BITE user comments - mrfrisky
Comments by mrfrisky
Pretty chilled out place - not overly pretentious and normally an easy, low light spot with decent tunes.
We were a little taken aback that there wasn't a single beer on tap, and though it's a cocktail bar it just feels like it's in the wrong place or setting to be a pure upmarket cocktail bar.
Service is great though, the bartenders are friendly (they turned the music down for us so we could talk), and overall I can guarantee we'll be back.
4 Jan 2007 21:13
A colossal barn with twee spray-on 18th century atmosphere (Tally ho sir ! You could allegedly buy whelks for 1/6d a pint, no less!), and - bizarrely - no barstools ANYWHERE ! Well, there were 3 or 4 scattered about, but there only would have been 1 per table at best.
Once we finally got his attention after about 3 minutes of aimless patrolling up and back like a shark whho can't work out if it's hungry or not, the barman when asked for 3 Glenfiddichs and a half pint of water with no ice returned with 3 shotglasses levelled up with single malt whisky, and a pint of water with ice.
Bloody pointless, I reckon.
8 Aug 2006 20:33
The place is a toilet, but it's always got a good crowd and it's got a late license. Beer garden's nice (in comparison to sitting inside, that is). Seems to purely exist as "a place to go watch the football".
24 Jul 2006 13:29
Bloody 'orrible pub - beer was awful, bar was hot & smelly, video screen had patchy marks all through it, toilets were like Dante's Inferno, and the place was full of extras from Shaun of the Dead. I walked around past the dartboard and one bloke started barking at me.
24 Jul 2006 11:18
Auschwitz had a lot of lovely wide open spaces to run around in too, but you didn't see people falling over themselves to get in there, did you ?
It's certainly a nice enough pub, with a lot of high points, but the sad fact of the matter is it just takes far too long to get served there - I've been standing at the bar 5 minutes before the bell has been rung, and by the time they get around to me it's "Sorry sir, we're closing"!
It's a shame that such an otherwise excellent place has to suffer so heavily because of a few training issues.
18 Jul 2006 18:25
I'd definitely agree with DiskoStu and Lord_Science - ever since I suggested this bar the muppet in charge seems to have gone out of his way to alienate the punters. First he pulled out a bunch of the beers, so that the only thing on tap with any taste to it was Guinness. Next he blanket-banned smokers, and then a couple of weeks later put a note on the front door reversing the ban and saying the smokers could smoke in the upstairs bar. Now he's always down in the bar pushing people around, buying some people drinks, imposing his shite music on a bunch of people who were mainly just there to unwind in the first place, and generally treating the place like his own personal loungeroom rather than providing a friendly environment that people want to come back to.
It's almost like he's gone out of his way to find out from people what all their favourite things about this bar are, and then systematically eradicate each one until he's left with a noisy, empty room.
16 Mar 2006 18:22
Nice little pub and out of the way enough that you feel like you've found somewhere special. Good sized beer garden and enough rooms inside to make everyone happy. Have been there 4 times now and each time the staff have spoiled an otherwise perfect night - nothing major, just little things. The last few times I've been they've had specials on jugs of cocktails, which I daresay could get ugly.
28 Aug 2005 15:09
Nice cheap and atmospheric pub. Usually has at least one decent ale on (first place I had Deuchar's IPA on tap !), and you can't beat the Victorian styling. A little run down in places (one day there was water cascading in to the point where it was raining in one corner of the pub), but I'll always keep going back there.
28 Aug 2005 15:05
I love dropping into this pub on a Friday night - there's always a good crowd, and they always have the funkiest music. I don't think I've been in yet and left without hearing Curtis Mayfield or James Brown.
28 Aug 2005 14:43
Nice enough place, but it feels a bit like drinking in a corridor.
Always seems to be some kind of highly-charged interplay going on between the staff and various "locals" that breeze in from time to time.
Good range of bottled beers and food seemed reasonable enough. I remember enjoying the nachos through a drunken stupour, so they must have been alright.
Definitely not the sort of pub to stop at for 1 or 2 before going to meet someone, because you WILL be late !
28 Aug 2005 14:40
Humungous beer garden and reasonable range of Belgian beers. Bar snacks seemed a little expensive, but definitely worth stopping by of a pint or 3 if the weather's nice enough to sit outside.
28 Aug 2005 14:36
Cracking little pub (I do mean *little*), with Rugby perpetually on TV and the BEST pint of Guinness I've found in London so far. Excellent atmosphere, although the trip down to the gents feels like entering a crypt.
28 Aug 2005 14:34
The Porterhouse, Covent Garden
Great atmosphere and unique decor, on top of the best beer selection for miles around. Often hard to find a seat due to popularity, but it's a great Sunday afternoon pub, especially if you can sit out of the firing line of the Irish session going on in the corner (i.e. great background music, but wouldn't want it in your face). Beer menu contains useful information and tips to help you choose new beers to try.
28 Aug 2005 14:30
The Grand Union, Westbourne Park
Awesome pub with great atmosphere and funky canalside terrace (good if you can get a seat, anyway). Food's pretty spectacular - the pies are some of the best I've had in London, and some of their specials are pretty wild.
Would be good if they'd mix the guest ales up a bit, but apart from that, love it!
28 Aug 2005 14:26
Funky if slightly expensive pub within sight of the canal. Bar staff are friendly and know their cocktails pretty well, which you can use to best effect during 2-for-1 happy hour. Reasonable range of beers, incl. Hoegaarden and Leffe on tap (as well as the standard lagers) and various bottled beers too.
Plenty of room (without being a soulless open-plan dive) and a good mixture of people.
28 Aug 2005 14:24
Aside from having all the personality and ambience of an airport departure lounge, this pub isn't too bad. A few real ales and lagers on tap, plenty of room, food's usually not awful and comes out fairly promptly, and there's usually enough staff on that you can get served fairly quickly.
28 Aug 2005 14:18
Fairly horrid pub which had a lingering bouquet of vomit the night we went. Bartender was capable, but came across a bit sleazy.
The place was empty, and it's not hard to see why.
28 Aug 2005 14:16
Groovy pub with good range of beers and reasonably good menu (variety and quality). What constantly lets this pub down however is the service - of a summery Sunday afternoon, the place is obviously going to be rammed, and yet they only have 3 staff on. Also their summer bbq is a good idea but they've instituted possibly the worst distribution system known to man.
28 Aug 2005 14:12
The Glass Works, Angel, Islington
A Lloyd's Bar is only going to start off with a score of 5 anyway, but any hope of redeeming points was quashed when their bouncers accosted the 4 of us and firstly demanded to know how many of us there were (whether this was to test to see if we could deal with elementary mathematics - or simply because they could not - was unclear), then demanded to see ID (the youngest in our party was 28), and then warned me that I had to take off my hat or I wouldn't be allowed in. It's not like the place was even 50% full, so based on the otherwise lacklustre performance given I think we'll be going elsewhere in future.
7 Mar 2007 15:06