Randomness Guide to London Menu

Good Beer Guide pub just off Fleet Street and Chancery Lane, in Holborn.

Inside, it's very small, more apparent perhaps during weekday evenings, when the place becomes crowded with those working in nearby law firms and the Royal Courts of Justice across the road. Even on the Saturday early-evening when Ewan visited, the rooms inside were largely full.

There are small rooms on either side of the bar area, with four or five tables and wooden benches. There's also a shelf area on the wall nearest the doors and some high stools. Plenty of odds and ends decorate the place, including photos of the landlady over the years. They have a pub cat, whose food and water bowls are kept down one end of the bar.

The bar has five handpulls, two of them featuring Adnam's Bitter, one with Broadside, and one each for Dark Star Hop Head and Old Chestnut, on an August 2009 visit. There are also draught lagers including Litovel and Bitburger, and Aspall's Suffolk Cyder.

A food menu is offered, and listed on a chalkboard by the bar.

Ewan's verdict: This is a friendly pub, rather like being in someone's home (and indeed, when you go upstairs to use the toilets, it very much is). Beers are well-chosen and well-kept, and the place abounds in character.

Accessibility: Toilets are up some incredibly narrow and winding stairs behind the bar.

See also:

• Londonist review
• Beer in the Evening comments
• Fancyapint review
• Time Out review
• Mark Dodds' photoset on Flickr
• Qype comments