BITE user comments - binge_benefits
Comments by binge_benefits
Amazing beer garden, absolutely huge, and with the Broadgate skyscraper towering over it. Only drawback - the bit we were in really did smell of toilet. Please, please sort it out, as would love to go back.
25 Aug 2009 23:39
Is this pub still open? Tried to get in at about 5 pm on Monday this week and all the doors were locked. Or do they just open very late?
25 Aug 2009 23:35
The Thornbury Castle, Marylebone
Lovely little pub. Best way to enjoy it is to sit outside in the afternoon and watch the world go by - because it's just off Marylebone Road, it feels like a bit of an oasis compared with the traffic chaos just at the end of the street. Feels like a real hidden gem - you'd only stumble across it by accident if you didn't already know it.
22 May 2008 00:24
Not a bad bar at all, and the mojitos are good. The only thing wrong with it for me is that when you're sitting inside looking out, you suddenly notice that although the interior has been fitted out in perfectly acceptable 'trendy bar' style, they haven't got rid of the shopfront windows - they're the same as all the less salubrious shops and cafes further along the road. This shouldn't have bugged me as much as it did, but it made it seem a bit cheap.
9 May 2007 23:52
A great Soho pub - a proper, unreconstructed boozer where basically anyone is welcome. This sort of place is so rare now, English Heritage should give it listed status to stop it being turned into somewhere like the Endurance just down the road. Have done a Blue Posts mini-crawl a couple of times, drinking in this pub, and the BPs in Kingley Street and Rupert Street - all different and worth visiting in their own ways.
2 Mar 2007 22:03
A great pub - always a really lively, friendly atmosphere, good selection of beers and the layout and feel of the place just makes you feel relaxed and at home. BUT - and I really don't want to be critical about such a great place - the food really lets it down. I'm afraid it highlights all the worst aspects of so-called 'gastropubs' - unimaginative menu (beer battered fish, bangers and mash), massively overpriced (�4.95 for what was basically a small bread roll with chicken and mayonnaise inside), a 40 minute wait for the food to arrive, and said food being deeply ordinary when it did finally show up. It's a real shame, because as a pub, it's such a great place - they should either drop the food side of things, or massively improve it. As it stands, I will always go back there for a pint, but would never eat there again.
2 Mar 2007 21:48
I had possibly the most revolting (and incredibly overpriced) fish and chips I've ever tasted here, which has put me off ever going back. Preferred it when the decor was slightly less OTT.
28 Jul 2006 07:25
I have to disagree with some of the comments on here. I had a pint of Guinness in there recently, and it was absolutely foul. And as for the jukebox, it might be the greatest in the world for all I know, but it's rendered next to useless by what seems to the standard policy of never turning it up. I've been to the Endurance about five or six times, and I've never been able to hear the music. If you want a properly loud jukebox in Soho, try the Golden Lion instead.
Agree about all the Nathan Barleys in there, though.
29 May 2006 20:32
This pub is just all wrong. I don't know how it was before, but the snugs just feel completely out of place, like they've been taken out of a cosy, convivial, darkened boozer and stuck into someone's giant conservatory. There's just no point in having traditional pub features if they jar so noticeably with what is basically the decor of a modern restaurant.
As for the clientele... you'd get more variety in a cloning factory. One of the nice things about going to the pub is to be surrounded by people from all walks of life, but here, if you're not a wealthy 25-34 couple (baby optional), forget it - you're in danger of being suffocated by the all-pervading air of smugness as you walk in through the door. Add to that overpriced and unpalatable bar food, and you have precicely zero reasons for ever wanting to go back again.
27 Oct 2005 10:21
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The Island Queen, Islington
Wonderful exterior and interior, hugely atmospheric, but massively let down in my opinion by the range of beers. Seems like they're trying to go out of their way to be different with what they offer, which would be fine if it was good stuff - but I had a pint of German beer and it was honestly no better than Fosters. Plus if you're going to try to give the impression you're serving superiour continental beers, it kind of ruins that impression when you have Peroni on tap.
A shame - pub itself is a marvel, but the drinks let it down.
25 Aug 2009 23:56