please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
It's a bar.
It's open late.
It shows sports.
Not a trendy or fashionable joint but it's somewhere you can depend on a night cap come kicking out time at nearby pubs.
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If you're a local and you're out late, you'll probably end up here or The Good Ship.
This bar has a dated club/late bar decor, nice staff, burly door staff on from about 9pm at wknds. Never seen an entry fee. It can get very busy but there's always room for a few more to squeeze in. Its 2 mins from the Tube, and 10 seconds from the Overground.
Beers, as others have mentioned, are lacking in selection, but that reinforces the late bar feel - no ales. The Guinness is good, I drink that or Staropramen (on tap). A pint is about �3.50.
They show most football matches on their 3 or 4 flatscreens, and a projector screen for the bigger games. Smoking area at the front has a tv too, plus heaters. and a view of the high road.
Don't go expecting a great drink, but you'll probably have some late night fun, dance, chat, meet some nice people, and some weirdos. Enjoy.
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Currently visiting a pub at every station on the London Overground. Did this one for Brondesbury. Has the feel of an English bar in Magaluf or Benidorm. Was really busy for the Man Unt v Man City community shield. No real ales and beers were expensive. A good pub for atmosphere when watching a big game but not overly keen on it in general.
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Recommend watching sport here, great atmosphere and the food is good,Pity about the djs at weekends.
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This isn�t the most aesthetically pleasing place with a stainless steel bar and exposed house brick interior with tired looking red panelling around the doors. The barmaid that served me was very friendly, but there is no real ale and the Guinness was off during my visit leaving only a selection lagers available.
There are plasma screens and a projector screen for showing Sky Sports, but during my visit when the rugby had finished the loud dance music reared its ugly head.
This is by no means a good pub and I�ll not be returning.
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Was so pleasantly suprised with this place!! I booked it last minute for my Birthday and called to reserve an area- when I arrived they has given me a lovely small area to the back of the bar. The bar staff were extremely friendly.
There ended up being rather a large group of us, mainly women. There was a small group of men in the bar who were extremely shifty- letching at and making comments at the girls, hovering around our drinks etc. The bouncers were extremely good at dealing with this- they even put a bouncer next to us so that there was no trouble. This a rareity in London, to find bouncers who are both friendly and efficient!!! These guys could have easily ruined what was a fantastic night but thanks to the staff this was not the case. The cocktails in there were great, and reasonably priced. The atmosphere was buzzing and the staff couldnt do enough for you. Would highly recomend this place!!
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We visted this pub last night and was impressed, good atmosphere,great food and spacious heated smoking area, good selection of beers and cocktails.
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Please give me a break. Thank you Kilburn.
This place is quite seriously a dump. NO GOOD WORDS TO BE SAID!
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Wow!!
Wow how Kilburn has changed!
We started our pub crawl in Powers bar and herd a fabulous live act and then we enjoyed a wonderful burger and pizza in the Brondes Age. We heard a funky DJ in the Kilburn and rolled out of the Good ship at 5am. What a night, thanks Kilburn
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Did anyone actually bother to read through that tedious review/essay to the end?
No? Me neither. Anybody who writes that much about a distinctly average pub in Kilburn either owns the place or had a few two many before turning the computer on.
The reality is that this place is fine for a couple of pints of an evening, but it doesn't exactly blow you away. The single redeeming feature is the outdoor heaters, which makes the stream of traffic passing by all night just about bearable.
Not good, not bad. Just ok. The Windmill up the road is far better.
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Whoo Hoo hoo. We have stirred up a hornets nest.
iamwhoiam? Really. Get the Danny La Rue quote right.
I am WHAT I am!
You obviously are too close in and not close enough to what this place is.
Once upon a time, this place was actually quite a good shop. Serving the community. Now it's a blight, which despite your verbal diarrhoea really doesn't try hard enough.
These reviews shining a bright light on this place, really seem to be contrived.
Can I suggest that as a public service that every person in the locale, visits this establishment, spends their �3+ on a beer & lets us know their opinion.
Should clear this up pretty quickly.
BTW Merry Xmas Biker. Sounds like we are similar types of cycleopaths.
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Can anyone tell if the previous review is actually a review of this pub or, just a rubbishing exercise of other nearby pubs ? On the other hand, what a litery style ! The words verbose and turgid spring to mind !
Biker - 17 Dec 2007 14:48 |
Ladies, Gentlemen and Attention Seekers:
Let me be clear from the outset. Or rather, let me reassure you that I neither work for, nor am paid by or nor am anyway associated with what I consider to be a not-half-bad place to enjoy a pint (or whatever tipple takes your fancy - mine's wine by the way) on any given day of the week.
Most people who have pretensions (note I didn't say "a proclivity") to drinking in their preferred local - or sometimes their locale - will have, if not try to push, an unreasonable if predictable bias about what drinks and venues "do it" for them time and again. I say "predictable" because it wouldn't stand to reason to comment negatively about a place one hangs out in - and I do mean "hang out in" as, let's admit it, in Kilburn we don't exactly "patronise" our venues (not until they start offering membership schemes - stalls, upper circle and balcony seating, for example), nor "hold office hours" in them (unless you happen to sell flashy cigarette lighters or DVDs), nor hold shares in the businesses based on the amounts of alcohol we consume (if you drink, you've already paid your price, and the reward is how the booze works for you).
I also say "unreasonable", because we only take into consideration - or least we tend only to take into consideration - our last drinking/eating/outing experience in isolation. Who hasn't had some pretty drastic night in some otherwise pretty familiar if not regular watering hole? At best, these are anomalies that often come down to our individual or collective excesses rather than any single statutory or consumer right violation.
In fact, who can't recall having a good time in one and the same place where we might have experienced a 7.5 on the Barmy Scale (BS), to say nothing of the probably myriad times we couldn't even recall at all without the assistance of a hypnotherapist, because we drank so much that it all went to oblivion (for better or worse)?
With this in mind, perhaps you will think better of my take on the Brondes: which is to say, that it is the only place that "tries harder" while it attempts to remain true to itself. The Kilburn, which, by this logic, doesn't qualify: it's had more revamps and facelifts in a shorter span of time than a small-time drag queen. (And what's with those exhaust-fume arm-rest ledges that give onto the vapid fumes of the High Road?) Likewise Powers (though for years it needed a gutting, both of its in-the-open drug-dealing clientele, and management and furnishing, to say nothing of its currently exorbitant prices) and The Golden Egg. McGoverns, by contrast, has been for years been one of those kinds of pubs in Kilburn (together with the Collin Cambell, Cock Tavern and Coopers Arms) that couldn't do anything to change its looks, service or appeal with anything short of an all-out demolishing, brewery owned or not. (Are they in touch with anything?) And Biddy's - it doesn't even know where it is on Google Maps, let alone the space-time continuum that most of us - forgive me if I call by its true name - call R-E-A-L-I-T-Y! The pubs further on down the High Road wouldn't know change if they got it by the bagful at the Bingo Hall (an altogether better drinking venue by far, certainly better than The Old Bell or The Red Lion).
Trying harder is the key: and the Brondes Age would seem to have it in spades. Over the years the place continues to expand, adding, little by little, more to its very diverse repertoire. There isn't a cocktail they can't make; the food is unpretentious, consistently served and served in portions that no other pub can match - even the addition of pizzas and pastas on their menu rival those of specialists like Casareccia and Osteria del Ponte (formerly, if gladly no more, The Bridge). It's staff are conscientious, the management seem to be fair and firm and security (though it has its work cut out for it, considering the range of crazies that recrudesce in Kilburn like a rash) even it looks like its got its stuff together. The range of goings-on at the Brondes Age is also pretty good, too. We're talking: bands and DJs, big games with no hassles, disco parties, spaces set aside for massive dos, breakfast opening hours, Sunday roasts, late nights, extended nights, a vast outside patio (which is ultra smoker friendly if that happens to be your thing), participation in local events, year-round opening (and closing) hours that shut out all other Kilburn venues, and always a consistent, thriving and returning customer base - and all with the same staff, doing the same good job, day in and day out (no one stays where they aren't loved, staff included).
In fact, if things continue to progress the way they have done, it wouldn't surprise me if National Rail decided to open a mini-stop just before Brondesbury station with special access to the Brondes Age... Which would require either a special entrance from the roof, if not a rooftop beer garden, neither of which I would put past this sane, safe, savoury and without doubt Kilburn's best bar and restaurant.
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Biker, sorry, you're right!
Main criticisms. The place is dirty, in a very bad way.
Service is appalingly slow & obviously over preferential to "regulars". Many of whom don't seem to part with money over the bar.
But most of all the beer is foul! Judging by the other standards on show, the beer lines are cacky dirty.
Hope that clears up any confusion.
Regards, Werner
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werner_von_braun, correct ! Anonymous reviews that just 'big-up' a place without description are usually written by owners / managers / staff or a favoured customer. However, you should be more descriptive and specific as to what's actually bad about the place. Where possible, click on usernames and you'll see where others have been ! No rating left, not been in a boozer near you for several years.
Biker - 23 Nov 2007 08:08 |
Does anyone else get the feeling that "anonymous" could possibly be a barman called Pedro?
3 reviews within 10 minutes on the same night.
If it looks like bullshit & smells like bullshit, then well.... It's probably...?
My review. Avoid if possible. Went into McGoverns on the other side of the KHR. Since the smoking ban, very civilised. Good pint of Guinness too.
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the prices are not so good.the menu is very limited but the staff is off the hook.they use 2 have really shit staff,but now we go there 4 the atmosphere.don`t go there on sundays coz its 2 busy.
that portuguese and the new romanian guy,are relly good.
ask them 4 secial shots and if ull not gonna die,ull gonna have fun.
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Great Pub!!!I had a great evening at the brondes age,i came with some friends for dinner only,but i stayed all night.The beer prices and spirits are good.The quality,price and presentation of the food was great.The staff EXCELENT!!!The girls doing th floor work taking orders were great,and the bar staff....Friendly and cheeky in a nice way.They serve with speed specially a guy called Pedro...That boy talkes and serves 3,4 people at tha same time, and he does it allways with a smile and a joke.And he is so handsome...Girls....go to Brondes Age...Pedro is THE BARMAN.The security people are friendly,and i have to congratulate the management,they are doing a great job.Keep it up.
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Great Pub!!!I had a great evening at the brondes age,i came with some friends for dinner only,but i stayed all night.The beer prices and spirits are good.The quality,price and presentation of the food was great.The staff EXCELENT!!!The girls doing th floor work taking orders were great,and the bar staff....Friendly and cheeky in a nice way.They serve with speed specially a guy called Pedro...That boy talkes and serves 3,4 people at tha same time, and he does it allways with a smile and a joke.And he is so handsome...Girls....go to Brondes Age...Pedro is THE BARMAN.
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Used to go here a fair bit but stopped as the bar staff have a ongoing tendency to remove you drinks from the table and trow them away before you are finished!
three times without asking cant be a coincidence.
not really worth it when there are far more options around
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Been cobbled together from three previous sites and it shows. Toilets are ridiculously small staff and drinks are ok place to go when the rest of the pubs in the area have shut.
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Love this place, have recently moved to Kilburn and found it to be the best pub about. wicked staff with table service and nice food- even been there for breakfast. Bit gross being so close to the road but interesting watching people go by. Definilty recommend a drink here, big couches inside or tables outside, something for everyone.
anonymous - 20 Sep 2006 16:45 |
Very busy in the evening but service friendly and quick. Good bar food.
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'tis neither one of London's best pubs, nor nowhere near a awful as others here have suggested.
Having lived in the area from 2001 until 2005, I watched the area evolve from rough 'n' ready to full on trendy. During this time, the Brondes Age and Powers Bar remained steadfast and gave the more normal residents of Kilburn two decent places to go. Of course this was before the alleged cutting-edge types came, apparently "discovered" the area, consequently making it too expensive to live there anymore.
Even now with the Black Lion and North London Tavern all gone trendy, the Brondes Age (and Powers) are still the best in the area.
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"Great Pub!! one of londons best!"
Huh??
It's acceptable but nothing worth getting excited about or travelling further than one tube stop for... Maybe great in the context of some of the other considerably less salubrious venues around Kilburn but certainly not one of London's best.
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Great Pub!! one of londons best!
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Fabulous atmosphere, good food. Worth a visit.
anonymous - 29 Jan 2006 21:30 |
I'm with kmos on this one. Dress it up anyway you want it it still the Kilburn High Road (and not the nice bit, you know, next to Argos). Good for late night drinking and being stared at by guys with too much body hair..
Vicar - 18 Jan 2006 15:32 |
Wow! Kilburn has improved so much! This is one of many good bars on the High Road. Love the outside area.
anonymous - 10 Nov 2005 12:04 |
There is nothing vindictive about calling a place shit pal. Thats the nature of posting on a site which exists for the sole purpose of sharing opinions. The fact is, most normal people would be fcking livid if they travelled from anywhere to come to this gaff, based on your snivellingly false review. "Wonderful heated terrace", are you fcking mad! Thats fcking Kilburn high road you tit. If anything, this site is downvalued by cocks like you, coming on and saying that everywhere is "wonderful" and "above average." How can everywhere be above average pal? I bet your the type of geezer that gives 110%.........
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Very impressive bar. Food above average, spacious with a wonderful heated terrace. Service is above average and staff very good. Previous remark by 'kmos' was surely vindictive and certainly not an accurate, fair or objective review. It is a real shame that this site is down valued by vindictive remarks, instead of accurate and objective oppinions. Without prejudice.
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Good beer and food.
anonymous - 20 Aug 2005 09:10 |
stone...-age clientele, ice...-age service, timelessly shit decor, small, unless you wanna sit out on the high road,..cack.....-age!
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Busy bar with excellent bar food. Good value local night out.
anonymous - 16 Aug 2005 10:37 |
Great pub. Spacious, friendly staff, warm decor, usually buzzing (but not bursting) with people (a few antipodeans?)having a good time. Outside area great for summer armlifting, food above average, management professional - had youngish bar person 'discourage' seriously irritating and persistent drunk bothering us at our outside table without it getting ugly. Somewhat limited choice of beer though.
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This place has sort of gone to the dogs, those ridiculous red awnings outside, tacky drunkards from outside of Kilburn rather than the loveable local crazies next door in Powers Bar, and banging dance music all weekend long...yuck.
anonymous - 15 Apr 2005 16:47 |
I really like the Brondes age - the outside seating is great in the summer. I also like all the lovely ozzy and kiwi people - least they are friendly and up for a laugh unlike the rest of the miserable people who like to drink in there.
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Great staff? There was an Italian girl with long blond hair and a pierced nose who was super friendly and the manager Nino is excellent but the rest are bar fodder.
Very sad place, lots of lonely old drunks looking for the late drink around the bar. The younger clientele are generally not locals, undiscerning and blind drunk. The icing on the cake though is the big screen showing Fashion TV. Haha. A truly idiotic place.
John - 30 Oct 2004 12:44 |
I thought people only went here because it's open late, but seemingly not. What planet do you people live on?
Oh, there we go. Australia.
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Brondes Age - Brilliant, used to be there all the time in 2002 till I moved back to Oz, Great decor, the best bar staff and excellent food, they also used to have some really good DJ's on Saturday nights. 10/10
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Great Bar with great bar staff. Like the decor but friends have complained that with the deep red walls and perpetual smokiness it can seem like an impersonation of hell (not to mention all the 'sinners' in there haha)
Jennifer - 4 Feb 2004 15:47 |
wonderful bar,great decor,good food,Best in NW,London.Vist its a must. [James -29Oct 19;01]
James Ryan - 29 Oct 2003 19:33 |
good food, good tv screens, plenty of seating, does get smokey but seating area outside is popular in summer
justvisiting - 17 Oct 2003 13:06 |
Very noisy, smoky bar. The toilets are amongst the worst I have seen. Sometiems the lager doesn't take like it should. Great decor though.
Anon - 11 Oct 2003 12:04 |
used to be only decent drinking place for anyone under 60 in kilburn amongst all the old paddy pubs. lots of good spots inside, great outside tables for watching the pondlife on the high rd. good food. but high staff turnover!
millym - 25 Jul 2003 21:01 |
