please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Unexceptional pub in winter, fantastic garden in summer.
However, it has been locked up for some months now. I hope it opens again but can't help thinking the owner has cashed in and the garden will soon be full of new flats owned by nice people who earn lots of money in the city. Which will be a shame.
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Finually Closed Down.
M&B plc goodbye!
But please will another company take this pub on and but the rightful investment to the building, equipment and the staff, and NEVER given in to the neigbour at the end of the garden.
anonymous - 5 Oct 2006 18:53 |
Staff are truly awful, incompetent and disagreeable. Whoever manages this should sort it out, but with a selling point like the (great) garden they can probably afford to have such useless employees. Go in summer for the garden (get there early), but be prepared for some dreadful service.
anonymous - 25 Jul 2006 15:34 |
I'm still waiting to be served it's the 22nd of July and I started my wait on the 21st June.
This place has the rudest bar staff ever.
Like 'Won Keys' Chinese Restaurant in Wardour Street.
For the food you have too wait longer, er er 2 months and then its 'BAD'.
One good thing it has the Best ever local newsagents across the road.
anonymous - 23 Jul 2006 11:23 |
Bad Staff, Long wait, Warm beer fridges, over priced food, long waits for food, badly managed, Goto to the Alwyne Castle instead around the corner
anonymous - 21 Jun 2006 13:09 |
The food isnt very good, overpriced badly prepared. The staff are an odd bunch, all young and seem to feel inconvenienced having to actually serve customers. Children arent allowed in the garden, which is actually a bit mean for a city pub but in keeping with the overall ethos of not being at all customer centred!
anonymous - 4 Jun 2006 09:34 |
Tuesday evening is pub quiz night, that didn't put me off the good ales on offer. Nice pub and yes it has a large field for a garden, it was however, fairly quiet so no complaints on staff or atmosphere. I'll be back in the summer to see how it changes....
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Fantastic beer garden in this place. Unfortunately, it has probably the world's worst bar staff, too. the queue was about three or four people deep the whole way along the bar when I turned up here last Thursday, with everybody getting increasingly tense. Meanwhile the staff laughed and giggled amongst themselves, throwing beer bottle tops and the like at each other, apparently unconcerned by the rapidly escalating stress levels of their customers. The pits. No matter how relaxed I get in the sun-drenched garden, I know I'm going to a boiling cauldron of rage by the time I get back from the bar. Somebody needs to have a word with these guys.
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Comfy place, not too pretentious, decent selection of beers and a great beer garden in the summer. Every Sunday there's a silent music quiz and great music from Soul Control, to silence the nagging onset of Monday.
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I have a great deal of fondness for this pub. Yes it gets packed during the summer but I defy you to find a better pub garden in central(ish) london. During the winter it is never packed and always warm and cosy, I have found the bar staff to be friendly and personable, a great pub.
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Anyone who wanted to could make a good deal of this scintillating pu, with magnificent garden - its like a small municipal park.
Sadly - cellar not too well kept, staff not too interested, muzak, pine, etc. but go outside on a barmy evening and enjoy.
The management will be allowed to wither, whereas the planning dept. should with luck protect this grand site for someone who knows how to turn a good thing into a gem. Rant over.
p.s. beware falling conkers.
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Evenings are crowded, and the staff slow and indifferent. The food we ordered from the blackboard menu was bad - mean portions, old tired salad with no dressing.
This place is best for quiet drink in late afternoon, when the place empties out, and the garden can be enjoyed, and the staff find it harder to avoid serving the few punters (though they still try)
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A fairly dismal pub that only get the crowds in because of the massive beer garden, but thats generally full of fools anyway. The service behind the bar is genuinely shocking. I've waited 30+ mins for a small round - just to sit in a big garden?!?!?!
anonymous - 2 Aug 2005 16:35 |
Lovely pub let down by shocking, rude service at the bar. BBQ was stingy - mean, thin, tasteless burgers and overcooked fish.
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As far as pubs go, this has gotta be one of the nicest settings in London. Perfect sitting in the back garden on a summer afternoon downing a cold pint or a pimms for the ladies.
However been here twice now and both times service at the bar was shocking. Waited 20 minutes for a pint and then the got a half a pint of froth. Beer is quite expensive
too. Don't go here if your thirsty!
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I went in there last friday when it was fairly busy, and got served within five minutes, so i'm assuming they've got their bar staff problems sorted out. only had a BBQ menu on, but it was a damn tatsty burger!
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I stopped going to this pub because of the awful service. It takes ages to get served with even a small queue for the bar. Great beer garden, good beers, terrible staff.
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One of the biggest beer gardens in London. I went there on a sunny Sunday afternoon and around 5pm I went to the bar and waited for about 25 minutes to be served. There was no music playing. There was a particularly incompetent barman who was slow and shaking like a leaf. He tried to put my change in my hand and missed!
Vensa - 27 May 2005 16:14 |
This is a decent pub with a massive beer garden which is great in summer and far enough off the beaten path to not be swamped on a saturday night. However last Saturday night it took 20mins to get served as there were only 2 staff on who seemed qualified to serve, one of which had trouble taking one order at a time never mind two, while the rest swanned ditzily around collecting one or two glasses at a time. It's not the first time this has happened here, they should try the concept of competent bar staff over trendy looking ones.
anonymous - 16 May 2005 09:57 |
Very expensive for a pub out of the way.
Little or no atmosphere and nothing in the way of entertainment.
I think this place thinks it special!! It's not.....
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Visited the Canonbury for the first and final time last Sunday. Nice atmosphere, nice décor unfortunately all let down by the food. Almost empty at lunchtime which should have been a hint as to what was to entail. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the barmaid brought out my roast dinner. I have seen bigger portions on the McDonalds kid club menu! Highly disappointed at what seemed like such a promising pub!!!!!!!!!
childish - 1 Nov 2004 16:04 |
I also went to the canonbury on sunday and had the roast. It was pittiful for the £8.90 it cost. My friend below is a bit out on the price because im the poor sap who paid for his! Tiny roasted new potatoes, no veg and lettuce leaves!? There was a great deal of white plate visible!
Grant - 26 Oct 2004 13:07 |
I went to the Canonbury for the first time on Sunday 24th October 2004 for Sunday lunch. Having eaten in a few of the local pubs around the Highbury/Canonbury area i was used to getting good value for money. However, all good things must come to an end and that was certainly the case with the Canonbury. To pay £8.50 for a roast dinner might seem about average but to have one cube of carrott (that's not an exaggeration by the way), 4 new potatoes that they had tried to roast!?! and 3 (yes i counted them) lettuce leaves on a roast dinner isn't. The beef wasn't bad but not great either likewise was the yorkshire pudding which had been cooked from frozen....and to top it all off.....no horseraddish. A really poor effort all round. Admittedly it's a nice looking pub with a relaxed atmosphere and would be cool if you're just after a beer or two but i won't be returning for the food. My advice for a good roast? Travel 5 minutes down the road where it's cheaper, the portions are bigger and most importantly much more tasty!
Gurk! - 25 Oct 2004 18:14 |
Top place tuched away behind the Islington roundabout. Chilled out atmosphere with a big beer garden and food and drinks at decent prices. My previous favourite pub was the Leather Bottle in Earlsfield but this pub is definitely a contender.
Rob - 15 Jun 2003 23:57 |
