Been to this pub a couple of times and was very impressed on both occasions, the Harveys is excellent its a bit snug but that's party of its charm, i wish there was a pub like this in Bruman amazing pub allways has something good . but they should replace the 2 sam brooks because they rnt that good.instead having 2 more guests .
i had the dark star 6 hops and over the moon and both were stunning beers.with super friendly staff this pub is one of londons best.in my oppinion.

1.cask pub and kitchen (pimlico)

2.the harp. (covent garden)

3.the old fountain. (old street)

4.the bree louise. (euston)

5.wenlock arms (old street).

6.the castle. (holborn)

7.the trafalgar (south wimbledon)

8.the white horse (parsons green)

9.the bricklayers arms .(putney)

10.market porter. (london bridge)Busy as ever last Friday night, but as usual you are served very quickly by charming staff and the quality of the beer (especially the Hophead) was simply beyond reproach. Only time for 3 before we left for dinner, I would hapilly have forgone the food and stayed here all night. Without doubt one of the finest real-ale pubs in London

The solution to the smelly loo problem might be as follows. Drink away in the Lamb and Flag until Nature calls then pop round to the famous Italian restaurant on the corner where, if you can slip past the reception desk, you can use the A1 toilets in the basement. I know everyone moans about the toilets but what exactly do you want the pub to do about them? Twice when I was in here the other day I was in the loos when some contraption on the wall sprayed perfume. It smelt better than the piss but only just. Would your toilet at home smell lovely if 400 people used it in 8 hours. The main culpret would appear to be the discusting twat who didn't flush the toilet when he finished with it but merely walked out without flushing or washing his hands. Hardly the pub's fault.

400 year old listed pub, 400 year old immovable toilets.Went here last Thurasday and as usual it was rammed! Good pub with good beer, the Porter was excellent but as mentioned in another review the toilets are gross, they alleyway outside is probably cleaner and theres more space!

Where do your other half drink? Brixton,Ford, The Ville,Bellmarsh? Ha,ha,ha.....
Must agree, a very nice watering hole in central civilization.A spiffingly nice place,full of true colourful characters. Makes a change from having to rub shoulders with Middle class, Grammar school oiks in the crush bar at Covent Garden across the way.Give us a song Michael! Mine's a double; just poping outside for a smoke with Cashie.

Very nice pub and i much prefer it to the nearby Harp. Not a brodies fan but still liked the pub and the beers.Great atmospheric pub even when I was the first customer at 12 noon. Started to fill up not long after though with locals. Wonderful traditional old place and a good pint of Pedigree. I think this is a good pub. I tried two pints of Brodies and a Black Sheep- all very nice. It's a bit gloomy inside (fine by me!), and worth going to if you're in the area.

Ok, I am writing another review on this place as my previous one has generated the odd negative comment (and I accept it may not have been as balanced as it could have been).

I will always think that that chiller stuff is nasty - I enjoy lots of beers, but this tastes more like shandy.

On the upside, this place still seems to stock a lot of bottles, including some that are really hard to find elsewhere (especially Sam Adams, can't find it anywhere else in the West End). The place is often very packed, but always has a good atmosphere. The bar staff are also polite. I've always rated this place highly since it opened - as I do the originals in Dublin and Bray. A good selection available although I tend to stick to the Plain Porter or the Red. I too have had a bad experience with The Polar in the past but haven't tried it for years now.

Food is good value - the burgers especially.

Superb service yesterday when a group of 17 of us turned up shortly after noon and camped out on the top floor. Frequent table service from a delightful lady with an amazing memory (how can you get 17 meal and beer orders right without writting anything down?) and great arms - she carred 2 trays with 17 pints up 2 flights of stairs with apparent ease!

Was filling up fast when we left about 1600 but we will return!

The Plain Porter is now £3.35, this place is still a decent stop off on a saturday afternoon, if only to have a quiet pint after survivng Covent Garden.Beer quality is invariably excellent.

First stumbled on the Nell Gwynne when down T'Smoke for a theatre break weekend. Have stumbled in and out of it several times since. Cracking little pub that is a must visit on any trip Up West, as they say on Halfenders.In last night, polite friendly service, and while the stairs to the toilets are a bit of a nightmare there was no bad smell at all. Juke box has an OK selection and volume was fine. Not sure about the staff having Wagamama's behind the bar though.was in here last sat on pub crawl , toilets were fine, football was on tv , but with music on, bar staff were lovely and helpful , we stayed for 2 pints,
have always enjoyed this pub. will be back.

Excellent pub, very close to Covent Garden Underground Station. Good choice of real ale on offer at a reasonable price for London. Food prices good although this is usually served upstairs. Very busy at lunchtimes.Significantly better than you'd expect given the location, and the rating is perhaps a little low. Prices reasonable also, £2.90 for Landlord (they had 5 real ales on, which is impressive for the location) that was above average in terms of how it was kept. It is very small though, and can often be overcrowded, that is the negative.Timothy Taylor Landlord always in top condition. Sometimes have to queue but it's worth it!

Good boozer, although can get very crowded. Have only been in 3 or 4 times (Friday nights mainly) and always seemed to have a good atmosphere (was thereTo my mind this is the best pub in the immediate vicinity - a largish single room with a lot of comfortable traditional seating. It's a Shep Neame pub and I quite like their drink selection which also marks it up for me. It's also far enough from Covent Garden to have more of an office crowd rather than tourists or lairy types on a big night out. Quite a bit of masons memorabilia around the walls but no one gave me the secret handshake and I didn't see any senior judges or chief constables in fishnet stockings.

Well worth a visit if in the area.Good beer, fine food, Sky Sports and a lively atmosphere. All that and none too pricey either.

The pub however loses a mark in my estimation as recently it always seems shut for a bloody private function on a Saturday lunchtime. Small quibble though and I will return (probably on a weekday).

Look pal, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - it's a duck. The regulars have gone, business is bad, and it's grubby. End of. I visited this place last Friday and was distinctly unimpressed.
The beer (London Pride) was poor so I switched to the lager which was flat. I last visited here in the summer and I remember the beer being very good indeed.
Also the music was so loud my friends and I had to shout to each other to be heard, although perhaps that's because we're getting old.... Nick was great. Ken was great. Jo was great. Mark, however, is a total knob. The place took such a massive downturn a few years ago when he took over. All the old regulars stay away now; it seems he's staying in the job due to past glories and good mates.This once beautiful pub is now filthy, and poorly managed in EVERY way - from staff to beer lines, cleaning to H&S.

To the owners - please, please save this great pub from it's shockingly bad manager.

Although I have visited before, I was surpised that I was asked for £4 for a pint of Proper Job! I've always liked the cove, it's a nice little hideaway that feels like a local in the middle of a tourist hot spot, with nice ale, comfy seating and a lovely balcony to watch the street performers, but why has the music recently become so bloody awful?!This is a brilliant little hideaway. I've not been for a few months now, but I'd say £3.50 is an ok price to pay for a very touristy part of Central London.

The beer and service has always been top notch.

Some people here obviously just like to moan. It's small, it's in Central London, but it's an oasis.

We agree with one of the earlier comments about the prices here. We had one pint of Zot and a bottle of Westmelle (which we collected ourselves) and paid the princely sum of £10.70. Another point is that the layout of the pub resembles a school canteen which doesn't really help the atmosphere.The selection of bottled beers is getting worse - Holland is poorly represented which is criminal given the plethora of decent beers to be found over there (Molen, Prael, Ij, etc). They may as well just call this a Belgian bar.

Food has always been good - just a shame about the beer choice...This is one of only a few pubs/bars in London with such a wide range of Belgian beers. There is an extensive - and changing range - on draught.

When in Covent Garden I usually patronise the Lamb and Flag but by way of a change I have used the Essex Serpent a couple of times recently. The other comments are pretty fair. It's not a bad boozer but a bit dark and dreary and, since the management cuts costs by only having one bar staffer on at a time, the tables get piled up with empty glasses which, in a small place like this, cuts down on elbow room. The beer here was fine (we tried the Adnams) and this was the only pub where we managed to get a seat, but the pub somehow seemed to lack a bit of character.Had a drink in here with some mates the other night and found the place rather nice. It wasn't very busy for a saturday night and was completely empty downstairs. The ale was nice and we enjoyed a good hour in the pub. I'll definately return.

Can not agree with the last reviewer. Went to the pub yesterday, first time, with a group of friends, the barman (I assume landlord) was very welcoming gave us great service and so did the other staff. The beer was good, Youngs Special, Pride, Landlord, Brains S.A. and a Christmas special, we tasted all of them and they were all fine. The food was only average but overall it was a good friendly pub and we all agreed (8 of us) that we would use it again.Do not go to this pub! The owner is vile (and violent to innocent stragers), most bar staff incredibly rude and atmosphere awful. Worst experience I have ever had in a pub. Characterful old-style London pub still looks as it probably did 50 years ago. Decent beer range. Very quiet when we visited

very good selection of wine, and not too pricy for the area. there are a couple of meantime beers available in bottles as well, so covers all bases.

great setting in terms of people watching, and you often get street entertainers/buskers playing outside.

much better than most places in the immediate area, nice ambience, and helpful staff. a little bit so-so in my view when it comes to food, but i'd happily recommend it, especially for central covent garden. not too touristy either.Excellent place to go for a drink or two. Wouldn't spend all night there, but its right in the middle of covent garden so alway nice to pop in when passing. a great place to pause amongst the hubbub of covent garden and enjoy a nice bottle of plonk. the wine selection is good, the food is reasonable value for the area and the bar staff are efficient.

the one thing i do object to is being asked for a gratuity by the credit card machine when all the barmaid has done is hand me a bottle of wine and two glasses - not on i'm afraid.

having said that, you normally get some high quality classical music performers busking outside and dropping a few quid into their hat is always a pleasure.

Nice pub that deserves a visit. Near to the White Lion. Good real ale at a fair price for London. It's a place you'd meet at then move on really, serviceable for a pint or two but you wouldn't go out of your way to go there. Very touristy, averagely well kept (in my view) Mc Mullens. 6/10 kind of place.As rexrattus states below, this is a tourist trap pub in a tourist trap location. Its still decent though, and it gains novelty value for its McMullen's beers which were in good shape. Standing room only on a sunday evening; Staff were efficient and the beer decent but it just doesn't feel like a place you'd want to spend a lot of time in.