The Woodman, Highgate

I used to be a kind of regular at this place (once every couple of weeks or so), if only because it's right outside the exit from Highgate tube on my way home.
As other reviewers have mentioned, there has always been an issue with the neverending stream of joyless Polkranian women who pass themselves off as "bar staff" in the Woodman.
Since the place was spruced up a few months ago (presumably under new ownership) they have taken to offering table service, although without the smile, obviously. The trouble is, they never write anything down but then refuse to accept it when they inevitably get things wrong, as they did with us the other night.
Try keeping your temper when they threaten to call the police because you "refuse to pay" the bill that you just paid five minutes ago.
Dreadful, ignorant people, don't give them your custom. There are at least a dozen better pubs within walking distance.

1 Mar 2013 15:25

Royal Albert, New Cross

This place is quite overrated and a bit up itself, but in an area where most of your alternatives would involve wearing body armour, it remains something of an oasis in a desert of dodginess.
Staff pleasant, clientelle are a rum bunch (strangely dressed Goldsmiths students, the occasional Nathan Barley media type plus a sprinkling of real people). All in all it hovers somewhere between 'quirky' and 'pretentious', but you could do much MUCH worse in this neck of the woods
And they've just started doing Sunday roasts, which are good but expensive (�9-�10)

1 Jun 2007 14:36

The Pineapple, Kentish Town

This once was a really nice little local boozer that i used to frequent on a regular basis. Nowadays, however, i avoid it like the plague.
Since a highly-publicised campaign a couple of years back to stop the pub being turned into flats, the place has been taken over by a bunch of trendy would-be media kids who stand around braying at each other while paying customers are waiting to be served, or simply serve their mates as soon as they walk through the door while the rest of us stand at the bar growing increasingly irate.
The interior is more or less the same as it always was (nicely eccentric) but the students' union atmosphere just leaves me cold.
A terrible shame.

1 Jun 2007 14:15