Bars & Pubs

Irony is almost overwhelming as Shoreditch's once feted minimalist original returns to its (almost) former name after a brief spell as a Nuevo Latino restaurant/bar, but is reinvented as an old-school boozer. Instead of kitschy cool, however, the owners have oddly opted for unreconstructed, chain-pub decor. On entering through a revolving wooden door, punters are met by a riot of framed butterfly collections, repro Victorian portraits and military prints, model ships and standard lamps, beneath a stucco ceiling painted fuchsia pink. A semi-circular bar dominates, serving draught Red Stripe, Erdinger, Kirin, Guinness, Crest, Munchen, Timothy Taylor and Bombardier, bottled Pacifico, Estrella, Hoegaarden and the like, plus wines and spirits. A blackboard menu boasts sausages and mash with onion gravy, salmon and haddock pie and other neo-traditional fare. Seating is at the vast bar, one of the numerous wooden tables and chairs, or in the small, carpeted lounge area beyond three stained-glass panels, their light bulb imagery an acknowledgement of this now rather unconvincing bar's former identity.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9