room and usually some men with moustaches in there as well as myself which makes it all thoroughly splendid.
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Central location (five minutes walk from Oxford Circus and round the corner from Carnaby Street). Samuel Smiths beers, which I like. Back bar (with dart board) can be quite noisy. Front bar is quieter. I liked it.
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I used to work at this pub and i agree with whasky the landlady is an overobsesive bitch. She gets upset pretty easily.
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This bar is a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street. Tucked down a back street and off the beaten path it offers a refuge, and in winter a warm roaring fire! Cheap pints a great atmosphere and a clientele as varied as they are friendly.
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Nice pub, cheap Sam Smiths beers and handy if you fancy a game of 'arrers too!
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I have been drinking in this pub since 1986. the price of a pint of Sam Smiths was £1-36. It is now only £1-68! great pub
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Didn't see the landlady on my recent visit as it was fairly quiet and there was only a youngish bloke on duty who was pleasant enough. Paid £10.06 for four pints of stout and a pint of Sovereign which would be unlikely in Bournemouth where I live (Not that we have the good fortune to have any Sam Smiths pubs in our area) but is astonishing for Central London. Can't beat that and would have stayed much longer but for my mates who wanted to continue our oub crawl.
anonymous - 20 Jul 2005 21:27 |
As you can see by my comments below, I have been drinking here for while now. Unfortunatley I won't be now, as a new couple have taken over and they seem to dislike their customers. I asked for a noisy fan to be switched off and the landlady said no. She then came over to us five minutes later and asked us to leave! And this is at lunchtime when we have popped in for a quiet lunchtime pint, and the pub was empty. What an over-reaction.
I have spoken to other people who drink here who have said they have seen similar incidents, of the landlady being extremely short with patrons. I hope they leave soon so I can start drinking here again. In the meantime there are lots of other lovely Sam Smith's pubs in the vicinity!
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Very nice pub, with good interior. Some of the cheapest Ale you'll find in Central London. Also very friendly staff and manager, who were more than welcoming, even though we were a bunch of scruffy students and quite different from their normal clientele.
anonymous - 22 Nov 2004 18:02 |
Handy old-fashioned pub with the lethal Sam Smith drinks as standard. Just don't sit upstairs in the corner chainsmoking, as it's banned til they stop doing food. Not-one told me. I was too drunk to see the signs when I staggered up there.
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This is one of my lunch time locals, round the corner from my office.
Good old Sam Smith's pub, very dark brown wood pannelled interior, with a light and roomy restaurant upstairs.
Friendly staff and good cheap Sam Smiths beer brewed by one of the few small brewery chains that have pubs in London.
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