please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
£5 for a pint of ale that any half decent cellarman would be ashamed of?
You're having a laugh
I am giving it a 4. I would have given it 0 but the barmaid had a lovely cleavage
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I remember it as Babushka's and although it was a little poncey in its previous incarnation, it was better. Like a lot of London bars, the owners think they can apply fake rococo stucco to the walls as an excuse to drive up the price. Service was also a bit 'cheeky chappy' but in far from a genuine way although the food looked Ok. Doombar and Tribute formed a duo of Cornish ales and both were pretty well kept. There is a pleasant terrace overlooking the canal.
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I'm quite surprised by some of these reviews my friends and I drink in here after work sometimes and we've only had good times. The staff are friendly and when we have eaten there the food has been great! Haven't been upstairs so need to check that on my next visit.
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A maze of a place used for amusing theme nights and stuff like that. Not a pub any more, interested to hear it used to be the Swan.
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This looks like it used to be the Swan where I spent many happy lunch hours in the late 70s drinking Charrington IPA and eating cheese and ham toasties. A down to earth pub with friendly owners and appealing to everyone from BUPA consultants to locals with office workers such as myself in the middle.
How are the mighty fallen! Typical of London pubs today - create something expensive and crap nobody wants to go to and then refurbish regularly.
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this place is dreadful at any time of the day.
quite pricey, staff ok but sometimes pre-occupied chatting amongst themselves.
food very expensive for what it is - if you dont need to go there, then dont.
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I wasn't desperately impressed with this bar on the Saturday evening I visited: quite a nice stripped back interior and quite roomy inside, but half the tables seemed to be reserved (despite being empty at about half ten), there were no real ales (perhaps unsurprisingly in what is more a bar than a pub), and the DJ suddenly whacked up the music volume at about eleven such that we couldn't hear ourselves think. We made our excuses and left.
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Sunday roast... not great, in fact not even good. Tasteless beef, bullet peas and bitter wine gravy. �14 x2 not well spent. Do not bother eating your Sunday roast here. Good service although it was just about empty so really no excuse to be anything other. Can't speak for the evening drinks, so shall have to drop in sometime in order to comment. Hope it's better than the food.
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When your change comes in a little metal tray it's not really a pub at all, and when you've just paid 3 quid and something for a pint of mediocre Guinness, you're not feeling all that generous anyway, I think.
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Don't bother! Went there a few weeks ago & had a pleasant evening so arranged to meet friends there again this Saturday. Arrived to find the whole place booked out to private parties - several wasted journeys (some from across London) & a ruined evening.
Go to the Ruby Lounge instead.
anonymous - 5 Feb 2007 14:13 |
Fairly good interior with an enormo-mirror at one end - better in fact than the drab exterior suggests. Full of happy Gooners who all beetled off to the Clock End twenty minutes before K-O, after a rousing singalong to Chas n Dave's Greatest Misses. Guinness was pretty fair but the sun hadn't yet reached the terrace, which left me feeling a little chilly. The prospect of trying to digest a cold fatty bacon roll in these conditions was less than appealing. So I didn't.
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Popped in here for a warm-up pint on Saturday morning, and was fortunate enough to be joining a very lively and noisy set of Gooners - their pre-match chants and singalongs fuelled by a suitably minded DJ. The terrace offered some breathing space, and evidence of some kind of bacon-butty-breakfast-bonanza. As kick-off approached the pub emptied completely leaving only the barmaid and us. So a stark contrast in atmospheres, but overall not a bad place. Crucially, it was open pre-midday.
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Had a party here upstairs and it was all very nice. Good place.
anonymous - 30 Sep 2005 14:35 |
Now called "Canal 125" this bar has huge potential. A decent selection of imported beers (Heineken, Budvar etc) and the atmosphere is nice and relaxed in the daytime but quite different on a Firday night! The outdoor terrace is fantastic on a sunny afternoon, and there are decent rooms upstairs for private functions. The restaurant area is really nicely done too.
anonymous - 13 Apr 2005 09:28 |
Went to this place a couple of times and found the staff to be the rudest people i've ever met behind a bar. Terrible. The place was empty but glasses all over the place.
Nice located though
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this is great. go here on a night - fantastic.
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Utterly mental. b3ta.com has their bash here and I for one went to their 2nd birthday outing here. Can remember going there, running out the beer, punching a marrow in to the street below and whistling "The Hustle" lots.
Ace. And the beer wasn't overpriced as Matt said, it's cheaper than most bars I've been to in Brighton!
Jim - 2 Oct 2003 17:40 |
One to avoid. (Unless you like overpriced drinks in a dank dark room that is)
Babushka is one of those places that's empty most the time except when it gets packed for an hour between 5.30 and 6.30 on a Friday when all the local officeworkers with nowhere else to go have their post work tipple and swiftly move on somewhere better. Go to the Ruby Lounge on Caledonian Road for a better time.
Matt - 14 Aug 2003 11:24 |
