please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Does what it says on the tin. No Plasmas, gimmicks or wanna be Gordon Geckos. Good beer, that doesnt taste bitter with this crippling inflation.....yet. Good honest boozer
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Nice long bar that reminds me of the Irish boozers in New York. Great landlord and landlady of the old school kind - they remember your name and your tipple and make you feel at home. Average selection of beer and the usual mass-produced guinness (that the landlord himself says isn't anything close to the proper stuff - although having had the stuff in Irish country villages I have to say that I can't really tell the difference) but I guess nowhere's perfect.
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Greatly improved.
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Greatly improved.Will visit often in the years to come.
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Visited yesterday evening, very enjoyable, room to sit at the bar which was suprising on a Friday night.
Those, like me, who are not keen on Greene King Ales should note that Fullers London Pride is also served, and very good it was too.
Used to be rather a dirty place, but has been much improved in recent months following a change of management.
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Three of us spent a very pleasant couple of hours in this 'Irish' pub, on a Sunday afternoon: genuine Irish landlord, original mosaic floor, fine old woodwork and mirrors etc,small enough to discourage the masses and ankle-biters, a real men's pub with a standing drinkers' shelf for your pint. Very clean, a pleasant landlord and wife, and a welcome pint of well-kept Abbott. If I lived around here it would be my local! We didn't sample the upstairs dining-room, but the menu had enough variety and the prices seemed very reasonable.
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Nice enough for a few pints of the black stuff. A couple of the inevitable besuited folk from the surrounding area doing something distasteful with vodka and oysters (ie eating them out of the same glass - money can't buy you taste) but friendly attentive staff, on a Tuesday anyway. Good pork scratchings too.
Not the biggest, but worth a visit if you're passing. A little quieter than the echoey cellar bars of the Cheshire Cheese across the way.
gcc24 - 16 Mar 2007 09:53 |
About as genuinely Irish as "House of Pain" (showing my age here...), this is a pub with a lot of history but history that ended long ago. If you think drawing a shamrock in a pint of Guinness is tacky, I ordered a pie here on Sunday, and there was a shamrock in my pie lid. FFS - what next - hiring midgets for bar staff and dressing them as leprechauns? Further proof Greene King has no shame.
Faux-Irish cuisine and Greene King beers? The worst of both worlds.
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been here a few times and its always the same , good service good beer , only complaint is the downstairs bar is a bit cramped , but this is all part of the charm
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Not sure I agree there's much of a sense of Irishness here, but this Greene King house is worth visiting none the less - the downstairs bar is very nice, the upstairs a bit shabbier but with more room to sit.
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Nice pub, with a genuine Irish feel, in spite of the lack of any Irish staff. The Guinness wasn't the best but it's still a good place and I'd certainly go again.
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Narrower than a narrow boat specially constructed to navigate narrow ways, it's an endearing little spot nonetheless. Admittedly not to everyone's liking but that itself is a strength. Small; the tone and feel flux dramatically with the flux of the crowd.
Well run; well staffed. The Polish staff a boon.
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It's really a pub pretending to be an Irish bar, but not one Irish staff, although the American tourists who pop in are blissfully unaware of this.
The Australian manager who works there 6 months of the year is wonderful.
His South African skinhead relacement the other 6 months of the year is intimidating, and I avoid the place whilst he is there.
anonymous - 3 May 2006 09:30 |
This rather quaint little Irish pub has been around for 400 years. Situated on Fleet Street it generally attracts local workers and appears to be overlooked by tourists in favour of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese almost opposite. Originally called the Boares Head, the pub’s main claim to fame is that it was the first Irish theme pub outside of the emerald isle and was the first pub outside of Ireland to sell Guiness. The interior is very narrow with barely room for anything but a few stools at the bar and a ledge along the wall opposite. The paneled walls are adorned with large advertising mirrors and old photos and the floor contains a fine shamrock mosaic. The old clock above the bar is a replica of one that was stolen some time ago. Being another Greene King acquisition, the beer selection is not very inspiring (the ubiquitous IPA and Abbot) but I suppose one should really go for the Guiness here. There is an equally narrow upstairs bar – the Boares Head bar, the pub’s original name. Despite a few minor shortcomings this remains one of my favourite pubs in the area.
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staff were brilliant when we popped in only went for one and stayed for a few more , good drop of guiness , and nice atmosphere , one fruit machine hidden away by the stairs . and sky tv on the telly nice pub all in all
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Didn't like this place at all, my Abbot was totally bland and there was a depressing atmosphere all round. I was on a crawl, wish I'd skipped this one!
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As I've worked in the city for years we decided to take advantage of the quiet Xmas period and have a wander round some of the pubs we'd not visited yet.
This was possibly the worst on our mini-crawl.
My husband is an ale drinker and as this pub has been taken over by the dreaded Greene King (enemy of the real ale drinkers) there wasn't much to offer I have to say - he ended up drinking a pint of Abbott Ale as there was little choice - I'm not sure if this is recommended by CAMRA but if it is I'll be writing to them to suggest it isn't any longer.
The lager on offer was the usual awful fosters and such - I ended up with a vodka and coke - which I drank while listening to the bar staff shouting in Polish to all the other Polish customers - for an Irish bar it wasn't very Irish.
Not recommended - my rating is for the decor only
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Nice traditional City pub. The street level bar is rather narrow and there is more room upstairs. Doesn't overdo the Irish bit, which is pleasing. Note the splendid mirrors on the wall and the ornate bar back. This pub appears in the CAMRA Regional Inventory and it was nice to see copies on sale behind the bar.
This is a Greene King pub now, but the Guinness is inevitably popular.
From the street level bar, you have to go up two flights of stairs to reach the Gents, which is certainly unusual. For most pubs round here, they're downstairs.
This pub is well worth including on any Fleet Street crawl
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Nice stop on a monopoly pub crawl - staff always friendly.
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One thing you have to say about this pub is that the guinness is always of consistent, excellent quality. The history is there, but the australian landlord doesn't quite fit the picture (but very friendly). Thursdays and Fridays tend to be the busier days and the food is getting better (if you're on a diet, I wouldn't bother). Weekends are generally quiet but always welcome.
Top pub.
Sean - 14 Nov 2003 14:20 |
A useful stop on Monopoly pub crawls, especially when Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese isn't open (most of the weekend!)
Piers - 5 Oct 2002 09:33 |
