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Please note, the Belrose is now closed. Time Out Editors, November 2019.
The pinnacle for any pub is when it’s so cosy, drinking there feels like drinking in your front room. Just less sad and lonely. The Belrose – a big, comfortable gastropub in Belsize Park – certainly has the front-room factor. Online it looks extremely clean and bougie but don’t let that throw you: in reality the blue walls are pleasantly chipped, wooden floors seductively scruffy. It’s new but it’s not shiny, which is a good thing: nothing’s more sterile than a sparkling pub.
There’s a snug little room on the left, but grab one of the low, armchair-like seats opposite the bar for near-horizontal boozing. You could probably even get away with having a little nap. There are drinks to keep you upright and alert, though. Think posh cocktails: rose-petal-infused margaritas and the intriguingly named vodka and egg-white number, ‘Soft Hello’. But this is the kind of place for ordering beer. The Belrose pours its own pale ale, brewed at its onsite microbrewery, and there’s an unusually large selection of bottled options.
An open kitchen is on hand for both snacks and full meals. Pizza is the speciality – the fiery diavola was lovely and thin, with herby slivers of salami on top. A generous portion of crisped-up squid and a plate of wonderfully greasy chicken wings were also excellent. But best of all, unexpectedly, was charred cauliflower slathered in yoghurt.
Anyone after a drink in north London should give The Belrose a go. It’s not going to change your life or anything – but that’s not really the point of a local. They’re more about long afternoons and incremental tipsiness. And The Belrose gives you free nuts when you order a pint to maintain those feelings for even longer.