The Red Lion, Leytonstone - pub details
Previously called: Zulus
Address: 640, High Rd, Leytonstone, London, E11 3AA [map] [gmap]
Tel: 0871 951 1000 (ref 2592) - calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras
Leytonstone (0.2 miles), Wanstead (0.9 miles)
Leytonstone High Road (0.4 miles), Leyton Midland Road (0.9 miles), Wanstead Park (1.4 miles)
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> Current user rating: 5.7/10 (rated by 40 users)
other pubs nearby:
Sheepwalk, Leytonstone (0.0 miles), Walnut Tree, Leytonstone (0.1 miles), O'Neills, Leytonstone (0.2 miles), North Star, Leytonstone (0.2 miles), Lincolns, Leytonstone (0.3 miles) - see more nearby pubs
user reviews of The Red Lion, Leytonstone
please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
5 most recent reviews of 52 shown - see all reviews
| Shabby sheek, I think they call it. All I know is I chucked my bird a serious LENGTH in the bogs. Proper geezers boshing. Wallop! pissbehindthecupboard - 20 Jan 2016 17:47 |
| 'Some blokes' 'outside' 'pressganged' me into this pub. Ahem, 'your dignitaries'. What followed was almost a carbon copy of the history of the Royal Navy. Tragedy, trimuph, joy, more joy, an (forgettable) ascent of Nelson's column, dignitaries. And a 'hosing down'. Rule Britannia, indeed. If only I through otherwise I would be. fostersfan - 9 Dec 2015 11:45 |
| *Note this IS a review of The Red Lion, but with a lengthy pre-amble. Had some plumbers round Tuesday and Wednesday putting in new central heating. They liked and early start – 8am prompt ffs. Which meant I had to get up even EARLIER – didn’t realise it was dark at that time. I do *not* like early starts especially with wine the night before. They were a bit younger than me - and the apprentice seemed like a real dead-eyed dope. I kept mostly out of their way, but as is unavoidable in a flat, couldn’t avoid the white collar / blue collar clashes. I just gave them the odd bit of nonsense banter and avoided any questions about their work, and it was clear they wanted to keep ‘barriers up’ between the proles and the bourgeois. At one point Mungo asked if he could move my desk in the box room. I said sure, and got up from my throne in the lounge and went in to help him lift it…..or so I thought. As I caught one end of the desk (quite solid and heavier than it looks) he stood at the other end completely slack-armed. He just watched as I awkwardly shuffled the desk with one end raised! ‘Gah, no Pontefract cakes for that churl at tea’ I thought. They seemed to spend the entire time in the bathroom for some reason, and from the sounds of it were building a very crude time machine hewn from girders, so I was reduced to going to Tescos round the corner when ever I needed to ‘go’ - to avoid interrupting them. Using the Tesco customer toilets each time was like being in a condensed version of ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. If you ever wondered where all the patients went from this building that was a former mental hospital…….’Hell-ooooww’ someone said in a slow lisp as I walked in. I thought this would be a perfect day to try out The Red Lion for lunch as well to kill some time. I did a lap past The Olive, just to check out their lunch board (good prices, but a bit empty) and walked up towards the Lion. I toyed with what splendour I could dine in at The Walnut Tree (nearby Wetherspoons) for the same money I was about to spend, but reminding myself of the ‘plumber purgatory’ put the thought from my mind. Entering on my own, I immediately made a table of about 6 lunching mummies feel uncomfortable as I hovered near them reading the menu, which was not the utter ponce-fest I was expecting. I got the fish and chips with pea-something-or-other and was served by a very lovely young barmaid. I sat near the back so I could watch her work and also eavesdrop on four smug thirtysomethings (two couples). Mike Leigh would have shot his bolt at what I overheard…..property prices and ‘how we don’t have to worry about that any more, etc’; one of them having just returned from working in America – ‘they have loads of different accents over there don’t they?’ and their married neighbours who loudly argue about each other’s persistent philandering and call each other ‘c**ts’ at the top of their voices. The Alpha looked over at me as he said this, but I just smirked back at him with an expression saying ‘keep it coming….’ A nice fat cod fillet arrived with a decent amount of chips – think what you’d get if you ‘ate in’ at a chip shop – I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately the modern take on ‘peas’ was a strange affair – all fur and no knickers as Marcus Wareing might comment to a hapless Masterchef contestant. I enslaved the barmaid to bring me vinegar – and betrayed my humbler origins. With the conversation dried up on Table Smug, I thought I heard Page’s bow and Plant’s wail (rumour has it Led Zeppelin played here) as I mopped up the ‘crivens’. I took my leave with a camp flourish. Later that afternoon, I decided to vary my ‘p1ss routine’ and went into The Walnut Tree. The contrast from the Red Lion was not lost on me. As I stood at the urinal, I heard the inevitable clatter of crutches being dropped as someone was trying to open the door to the toilets (true). senberbex - 27 Nov 2014 18:06 |
| This pub has improved massively now it's reopened under its original name, and deserves a much higher rating than it got when it was Zulus. The bar has ten or so hand pumps, all in use, plus a few keg beers and an enormous selection of craft beer in bottles. The food is definitely aimed at taking the place upmarket, and the burger I had was excellent. At the back is a big beer garden with some zany spray-paint art on the walls, and a roofed passageway that seems to get used for events such as beer festivals. This gives the place a huge capacity when the weather's warm. Definitely one of the better places for a pint and a bite to eat in Leytonstone. fredfoobar - 8 Nov 2014 01:41 |
| It's seems to be not only Saturday when you can't get a seat. Monday night is Quiz Night and all of the tables seem to be reserved, and as myself and three friends had gone out of our way to go to the Red Lion because of its beer range, we were not to impressed that we couldn’t get a seat, so instead of spending the evening here we drunk up and left. But on the plus side the Sharp’s Cornish Coaster was excellent. Freebeerforall55 - 22 Jan 2014 00:29 |
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