Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 10 and Version 9 of De Hems, W1D 5BW

Dutch bar on the outskirts of Chinatown, serving a wide range of continental beers. They normally have an impressive number of interesting beers on tap, as well as many more in bottles. The correct glassware is available for most of the bottled beers. Can be a bit pricey; Belle Vue Kriek was £4/pint as of January 2008.

When Ewan visited on 13 September 2007, the beers available on tap were Oranjeboom, Amstel, Grolsch, Heineken, Stella, Hoegaarden, Leffe Blonde, Leffe Brune, Maredsous Blonde, De Koninck, Artois Bock, Fruli Strawberry, and Belle Vue Kriek. A later visit by Kake and others, in January 2008, was less impressive; when the first of our group arrived around 5:30pm, the Oranjeboom was already off, and when we left a few hours later there were more beers off than on. This may have been because they didn't expect much custom on a Monday night in January. They did however still have their usual good range of bottled beers.

Dutch-style pub-type food is served all day; chips, lots of deep-fried and breaded things, but rather than the choice being based around onion rings and breaded mushrooms, you instead get to nibble on bitterballen, frikadellen, vlammetjes, and kasssoufflees. Chips (£1.75) are served with mayonnaise, and there are bottles of curry ketchup on the tables (chips sampled by Kake in January 2008 were an average size portion, and perfectly adequate if nothing special). The bittergarnituur platter (£10) is a good way to try out a selection of Dutch pub food annotated photo.

It's pretty dark inside, and the music can be loud. On more than one visit, it's been quite difficult to hear even the person you're sitting next to. It gets very crowded in the evenings, particularly during weekdays after work (6pm onwards). Drinking outside on the pavement is permitted, and they have a few tables and chairs out there, as well as a space heater for the winter months. In good weather, the large windows at the front of the pub are opened to let in the sunlight and breeze. There's an upstairs bar and seating area which can be booked.

GPS data collected by Kake on a Garmin eTrex, 12 April 2007, and released into the public domain: OSGB 529765, 180903.

See also:

• Beer In The Evening comments
• Fancy A Pint review

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