please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
With just time to try 1 more pub before heading home with the commuters, I chose this pub tucked underneath the railway arches of Fenchurch Street station. There was nothing particularly special about the pub. A private function was being held upstairs. All seats were also taken downstairs, where live football was about to be shown on multiple screens. Fuller's London Pride & Sharp's Doom Bar are the regular ales here. Guests were Black Sheep Best Bitter & Hardy & Hanson's Rocking Rudolph. I was hoping for a real cider. But, they no longer serve it. Disappointing.
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Was surprised it didn't open until just before 1pm on a Saturday so only time for one pint before getting the train from Fenchurch Street.
Very modern in the downstairs bar with lots of wood, high stools etc. Several ales available but not cheap with my pint of IPA costing £4.65 from memory.
Football on TV and food available which looked quite decent, but not enough to bring me back any time soon.
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Been coming here, on and off, since the late seventies. Reliably London-y, great mixed clientele, let it ever be so.
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Ok for a swift one. Modern site hardly conducive to atmosphere but credit for the effort made. 5 regional brewery beers. But, sadly, nah.
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Great food, great atmosphere, great staff and superb value for money!
Come here most week nights, Fridays can get busy but the bar staff are fast so it doesn't take too long to get served! I give it 9/10!
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Don't know how they do it, prices are reasonable and service is fast. Great place for lunch - some meals come with a drink included. I prefer it i the evenings though when the footballs on, my team are winning and the banter is good.
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Been going to the Cheese for years, its never looked better, recently had a make over and what a difference. great atmosphere, great bar staff and brilliant value.
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I have worked in the City for 25 years and have bene in this place loads of times and to be honest I've never liked it.
However. on my recent visit the place as had a nice refit. Four ales on pump and all at a good price.
My pint was nice and for a change the place wasnt mobbed at a lunchtime. Maybe i wont wait as long to pay it another visit.
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Beer OK, Food reasonable quality and price, but the volume of the music is intolerable. Each time I have been in here it has been pumped out at levels that would dictate the use of ear defenders if it were a factory. It really is that bad, making conversation impossible and communication with the staff difficult without resorting to shouting.
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This is the pub I all too regularly used whilst working in the immediate vicinity. Great prices for the City. Many an hour spent on the pool tables so as they've now re-opened after a refit and replaced two good tables with one naff one I'll dock it 2 points and give it a 5
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Not as impressive as I had expected. Cheap enough, as has been said, but I do like something a little more than drinkable..
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Tucked under the rail tracks out of Fenchurch St the Cheshire Cheese is an unreconstructed City boozer of which there are a diminishing number. The decor is 20 years ago but it remains a comfortable drinking environment. Ales consist of Bombardier Pride and Marstons EPA and food and drink prices are very reasonable for the City - Stella at 2.95 for example and two meals for �5.50.
This is the sort of pub I would use if working in the immediate vicinity.
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Being not willing to pay �3 a half at the Baverian Beer Keller, a group of mates and I went across the road to the Cheese. It has an Olde Pub sort of feel, which I relish these days. I had the Marstons at �1.99, which was ok. The London Pride was off - might be because of the hot weather. Yes, the bog was a bit gross. I wouldn't take my wife in there, but it was alright with the lads.
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bitter from 1.99 thats a bargain in the south east.
toilets were fine, not sure what the fuss has been about, lots of blokes in watching arentina v south korea
more refined upstairs
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Odd sort of place with barely passable ale. Suelt staff, grubby beyond belief. I will rate it slight above the Pub Inspector's Bog Hole, but not much.
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Having passed the Cheshire Cheese many times in the past I decided to give it a go. The twenty twenty cricket was on at a loud volume so you were forced to acknowledge it. The Marstons EPA was drinkable but nothing special. At �1.99 it may tempt others to stay and possibly return, but not me. Overall a bit on the shabby side
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Mixed feeling having read the previous reviews. All in all though, just passable beer, dirty, and I won't even go on about the toilets. I consider the Inspectors comments only slightly harsh. I doubt I'll visit again.
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I would also say The-Pub_Inspectors comment is a bit harsh. Yes, the Cheshire Cheese is not a brilliant pub and there are far better examples even close by. But I found it to be a solid enough place and the beers I tried were decent.
Yes, its location underneath the Fenchurch Street railway arches does make it a bit of a dark and dingy location, and there are no redeeming architectural features to please the eye. But if what you are after is a decent pint, and these were London Pride, Adnams Bitter and Jennings Cumberland Ale at the time of my visit, and perhaps a game of pool, (there are two pool tables in the upstairs room and a decent seating area which is quite separate from the pool tables so that you are not interrupted by them), then this pub is OK. But I will concur with HTM69, OK if you work around the corner but there also wasn�t anything here that would drag me back for a second visit.
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If you want "posh" go elsewhere, but if you like uncomplicated and cheap with a decent enough atmosphere then the cheese is great. (yes the gents are appalling but what the hell, if you need to do anything more than drain the tank use the nice shiny facilites in your office when you finish lunch !!!.)
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total crap , another m&B boghole. wont bother again
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Situated opposite Fenchurch Street train station is a rather unremarkable, though be it, functional pub called The Cheshire Cheese. An anonymous, though somewhat intriguing exterior leads into a rather cavernous, dull and dimly lit interior. There is very little of interest to catch the eye, with only the international flags pinned to the ceiling grabbing my attention amongst the usual plasma screens and fruit-machines. There is an upstairs bar where a pool table and darts board can be found, though, alas, was not explore by this reviewer. There was piped-in music to add a touch of atmosphere. At the bar itself, a standard selection of keg beers are available, supplemented by a choice of three real ales: Green King IPA, Pedigree and London Pride. This is a Cask Marquee accredited pub, so the condition was good and pleasingly, the prices were reasonable. A menu is available those who like to munch on a burger with their pint, also. I don�t. All in all, here is probably okay and best suited to those working in the locality and living in Essex. For those such as I, however, a one-off trip is probably best.
HTM69 - 17 Dec 2008 22:30 |
Decent enough boozer, friendly barstaff, good choice of ales, not fantastic but alright for a quick snifter.
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Good little pub, although it is stuck under Fenchurch Street which means inside it's as dark as a Stanley Kubrick film. One quarm I do have with it is that the toilets are utterly filthy, and you get a lovely little whiff of them everytime someone opens the door....lovely jubbly. Apart from that the place is pretty good and I personally prefer it to the P+P next door.
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Somewhat buried under Fenchurch Street station, but relatively cheap (considering its City location). Three real ales on, but the Pedigree was nothing special. Authentic London pub stinking toilets (well the gents, at least), with the traditional 'hot' taps unconnected to the water supply... Reading the small print on the posters, it appears to be an M&B pub.
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Well, I would want somewhere that looks a little cleaner....
anonymous - 4 Aug 2007 14:15 |
What more do you want from a pub. Cheap beer, sport, pool etc. Served quickly and friendlier than most of them round there. I think Angry man must be in the cellar chained to the barrels !!
anonymous - 1 Mar 2007 15:30 |
Excellent pub to go for a few quick pints at lunchtime. The food service can be a bit inconsistent and one of the barmen is quite temperamental (I think it may be the same guy referred to in an earlier review). My mates and I just know him as the "Angry Man" and seems to resent having to serve customers.
Apart from that though a decent Boozer, well worth a visit if you're ever in the Tower Hill area.
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Visiting Capacity: I have used this pub over several years after work to watch the football and take colleagues there for a jar or two.
Beer: Nice selection of bitters (rec: London Pride), lagers (Stella, Kronenbourg and even Amstel on draft), good selection of bottled bers (Corona, Leffe, Brahma etc) Guinness + EC and standard top shelf. Well looked after lines and clean glasses. Service is good, can get very busy and you may wait a small while. But then again thats a decent pub with plenty of customers.
Food: Great steaks since the kitchen has a charcoal grill. Standard pub chain menu with burgers etc, good for the tourists (rec: Fish & Chips).
Layout and Ambiance: At first glance the pub sems small when you walk in, rectangular (roughly). But once you have your pint and look about you notice several nice hidy holes (one fitted seating area to the right of the stairs, left hand side of the pub has raised tables and fitted seats & the right hand side has stand up area along the wall with high stalls if you need them. Good eating area in the middle full of tables.
Upstairs bar has almost full selection as downstairs, bar open at peak times, toilets upstairs as well, so no need to run between floors for beer or the loo.
Noisy at lunch and good buzz in the evening.
Entertainment: Downstairs - Setanta screen and large screen on walls, all sports shown with ful Prem coverage. Couple of bandits and a golf machine. Upstairs - Quiz type machine, two pool tables and a dart board. I even heard you can ask for chess or crib at the bar!
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Dire food service!!! Waited for 50 - 65 minutes, for lunch to arrive, which to be fair was ok. There were six of us, and it arrived in three stages!
When we complained to the arrogant bar man on the first floor, instead of even beginning to apologise he instead insisted it was our fault because, in his words "We are a pub, not a restaurant".
The most unbelievably shocking 'service' I've EVER experienced in a pub.
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I was in this pub a few weeks ago with my mom and sister. We had a great time - had a few pints, some food, played cards for a couple of hours. The service was great. We all really enjoyed it.
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This pub seems to have Essex office goffers downing their �2 pints before stumbling to Fenchurch St and back home. Good for football. Pool table upstairs. Usually a few rough birds getting a lot of attention. The pints are not nearly off like Wetherspoons so you don't get the squirts the next day as often!
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Very very loud man at the bar. Made me want to kill him. Think he'd had about 8 pints. Hope he was sick on his suit and missed his stop on the way home.
Average pub.
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Nice friendly pub, went there after work with the girls, food and wine was very reasonable and it was buzzying for a Friday night, very good start to the weekend, would recommend to anyone for a good night out
anonymous - 22 Nov 2004 16:45 |
New govenor at the Cheese! Refurb happening and it looks good. Food is the standard fare and the steaks are recommended. decent selection of Bitters and the lines are well cared for. Also it has an upstairs bar so it saves on the legs if your playing pool.
Nimrod - 17 Nov 2004 16:40 |
due a �50k refurb in march. come and have a look!
Michael - 28 Feb 2004 01:22 |
Gents toilets like a paddling pool. Minging.
mike - 18 Jul 2003 11:34 |
Nothing special, just a good place for a beer after work. I'd be interested to see how your reviewers rate it. And no, I'm not the landlord, just a regular.
Tony - 8 Jul 2003 09:14 |
