Bell, Leytonstoneback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Basic locals pub but a warm welcome and plenty of seating out the front and the back. Decent prices. Unspectacular but reliable and I would return if passing.
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Been in there three times recently, the new manager and his staff were drunk on duty. made for hilarious watching & I kept getting giver random pints of Free Guinness......Bring back the old managers, they weren't the smiliest people in the world but at least they knew how to run a pub!
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Following recent visit to he Bell,I found the pub staffed by two friendly barmaids,who made me feel very welcome,Lots of Plasma TVs around showing the football etc-Two Pool Tables and a"top of the pops"Digital Jukebox where you can play ay top 40 hit going right ack to 1952.
All in all a nice pub to consider visiting whenever you're in the area.
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Reasonably friendly pub, some ok beer on (think it was Bombadier) mostly lager on tap. Pool table and plenty of space.
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Sign on the door saying that the pub will be open as normal from the 12th of Feb.
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Apparently this has closed now too (along with the North star).
Do we all have to drink at Wetherspoons now?
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I don't come here often, but when I do I always have a great night. On paper, it's a pub I'd avoid like the plague - (huge signs advertising Setanta and Karaoke, for example) but it's a great boozer with a friendly, loyal clientele drawn from all strata of Leytonstone life and helpful, smiling bar staff. The Abbot Ale we had on our last visit was outstanding - which to be honest was a bit of a surprise. I wouldn't make a special journey, but It's well worth a visit if you're in the area - and London's best Thai restaurant is a hundred yards away.
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Bill's a grumpy bugger, I'd been going in here for 9 years before he ventured into conversation! This is a quality pub, really friendly (Bill excepted) and with a foxy Natascha McElhone- lookalike barmaid. The cop station next door is squatted now, you hear Italian Trance coming out of the upstrairs windows!
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What a fantastice night had by one and all to celebrate St georges night, the place was packed, some were in to watch the football(only a handful) but majority to join in, Mary had took the time to decorate inside and out with flags,ballons, tables etc.What a Shame this pub is'nt like it every week,(for all the hard work and devotion that is quite obviously put in to this place),The Bell has surely to hold number one pub spot in this area.The staff were also enjoying themselves, even though they were working their socks off!!
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Read previous reviews and so thought give it a try, sorry it took so long excellent night on a friday with karaoke great atmosphere good beer, very hospitable landlady (mary i think) evenly priced, free quiz mentioned on sunday night so went and joined in (which was free) very busy prizes given for different places in finishing, also everyone has the chance to win upto �70 for a �1 investment!!! (not bad).Nice to see a local celebrating St Georges night with a good old sing-a-long and traditional pie n mash.something else to look forward to as well as a charity night in may.
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This place is the only decent pub in the area,clean, tidy and well kept, Mary the landlady bends over backwards for her customers and 'nothing' is ever to much trouble, karaoke every friday night is good the same as free quiz on sunday(most other places you pay to enter) recently noticed this pub is celebrating St Georges night on 23rd this month and even supporting a charity night at the end of may for next door neighbours (leytonstone fire station), anything like the last one should be fantastic evening!!.Visit this pub and give it a try, good beer,staff,garden,food,overall a really nice local, well done Mary keep it up.
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Much more pleasant with the smoking ban - that's this punter's view anyway. The quiz night is still excellent - brings to mind the working men's clubs back up North. Really friendly staff and locals. Ale is three pumps of the likes of Abbot and London Pride. One pint I had was undrinkable, but changed with no drama. The smiley barman gave me a half to try before my next pint, which was actually pretty good for what is very much a lager pub.
'Scarey' - why didn't you just use the cashpoint in the shop over the road?
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Bill can't help the way he is, it's an illness! Apart from that I think it's a lovely pub. Mary's great and staff are friendly. The toilets can sometimes be left in a mess, but you would of thought that in a pub full of regulars that people would remember to leave the toilets as they would like to find them!!! Food's always good in there too. Can't comment on beers or ales but the draught diet coke is always nice....
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I went here with an open mind, but with the expectation of this being I decent pub going by the reviews. When I first arrived I thought it was a reasonable east end pub, much in fitting with some of the better ones in the borough and surrounding areas. Beer was alright, prices at the upper end of ok and the service from the lady behind the bar was good. However, sadly the evening went down hill from there, when I went to get the next round, the Landlord served me, he didn't respond well to a little small talk and when offered a debit card for payment he rebuked it with what can almost be described as horror! When questioned on why he didn't take cards we were given a closed answer of "Just don't", it took two of us politely asking progressively more simplified questions filled with increasingly more open ended statements which included possible answers for him to just nod at; honestly it was like pulling teeth from this guy! Finally got to the bottom of it - he didn't trust them as he had customers in the past using knocked of ones (Even this is a poor answer, as any businessman familiar with merchant services, knows that they can claim these monies back from the banks). So as this is going on my friends and I are pooling are small change, at which point his only moment of levity came from our possible misfortune of us not having bus fare to get home! (not an issue thankfully as we pointed out we had other cards with oysters on them) Truly childish behavior, and not the level of professionalism you would expect from someone who has chosen a career in the hospitality trade (different story to have a laugh and joke with regulars, or even if he had been in good humour up to that point with us as new guests). I don't like bashing people, but this guy got my goat, any one can have a bad day, but it appears this is his normal state, anyway, so after sitting back down and having a little vent about this guy, the mood moved back to our discussions, a while later I when to the Gents, only to be met with the most foul cess pit of a convenience, a quick wade past the urinal lends you to the dilapidated throne with it's broken seat and plastic cistern pock marked with cigarette burns, and toilet paper decorating the floor. I've seen some dire dunnies in my time, but this one gets the medal.
All in all, a disgrace. There are a few good pubs in the borough, not many unfortunately but those are the ones that prove it is possible to run a good pub as freeholder or even a leaseholder and compete with the chain pubs, if not on price, at least service and if they are smart enough, capture a niche. The Bell in Leytonstone joins it's name sake in Walthamstow at the very bottom of the league, I most definitely won't visit this pub again and hope that the lose in revenue from others like me who vote with their feet, is enough to stir this pub out of it mire.
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Okay, bad points. Bill the guvnor, miserable sod.
Other than that, this place is lovely. NEVER seen a fight in here, great pool table, karaoke on Friday nights is a blast, quiz on Sunday, nice decor, spacious, evenly priced and next to a police station. The regulars are top notch, VERY welcoming and a nice mix of age groups. Oh and Mary the lady who helps run the place is a diamond!
This is a very nice place to start your weekend or wind down. Kudos!
anonymous - 24 Aug 2007 11:56 |
We often come here for the excellent quiz night. It's a large, bog-standard East End boozer. I agree the decor is dated. It looks like someone's had a brainstorm after watching a mid 90s episode of "changing rooms". It's also very, very smoky. Friendly enough, though.
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Great local and probably the best all-round pub ib Leytonstone. Very friendly staff and clientele. Haven't eaten there but the food is very cheap, while the drinks are standard prices for the area. The decor has a lot to be desired though and is very outdated. Overall, this is a welcoming, reasonably priced local with a good atmosphere. You wouldnt go there for its range of ale, although you wouldnt go to Leytonstone for that either!
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This is spooky. Quackenbush seems to be following me around the country.
Anyway... pretty bog standard stuff. Big 'ol 30s roadhouse presumably built to cash in on the then new phenomena of the middle-class motorist. Popular with the neighbouring bobbies and firemen. Large interior, with lots of seating but very, very smoky. Same group of regulars semi-permanently installed on stools at the bar who tend to stare at 'newcomers' until they sit down. Handy for a lager before a visit to the superb Sinburi Thai restaurant up the road. Never tried the real ale... in fact, I'm not sure there is any. Pretty certain you could get a Light And Bitter here without being asked what it is by the barmaid... the staff are eastenders through and through.
anonymous - 26 Feb 2006 22:08 |
A very traditional pub in the middle of a completely altered neighbourhood. The only really safe and relaxed pub in the area.
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Friendly detached boozer in the middle of the High Road. This is a local's local, and none the worse for that. Food is dirt cheap and it has a good quiz on a sunday night. It's not a 'destination' pub, just a good, honest beer house.
anonymous - 15 Oct 2005 23:40 |
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