Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 16 and Version 15 of King Edward VII, E15 4BQ

Good Beer Guide pub near Stratford Station, offering a rotating range of bottled beers as well as guest cask ales and interesting food. Also known as "King Eddie's".

It has three interior areas, as well as a beer garden out the back. The front bar has seating for maybe about 30-35 people, at sturdy wooden tables with upright chairs, and a small amount of standing room. The saloon bar isn't incredibly obvious, but is reached via a door to the right of the bar; it's sometimes booked out for private parties. Finally, there's another room reached via a half-flight of stairs to the left of the bar; this one is more spacious, with a couple of sofas too photo.

Kake and James visited late on a Monday evening in March 2008. The place was quite full but we managed to grab a table in the back room. There were a number of interesting beers on, all at £2.60 or £2.70/pint; Nethergate Suffolk County, Bombardier, Woodforde Wherry, and Nelson Trafalgar. The Trafalgar was very tasty. Background music was reasonably interesting, and just on the right side of "too loud".

Kake visited again on a Wednesday lunchtime in August 2008. There were a fair few people in eating lunch, but I had no trouble getting a table. The music was jazz this time, quiet enough that it mostly hid behind the noise of conversation. Beers available on this visit were Bombardier (£2.80), Eddie's Best (their house beer, brewed by Nethergate, £2.60), Broadside (£2.90), and Woodeforde Wherry (£2.70). I had the Wherry, and it was fine.

I also tried some food; the lentil, mushroom, and coconut dahl with rice (£8.50) photo. Unfortunately, this was quite disappointing. The dhal was overly sweet (it obviously had some kind of sweet chutney mixed in; I suspected this from the flavour and it was confirmed when I found a few chunks of the stuff). Extremely indistinct spicing too; I couldn't distinguish a single individual flavour. It reminded me of the curry powder/banana/desiccated coconut "curries" my mum used to make in the 1980s. The oddness of the dish was only amplified by its being served with rocket. The rice was fine though, and both rice and dhal were provided in generous portions. Another nice touch was the enormous linen napkin I got brought. I do suspect this dish was a one-off "miss", as a couple of people have told me how good the food normally is, and I would be more than happy to give the kitchen another chance.

In September 2008, Kake, bob, ilmari, and Ryan attempted to give the food another go, but the place was very busy (it was around 8pm on a Thursday evening) and they'd closed the kitchen for walk-in diners since they had a couple of large groups who'd reserved tables for dinner and the kitchen had reached capacity. The beer was fine though. We were sitting in the back room/restaurant and had a little trouble hearing each other speak over the music and the conversations of others.

Food is served noon-10pm Mon-Sat; noon-9pm Sun. The menu is small, and although it does include some pub staples such as sausages and mash (£8.25 as of August 2008) and fish and chips (£8.50 as of August 2008), it also has a number of more interesting dishes such as crab on toast (£6.50 as of August 2008), brie and spinach spring roll with mushroom ragu (£9 as of March 2008), and Spanish-style fish stew with mussels, clams, and tomato (£11 as of March 2008).

The menu changes regularly but a sample menu can be viewed on the King Edward website or on Kake's Flickrstream: March 2008 menu, August 2008 menu. They also usually have some specials written up on a blackboard (the one on Kake's August 2008 visit was "mushroom soup with soft herbs" at £4.75).

Pub quiz is on Sunday night, and there's an open mic almost every Thursday (but not every Thursday - call ahead to check).

Accessibility: One step down to get in. Half a dozen steps up to the back room, from which the toilets are also accessed. Not sure about the saloon bar.

See also:

• Accessibility review from Inaccessible
• Beer in the Evening comments
• Fancyapint review
• Time Out review
• Nicobobinus' photo of the Sunday lunch

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