The Old Dairy, Finsbury Park

I love the "new" Old Dairy. Gone is the average weatherspoons style aircraft hanger with a cinema sized TV showing footy all weekend. This is what pubs should be about in 2007. Along with the smokers, gone are the crappy beers, the tv's and chips with everything. We get Amstel and Becks on draught, a decent wine selection and bar snacks that include Wasabi peanuts and homemade pork scratchings (deliocious but no good for the diet!). Its got fat sofa's, bar billards and plenty of seating- the staff have always been great to me- but then we all have off days!

The pub has now got a decent "Gastro Pub" restaraunt attached and we've been 4-5 times in the last few months. This isn't a burger & chips joint- those hoping for that should nip down the road where any number of pubs/ bars in Finsbury Park will cater for them.

If you like food what you do get is bloody great- The menu is constantly changing last time i had a fat hunk of juicy Belly Pork served with Puy lentils- all cooked perfectly (slow cooked meat dropping to bits as you stick your fork and Puy lentils in a lovingly cooked red wine jus) other food has been delicious fresh Hake with Chorizo & Bean stew, massive ribeye served with fat fries and whole roasted shallots... My only disappointment was eating a roast here- great except the spuds had clearly come straight from a microwave (a culinary crime!!!), a small glitch in an otherwise great menu.

As i said at the start of the review I believe this is what a decent new pub should aspire to- a great boozer and an asset to Finsbury Park. However if you want the kind of "english boozer" that serves warm beer and see's a couple of decrepid old geezers blocking the bar while their dog glares at you angrily, this may not be the place for you...

1 Aug 2007 18:05