Bars & Pubs

Consistently voted one of the best pubs in London by self-proclaimed experts on internet forums - and you'd have to say they've got this one spot on. Its secluded location requires you to slink down an alleyway just off Hatton Garden, and as you do so you're transported to a parallel pub universe where the clientele are disconcertingly friendly and the staff (clad in pristine black and white uniforms) briskly efficient. A Monday-to-Friday joint, it opens for just one weekend a year to coincide with the British Beer Festival. Ales are certainly the speciality - Deuchars and Adnams are regulars, with frequently changing guest beers beside them - but the proprietors don't turn their noses up at wine (a mistake many real ale pubs make). Snacks - pork pies, scotch eggs, sausage rolls - go down a treat, and the whole pub is suffused with the agreeable aroma of cheese on toast, rounds of which are regularly brought out from behind the bar. With two small ground-floor rooms, another less characterful room upstairs, and 'Ye Nook' tacked on the side, it's a pint-sized pub that's earned its top-notch reputation.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9