Picture of Bree Louise, NW1 2HH

Historical version 2 of Bree Louise, NW1 2HH (view current version)

  • 69 Cobourg Street, NW1 2HH (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
  • 11:30am–11:30pm Mon–Fri; 11:30am–midnight Sat; noon–midnight Sun

Nice little pub round the side of Euston Station, in the Good Beer Guide. Also handy for the curry places on Drummond Street. Located on the corner of Cobourg Street and Euston Street. Bench/table seating, where smoking is permitted, can be found outside on the pavement; this is pleasant enough, as these streets are not busy ones.

Kake visited on a Sunday afternoon; there was a scattering of other people inside and outside the pub, but I had no trouble finding a table, even though it is a fairly small pub. The piped music was pleasant enough, and not obtrusive, sort of soul/R&Bish; unfortunately it was competing with the football on the (small) TVs scattered around the place (again, not significantly obtrusive). Additional clues as to the ambience may be garnered from the fact that a small array of paperbacks was assembled on the mantelpiece; clearly this is a "sitting in a corner on your own reading a book"-friendly pub, hurrah.

Service was friendly, though for some reason the chap behind the bar failed to mention that there were ales from the cask available in addition to the ones I could see on handpump. Still, there was nothing wrong with my pint of Pride (£2.80). (Those uninterested in real ale may be pleased to know that a sign advertises "lager served in frozen glasses".)

Food is served noon–3pm and 5pm–9pm Mon–Fri; noon–5pm Sat–Sun. They are very keen on pies, which are all £8 and come with "double cream buttered mash potato", seasonal vegetables, and gravy. The eight choices include beef and Guinness, minted lamb, and chicken and broccoli. The pies are not made on the premises, but provided by The Pie Room, a London-wide company that supplies ready-made pies to a number of pubs.

The rest of the menu (photos: front, back) is also fairly standard pub food; burgers (£7–7:50), fish and chips (£7), sausage and mash (£7), steak (£10). Vegetarians are not well catered for; only one of the pies ("all English three cheese") is vegetarian, and the only other choices are pasta with broccoli and pesto (£7), caesar salad (£6), and ploughman's with cheddar or stilton (£7). No mention is made of whether the cheese in these dishes is confirmed to be vegetarian.

Kake's "prime beef Tex-Mex burger" with bacon (£7.50) (photo) was of average quality overall; although the bacon was thick and the quantity of burger (two patties) generous, the burgers were rather underseasoned and the advertised "Hot!!"ness was entirely absent. Neither the accompanying chips nor the enclosing bun were interesting enough to rescue it from averageness. Still, it was ample, and it was edible.

I hear that this place gets a lot busier on weekday evenings than it was on the Sunday afternoon of my visit, but it's rather more hidden away than, say, the Doric Arch, so possibly a better bet at peak times. Having said that, it is now in the Good Beer Guide, so the secret's out!

See also:

Last visited by Kake, 9 September 2007. Opening hours taken from the 2008 Good Beer Guide. Food times and prices taken from menu in pub, 9 September 2007.
OS X co-ord: 529441 OS Y co-ord: 182565 (Latitude: 51.526662 Longitude: -0.133856)
This is version 2 (as of 2007-10-08 05:07:29). View current version. List all versions.