please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Still reamins one of the best pubs in SW1 for range and quality of real ales. Prices are not that expensive for central London. The themed weeks (or longer) are a great success and long may Dennis and his bar staff continue to provide excellent service and banter to boot. A must to visit if your in the area.
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It is an excellent pub, but beware it is pricey with a pint of bitter costing £3.15
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A lovely little place and as good a pint as I've had. Cracking fresh guest ales, and a lovely atmosphere. The interior is perfectly kept, faultless all round
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This excellent pub has 2 milds on during May. Seems to be quite a turnover of these. Last night's milds were from Tring and Buffy's breweries. Quality top class, service very friendly. But it's not cheap.
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As mentioned previously this pub is a little gem tucked away and not far from the Houses of Parliament. Visited at lunchtime where there was a good mix of suits and your average pub goer. Food was based around sandwhiches and these were well priced and good quality. Now the beer is good quality also and from some interesting breweries but I nearly choked at paying £3.25 for a pint!
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Recently came across this backstreet gem. Popped in last night to sample ales from the week-long festival - had a particularly good Cotleigh Barn Owl.
It's a shame it isn't open on Saturdays, though appreciate the reduced trade wouldn't make it worthwile.
Note to mib: the Harp in Covent Garden (which can be classed as a decent pub) also has its toilets upstairs!
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Long overdue inaugural visit from the John Bonser roadshow yesterday. I echo the positive comments of previous posters.
Being Valentines Night, the pub was relatively quiet and I was able to enjoy the friendly and relaxed ambience.
There were 4 real ales on - three micros plus Youngs. The Peat Porter from Moor Brewery in Somerset was particularly noteworthy - tastes a bit like Lagavulin whisky, so Dennis confided in me.
This pub is well worth seeking out - I shall return, sooner rather than later.
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Paid a re-visit last week and enjoyed myself. Four ales on, including a Stout which were well-served.
Inside was heaving and it there was barely room to move so took a while to get served, had wave my tenner like a handkerchief in order to get seen.
Had forgotten about the comedy hike up some narrow, rickety stairs to the toilets - bet that's caused a few accidents in its time. Not exactly disability-friendly!
Very good, will keep returning.
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Very Good Ale. Very Good Service. Offhand can't think of another decent London pub where the toilets are upstairs. It's just not natural. Gravity etc.
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This pub still remains the best in the area for range and quality of its real ales. As part of Dennis' continuing commitment to real ale he is holding a 2 week beer festival from 13 Jan featuring 20+ beers from around the country, a 1 week festival from Sunday 17 Feb featuring beers from Somerset. A festival is also planned for March, something will be planned for April and in May he hopes to top the 43 Milds he had in May 2007. If you haven't been here before then your missing out.
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Surprisingly this pub is part of a chain ("Pleisure") though to all intents and purposes it seems like a genuine free house. Excellent beer and home-made food and very pleasant staff. I understand it gets very crowded between about 5 and 8 in the evening. Fortunately, being in the week after Christmas it was less so on this occasion.
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Excellent pub, excellent service, excellent beer. Crowded but very nice bunch in there. I shall return!
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The Speaker – I found this pub my accident and want it to be my default watering hole whenever I am in London. The night I found it, it was pack, no place to move or stand. I walked in and the suits look at me like I was from mars but the beer was perfect, real authentic British ale, properly prepared and properly served, I died and went to beer heaven. Next time I visit this little gem and there will be a next time I will try the grub. The service... perfect, the staff... pleasant.
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Suits and boots corner pub . Genial landlord who knocks out some good homemade cooking. Obviously takes pride in his beer, the Hogsback T.E.A (£2.75) was spot on. Not open on sats. Probably the best ale pub in the area , i.e not a place that sloshs out a london pride for £3.00+.
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Found this place after reading some reviews ... I knew I'd have a couple of hours to kill on a Monday afternoon after flying down to London. Not a bad London boozer, lovely and quiet with just the hubbub of conversation. Tried two beers, a very decent Tring Colley's Dog and a skightly less well kept Moorhouse's Black Cat. Four ales were on.
Ideal if you've time to kill reading the paper, and certainly likes like a good option for a conversation over a few or two. A good pub to have up your sleeve in this area of London.
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Decent London pub for proper drinkers and conversation. Does what it says on the window outside No TV, No Fruit Machines and No Music. A good way the landlord ensures the wrong company do not enter his pub. Unfortunately no mild present on our visit although read in the toilet about plans for an Autumn Mild Festival.
The pub has large areas at either end with a narrow part in front of the bar. I would imagine that the drinkers to the left of the bar have to go out that door and go in the other door to get to the toilet easily at busy times.
The landlord yesterday(Sunday)kindly put out some roast potatoes on the bar that were very popular with our large group.
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Have been frequenting this little gem of a pub for a few years now since the Paviours Arms closed. No telly, no fruit machines, no music. A proper pub. Regulars and strangers alike are made welcome by Dennis and his staff, Christine, David, Bob, Jackie and Justin. Dennis has built the pubs guest beer portfolio to around 200 beers with two usually available to complement the Youngs and Spitfire and a Mild is regularly available. The venturing out into the world of beer festivals/themed weeks this year has been a true success, particular the 40 odd Milds in May. Food is also good, particularly the hot salt beef sandwiches, and reasonably priced. Shame I've moved offices so my visits are less frequent now.
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friendly place that lives up to its boast that it is a "proper pub" - ie no juke box, fruit machines etc. good range of beers.
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Popped in on Sunday afternoon, (it opens 12-4), to find a friendly bustling back street pub full of locals enjoying themselves. 4 real ales on tap - Youngs Bitter, Spitfire and 2 frequently changing guests, (Coach House Summer Sizzler and Arundel Summer Daze on my visit), with the Arundel in good nick, (£3.15/pint). A pleasant surprise, with fresh flowers on every table and no TV, music or fruit machines. Note the pub is closed on Sunday evening and all day Saturday.
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Visited about 7pm on a Friday evening and as the weather was nice there were quite a few people outside, leaving plenty of room inside. Lovely pub, has character and charm. Good place to people watch although I suspect that a substantial number of the clientele are attached to Westminster in some way or are civil servants from the locale. Friendly bar staff and I liked the pack of cards left on every table, each card describing a different type of hooch. Will definitely be back.
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Superb pub. Been going there for lunchtime sessions with a colleague. Great beer - very well kept. Bar staff great - Denis, Chris, Jackie and David all very pleasant and accommodating. Food - Sandwiches excellent and all home prepared. Hot meals look wonderful - not tried as yet. Atmosphere one of the best central London pubs I have been to. Keep it up Denis and co!!!
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Proper pub with proper bar staff and absolutely top class ales. You do get a few suits cloging up the bar but we go there either at the start of a crawl before they have left their offices or at the end of a crawl when they have gone home. Great home made sandwiches for soaking up the beer. Certainly in my top ten.
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Went on a Friday around 5.00pm BIG MISTAKE this place was heaving it does have an excellent sellection of real ales i'd say around five or six at a time but the pub is very small and it was full of Tossers in suits, you know the one's that are a foot away from each other but still find the need to YELL AT THE TOP OF THEIR VOICE because what they have to say is soooo important. rant over suggest going later in the evening.... not on a Saturday, when it's closed ????
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Good pub. Bar staff chatty and know their stuff. Beer in good nick.
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Popped in this evening and enjoyed an excellent couple of beers from Elgoods (rarely seen in London) and Dark Star breweries. Never been here before but will certainly return.
Also enjoyed looking at the two glamorous women in little black dresses who arrived in a chauffeur - driven Bentley, had a quick drink (presumably as a "sharpener" before going on to a function elsewhere)!
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Good choice of interesting beers, regular regional festivals & apparently 40+ milds on sale in May. Nethergate Old Growler & Hogsback TEA currently resides, but probably not for long. Last night, the food seemed to be from a selection of cold meets under cellophane, but the beer is the draw here. Definitely worth a visit.
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Like it says in the window, this is a real pub, with no noisy extraneous distractions. Just people drinking, and talking. I had the Cairngorm Nessie Monster Mash the other day, and it was superb. Just the sort of place to stop for a quiet mid-afternoon pint and read a book for an hour or two. There are plenty of other places with TV screens for those that want them. A definite for a return visit.
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Very handy for where I work but I never seem to find the time to visit. But I did pop in this evening and was most impressed. Still fairly quiet so easy to sit and relax in a nice quiet pub with the company of fellow workers and tourists. Very pleasant lady behind the bar and excellent ale - there's a mini festival of Scottish beers so I could try Bridge of Allan Stirling bitter and Inveralmond Lia Fail. This has to be the best pub in the area.
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Pretty decent bar given the area. Our visit on Friday found 4 ales on (including two from Norfolk brewer Buffys) in fair condition.
Interior looks to have had a refit (I'm hazarding a guess at late 90's), not too bad a job done, and the sympathetic lighting and lack of obtrusive noise from TV's/Jukey made for a pleasant atmosphere.
Clientele almost exclusively formed of the political class (and people who wish they were) but not as boorishly irritating as in other nearby haunts. Our wandering group of scruffs got a couple of funny looks, still it must do them good to meet the proles occasionally...
Would pop in again if nearby, but wouldn't make a big effort to divert that way otherwise.
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Good joice of beer and wine. Good atmosphere. Worth a visit.
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Originally called the Elephant & Castle, the name is now more in keeping with the proximity of the Houses of Parliament a few hundred yards down the road. The interior consists of a quite small single carpeted room, comfortable, light. airy and welcoming but not really much to look at architecturally. From the newish wooden bar and furnishings, I would deduce that the pub has undergone a fairly extensive “sprucing up” in the not so distant past. They take great pains to let you know that there is no music, TV, big screens, fruit machines or the like, just beer and conversation, or in their words, a real pub. The beers are the main attraction with Spitfire & Youngs complimented by 2 constantly changing and interesting guest beers (sometimes a mild). Being close to our seat of government, there are political cartoons and prints and the façade depicts the history of the various Speakers and how the position came to be. There is a collection of books above the bar, a shelf of empty bottles where a TV once presumably sat, a few displays of clay pipes, packs of cards on the tables and, rather interestingly, a few sticks of quarry dynamite, presumably past their sell by date and no longer able to turn the pub into a mini Hemel Hempstead. In summer it can be a bit stifling and a few ceiling fans wouldn’t go amiss. The customer base seems to be local office workers and presumably the odd MP (aren’t they all?). Good friendly and helpful service and definitely one to seek out if in the area if you want a peaceful pint of decent beer.
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The ales are incredibly well kept, the food is home made, reasonably priced and available all day. The guvnor runs a tight ship and the staff don't leave every five minutes (always a good sign).
The only down side is the place gets jam packed with suits for a lot of the day, but this is Westminster after all.
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Real find just around the corner from New Scotland Yard. Ale on offer was Young's bitter, Spitfire, Hog's Back's TEA and White Star's Dark Destroyer. The food was also good quality for the price (£4 for jacket potato with home made chilli and a good side portion of salad). Will be back.
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Well worth seeking out - a decent pub with good beer, not far the heart of Westminster. Recommended.
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If you like beer this is a pub for you to check out. Their cask ale is served tip top and they have some unusual ones too . Splendid
anonymous - 29 Sep 2006 13:25 |
Excellent. Great staff, lots of character, fine ales. What more do you want? Gets a little crowded at times, but so what? Can't fault it, really.
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No music, fruit machines, nor huge telly; just a decent pub with four real ales (some unusual) on tap and an adequate food menu. I liked it.
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What a great find! Arrived at the end of the lunch period and was on my third pint before I knew it! Staff were very friendly and welcoming, and were especially pleased when I cleared my table for them. Good real ale and food wasn't bad.
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What a fantastic pub! A great find in a desert of decent pubs. I had been using another but have seen the error of my ways. Staff are polite and efficient (even funny at times), the beer is beautifully kept and there is a range of wines and spirits second to none. Shame it's not open on Saturdays.
anonymous - 6 Sep 2005 16:38 |
Great pub!! Staff are really nice and make you feel welcome. No loud music or tv so you can sit and have a conversation without having to shout to be heard. Very cosy atmosphere. It's small, so can get a bit crowded in the evenings. Still worth it though
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Nice little pub - very clean and well presented, efficient staff, pretty cheap and good beer.
anonymous - 12 Aug 2005 17:05 |
A small pub that has recently been done up a bit. Outside repainted, but interior still shabby. A decent pint
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A very small pub which is always busy. Bar staff are very friendly but it let down by the beer which while not bad is not that good either.
Brian - 26 Oct 2004 10:30 |
Great beer, great staff, no wonder it is so popular despite no really being on a main drag.
Greg Collins - 21 Oct 2004 10:50 |
Great place find out for your self!
JJ - 14 Apr 2004 16:50 |
Slightly overrated . . .
Polite Service, Clean, However very Small and no chance of getting a table or Bar Stool [ie. Place to eat] during workdays 12:00-2:00.
Dodge - 25 Feb 2004 14:32 |
A great pub, NO music,pool tables, TV, Gaming Machines just a good locals pub. Not many around any more.
s norris - 13 Feb 2004 20:32 |
Good pub, locals and office workers, freindly and efficient staff. Well kept beer. Can get very crowded - no surprise there!
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I like it, it serves good tucker!
Paul McCartney - 21 Sep 2003 03:01 |
Nice pub, albeit small.
Caz Donnelly - 18 Apr 2003 23:25 |
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