BITE user comments - adelondon
Comments by adelondon
This place has had a makeover in the past six months (I'm guessing, but it's certainly been recent), and is much improved.
Out has gone the bizarre mishmash of 'ironic' 70s lights and carpets and fittings, and it's been toned down to a more traditional Youngs-style boozer - darker wood, softer tones, all the more conducive to a conversation and sticking around for a few pints.
Staff seemed friendly, good crowd, including - gasp - some real people in NW�. Must be over from the hospital. Keep coming, as this place is trying much harder these days.
And try the little bar just a few doors up the street - very promising, but needs some support.
24 Jun 2011 14:14
Sorry Smiley, it's not my fault. I drank at the White Bear regularly, but even on a good day I could only down about 7 or 8 pints - probably not enough to keep the place open on my own, I'm afraid.
I agree with you on one point though, the new owners do have some balls � in taking a great pub like this and utterly screwing it up in one go. Brains might be on the small side�
There is an argument to be had here about the changing demographic of Hampstead, but my original point stands: pubs like this have been part of the community for a long time and there should be some form of protection � either through local pressure groups, or contained within the lease. The White Bear is no longer a pub, it's a restaurant; I don't give a toss what the owners have or haven't got in Notting Hill, they've screwed this place up, and I hope it brings them crashing down.
Interesting that South End Green seems to be on the up as the village goes into decline. Maybe cos all the rather dull foreign bankers are piling into the village and letting the pubs go to seed.
Keep smiling Smiley.
12 Apr 2010 17:57
This place is definitely on the slide. It's staggering around like a drunk with a head wound, not quite sure why it's bleeding.
The food used to be a bit special - now it's smaller portions, less tasty, same quite high prices. The place is increasingly overrun with kids and the old regulars are crammed, rather forlornly, into the smaller public bar.
As for the staff� they seem to "forget" they're working in a pub and insist on table service, meaning the attendant service charge for a round of drinks is added to your food bill.
Real shame this.
8 Apr 2010 16:22
Smiley has a point, but just because a traditional old pub isn't rammed to the gunnels every night is no reason to desecrate it. And this is what's happened - it's nothing short of cultural vandalism.
This used to be a wonderful old pub - cosy, idiosyncratic, charming. A proper pub. The people who have taken it over and "renovated" it should be ashamed of themselves. I popped in there last weekend, and walked straight back out. It has all the ambience of a funeral parlour. Even from outside, you could hear people walking across the shiny floor - loud, slow, single footsteps. Kids screaming. No atmosphere. Awful.
Who in their right mind took this new venture on? This new gastropub is not on the high street and will not pick up passing trade, from tourists. Locals who are disgusted with the place will boycott it in large numbers. Hopefully it will fold within a year or two, but given that the Wells is still with us (another dire gastropub), they may hang on.
To the people who ruined this pub: feck off back to the Home Counties.
8 Apr 2010 16:12
Kudos to the staff, who are very charming. But on my last visit last Sunday, the main bar looked dead on its arse. Meanwhile, The Garden Gate, not 100 yards away, was packed to the rafters.
Problem with the Magdala is it doesn't seem to know what kind of pub it wants to be these days. Sort it out, please: this could be a cracking local.
15 Jul 2009 17:52
On the up again. Been renamed The Rosslyn, and while the layout is the same it's been tidied up around the edges. Beers are fine, staff a mix of helpful and studied moodyness. Get rid of the barmen who belt their jeans around their knees and it'll be back in business.
Nice place on a sunny day again.
15 Jul 2009 17:46
Milfer, family pubs will be the death of many pubs, I fear. They're yet another attack on the working-class by New Labour. I don't smoke, but give me a busy, smoky pub over one full of bored, noisy children any day.
On the Hawley Arms, it used to be a great pub - ambient, lively, warm, cosy - until it was "discovered" by the likes of Amy Winehouse and Kelly Osborne, etc. Since then, the management have lost all sense of perspective and have now got bouncers on at weekends, and if you go in for a beer at the weekend you'll be directed upstairs. Apparently the downstairs bar is for diners only now.
The owners need to wake up or ship out.
28 May 2009 17:47
In response to Milfer's post earlier:
You seem like a reasonable person, and I hate to have a go, but what are you doing taking your 14-year-old son to a pub?
Take him to McDonald's, or a cafe, or a restaurant that serves alcohol. Take him anywhere, in fact, but a pub, which is supposed to be for adults.
28 Apr 2009 13:59
The White Horse, Hampstead Heath
Sadly, it seems to be going downhill. I think it's under new ownership - last time I was in there the landlady, or at least the domineering barmaid � was overdoing it on the friendly flirty host routine.
Then this: yesterday, a sign hung on the front door. "We welcome breastfeeding babies."
And they wonder why 57 pubs a week are closing down?
27 Apr 2009 15:08
Previous post says it all really. This is a nice pub, it is welcoming, and the food is consistently very good. But the main bar is "full of young families".
I wish all those people who take their kids to a pub would respect the fact that pubs are one of the few places left where adults can enjoy some adult company and conversation, and not be prevailed upon to either casually look out for or otherwise indulge other people's kids. there are plenty of restaurants in NW3 where you can feed your kids while you grab a drink. Give us a break and go there. Your children are not that interesting to other people.
20 Nov 2008 15:22
This pub has been taken over by new owners and given a major refit.
It now looks stunning from the outside, a smoky gunmetal black; they've revamped the large beer garden into something pretty special, and the beers and food have gone up several notches. This pub wouldn't be out of place in Camden now, for the buzz and the young clientele it attracted when I was in there last weekend.
Food is pricy, but supposed to be very good.
Some people might raise their eyes at yet another pub prepared to let kids run around in the garden, mind.
17 Oct 2008 13:56
Handsome pub, decent beers, could be a real treat. But every time i venture in here the place seems dominated by some of the most pretentious, stuck-up people. Must be the overspill from Primrose Hill, but too many in here are a long way up their own backsides.
shame, but Steele's is just up the road.
10 Oct 2008 14:40
The Sir Richard Steele, Belsize Park
Love love love Steele's. Nowhere like it in NW3. But definitely a pub for people who can't be arsed to check what they're wearing before they leave home, or even if they've got their trousers on the right way round. Definitely a pub for people who tell their other halves 'just popping out for a quick one' and never make it back till early hours.
I could sit in here for days. The music on Sundays, from late afternoon through the evening, is brilliant.
God love it.
10 Oct 2008 14:36
This is still a lovely pub - the Victorian panels are a work of art � but the modern high table in the front window is awful. This front bar used to be so cosy, now its big table often has a 'reserved' sign on it (this is a pub, for god's sake) and it's not a patch on the old, rumpled table and chairs.
Sort that out and you're laughing.
10 Oct 2008 14:32
The White Horse, Hampstead Heath
Good local pub that just gets better. Food is good, beers are well-kept, if a little unimaginative, and the staff are very welcoming.
Handsome interior, which gives the place a sense of history but a lively buzz.
Keep up the good work
28 Feb 2008 14:33
Pretentious gastropub with self-important, sneering staff who are more interested in ferrying cocktails to the braying types at the tables feeding their kids polenta than serving a pint at the bar.
It also just seems to be a really bad use of space - nothing works, in terms of the interior. You can't find a cosy angle anywhere.
Food upstairs is excellent, mind, but the service is comical.
If this is the future of pubs, get me out of here�
28 Feb 2008 14:31
Agree with Strongers - not a chav pub, but definitely a locals pub. I live local and have been in here dozens of times, but i'm still made to feel outside the gang.
This pub could be really good - it's attractive, ambient and well located. But it lacks something - laughter, noise, decent beer�
Needs a younger crowd, or at least for the regulars to stop acting so morose.
28 Feb 2008 14:27
Three years ago this was the best pub in Camden � ambient, warm, lively, good mix of punters. Now it's been 'discovered' by Kelly Osbourne, Amy Winehouse and those sad bastards it's got its head up its backside. The last Saturday I went they even had a cordon outside and a doorman, choosing who should and shouldn't be admitted. I wasn't cool enough.
Must be sour grapes. Either that or this pub has gone down the tubes.
A real shame
30 Nov 2007 17:53
A lovely pub, one of the best places to sit outside in the summer, inside in winter in front of the fire (the cat may come and join you), when it feels like you're sipping a beer in some country house hotel - but with atmosphere.
Lively staff, decent beer selection, and a lovely weatherbeaten feel to it. Throw in the location and this is one of the best pubs in north London. But give it a 5 rating and we can keep it to those in the know, eh?
30 Nov 2007 17:49
Attractive pub, nice staff, great food. But they seem to think that lager should be served at room temperature and bitter should be chilled. C'mon guys!
Also, get those bloody parents with their kids out of the pub. The main bar often feels more like a creche.
29 Nov 2007 16:51
The Garden Gate, Hampstead Heath
Interesting pub this, with a good range of wine, lagers, wheat beers, fruit beers and ales. The food can be superb, with the odd duff note. Tends to be lively without being too shouty, and there's a Pacman machine by the loos. A good winter pub. But I can't understand why everyone's bigging up the Curry Paradise over the road - it's a dismal place. However, walk 200 yards towards Kentish Town, past the White Horse on Fleet Road, and you'll find Aroma Spice - this is seriously one of the best curry houses in London, no exaggeration.
29 Nov 2007 16:39
The Magdala, Hampstead
Recently reopened after a refurb, which has tidied up the main bar without changing it noticeably, and given a bit more priority to the regulars' public bar. The public bar is warm and welcoming on a cold day, but the chairs are a bit odd - everything else is traditional, these look like something out of the Roebuck in its disco days. Otherwise, it looks promising.
The main bar is buzzy, and the staff are polite and welcoming. But, FFS, if I sit down at a table and have a pint, I don't want to be chased out by a 'waiter' informing me that a party of six are coming, and could they have my table?
No mate, it's a pub. Do try and remember that
28 Oct 2011 13:44