Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 25 and Version 23 of Dispensary, E1 8EN

Version 25 Version 23
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The Dispensary was a Good Beer Guide pub in [[Locale Whitechapel|Whitechapel]]. According to the Feb/Mar 2019 <i>London Drinker</i>, it closed in December 2018 and its future is "uncertain".
Good Beer Guide pub in [[Locale Whitechapel|Whitechapel]]. Somewhat gastropubby, and indeed they have a separate restaurant on a mezzanine above the bar. Note that it's closed on weekends, like most City pubs.
== Line 2 ==
The information below is retained for historical purposes.

<div class="old_info">
Good Beer Guide pub in [[Locale Whitechapel|Whitechapel]]. Somewhat gastropubby, and indeed they have a separate restaurant on a mezzanine above the bar. Note that it's closed on weekends, like most City pubs.

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* [http://www.londonaletaster.co.uk/2010/07/dispensary.html London Ale Taster review]
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<div class="last_verified">Last visited by [[Kake]], [[Bob]], [[Adam]], [[Billy]], [[pfig]], [[Martin]], etc, September 2007.</div>
</div>
<div class="last_verified">Last visited by [[Kake]], [[Bob]], [[Adam]], [[Billy]], [[pfig]], [[Martin]], etc, 13 September 2007. Drink and food prices taken from menus in pub, September 2007. Opening hours taken from the Dispensary website, September 2007 (note that the 2008 Good Beer Guide says they don't open until noon, though).</div>
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category='Featured Article,Good Beer Guide 2008,Good Beer Guide 2009,Good Beer Guide 2010,Good Beer Guide 2011,Good Beer Guide 2012,Good Beer Guide 2013,Good Beer Guide 2014,Good Beer Guide 2015,Good Beer Guide 2016,Good Beer Guide 2017,Good Beer Guide 2018,Good Beer Guide 2019,Now Closed'
edit_type='Normal edit'
fax=''
formatted_website_text=''
host='81.187.166.218'
hours_text=''
major_change='1'
category='Cocktails,Featured Article,Good Beer Guide,Good Beer Guide 2008,Good Beer Guide 2009,Good Beer Guide 2010,Good Beer Guide 2011,Good Beer Guide 2012,Good Beer Guide 2013,Good Beer Guide 2014,Good Beer Guide 2015,Good Beer Guide 2016,Good Beer Guide 2017,Good Beer Guide 2018,Pub Food,Pubs,Real Ale,Real Cider'
edit_type='Minor tidying'
fax='dispensarypub'
formatted_website_text='thedispensarylondon.co.uk'
host='2001:41c8:10:b1f:c0ff:ee:15:900d'
hours_text='11:30am-11pm Mon-Fri; closed Sat-Sun'
latitude='51.513916'
locale='E1,Whitechapel'
longitude='-0.069283'
major_change='0'
== Line 39 == == Line 37 ==
opening_hours_text=''
phone=''
postcode=''
summary='Now closed; was a Good Beer Guide pub in Whitechapel.'
website='' website='http://thedispensarylondon.co.uk/'
opening_hours_text='11:30am-11pm Mon-Fri; closed Sat-Sun'
os_x='533957'
os_y='181264'
phone='020 7977 0486'
postcode='E1 8EN'
website='' summary='Good Beer Guide pub in Whitechapel.'
website='http://thedispensarylondon.co.uk/'

Good Beer Guide pub in Whitechapel. Somewhat gastropubby, and indeed they have a separate restaurant on a mezzanine above the bar. Note that it's closed on weekends, like most City pubs.

Beer choices: some of us had Tea, others had Deuchars IPA. (Someone wrote "interesting selection of beer" on my notepad, but I don't know if this means there were other choices or what. There are also four illegible lines lower down — all I can make out is "Dark Star".) The drinks menu also had Aspall cider at £3/pint, but I didn't check if it was on.

The drinks menu is extensive, and includes wines priced between £12 and £50/bottle. Also seventeen (literally) different kinds of rum. You can even buy bottles of spirits "to be consumed on the premises or left in your allocated locker". Cocktails are £6.50 (photo of cocktail menu) (£7.50 for champagne cocktails, £4.50 for nonalcoholic cocktails).

We ate in the pub section, which has a different menu from the restaurant part. You can view the menu on their website — at the time of writing, it's up to date with the menu we saw in September 2007. On our visit, soup of the day (£4) was smoked haddock chowder; pie of the day (£8.50) was steak pie; fish of the day was lemon sole; and they also had lamb burger and peri peri chicken sandwich on as specials.

Sadly, they had run out of pie, so we couldn't test it. Those who ordered meaty things were slightly disappointed; we all seemed to be in agreement that the bread was really quite poor (comparisons were made to Tesco Value), while the burgers were considered a bit small, and Billy felt that his salt beef sandwich was rather undersupplied with beef for the cost (£8). The chips were generally approved of, though, and Kake was extremely happy with her vegetarian platter (photo) (£7.50). The fish is also quite likely worth a try; the menu states that it's bought fresh daily at Billingsgate Market.

Elvum noted that the restaurant menu looked much more interesting than the pub one, and felt it was a shame that they felt the need to make this split between bar food and restaurant food (possibly a chef/kitchen/staffing issue?)

Accessibility: toilets are down a narrowish staircase with three bends and a non-continuous handrail.

See also:

Last visited by Kake, Bob, Adam, Billy, pfig, Martin, etc, 13 September 2007. Drink and food prices taken from menus in pub, September 2007. Opening hours taken from the Dispensary website, September 2007 (note that the 2008 Good Beer Guide says they don't open until noon, though).

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