Pear Tree, CR8 2LN
- 020 8660 6396
- 908-912 Brighton Road, CR8 2LN (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
- stonegatepubs.com/loca...
- Mon-Sat: 10am-11pm; Sun: noon-10:30pm
Pub in Purley, part of the Stonegate chain.
It runs back from the street frontage, offering a variety of seating ranging from a light, bright area near the front windows to a cosy, dimly-lit banquetted dais at the back. Much of the seating in the middle area is at high stools and tables. A long bar runs along one wall, and multiple pillars break up the space. At least three flatscreens are around the pub, mounted high on the walls.
Kake visited on a Friday lunchtime in May 2016. When I arrived a little after 12:30pm, there were about a dozen normal customers as well as a group which had pre-booked all the accessible seating at the front of the pub. Music was playing, not too loud, and the flatscreens were showing cricket on Sky Sports with the sound off. Although it wasn't a particularly hot day, the area where I sat (the dais at the back) was verging on unpleasantly warm.
There are six handpumps on the bar, but only two were on, clipped for Dark Star Pale Ale and Wychwood Hobgoblin. The others were marked as "coming soon" and clipped for ales including Cronx Standard, St Austell Tribute, and Sharp's Doom Bar. There were little jars of the ales next to each pump to show the colour, which is a nice touch. They also had keg taps for things including Brewdog Punk IPA. A pint of lime and soda was £1.05.
They do food all day including breakfast until noon. All day vegetarian breakfast (£5.79) photo consisted of two fried eggs, two hash browns, two vegetarian sausages, one flat mushroom, beans, and toast and butter. Apparently this usually comes with Quorn sausages, but they'd run out so asked me if it was OK to use a different type; these turned out to be those pink ones that don't really taste of anything except salt. The egg whites were very crispy. Oddly, one yolk was nicely runny, and the other one was totally solid. The mushroom had a good flavour and a chewy texture I enjoyed. Beans, hash browns, and toast were fine.
They have free wireless via a system called MySmartWifi, which requires you to fill in a form with name, email address, etc, but doesn't seem to require any of this information to be actually true.
Service was friendly and helpful.
Accessibility: No steps to get in, just a gentle ramp and slight ridge at the threshold. Step-free to some of the seating, the bar, and the toilets (including a RADAR-locked accessible one).
See also:
- Photos of the menu as of May 2016: breakfast, main menu 1, main menu 2
- WhatPub entry