Picture of Lord Nelson, E14 3BD

Historical version 3 of Lord Nelson, E14 3BD (view current version)

  • 020 7987 1970
  • 1 Manchester Road, E14 3BD (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
  • noon–11pm Mon–Thu; noon–midnight Fri–Sat; noon–11pm Sun

Nice enough pub at the south end of the Isle of Dogs.

Inside, the decor is quite smart but not overly posh; it definitely feels like a pub rather than a restaurant. There are a couple of leather sofas, a pool table, and a beer garden out the back. A sign on the wall warns that no children are allowed in the pub after 7pm. Free wireless internet is available (no password; just connect to the Lord Nelson network).

The only real ale is Bombardier (£2.90/pint).

Food is served noon–2:30pm and 6pm-9pm Tue–Fri; noon–3pm and 6pm–9pm Sat; and noon–3:30pm Sun. (A snack menu is available on Mondays.)

Starters/light bites cost between £4 (soup of the day; garlic bread; tempura vegetables) and £5 (prawn cocktail; whitebait; tempura king prawns; mussels). Chips are £2 or £2.75, and you can have cheese or curry sauce on them if you like (the price then rises to £3.25). Baguettes come in white or brown, and cost between £4 (sausage and onion, tuna and cucumber, or cheese and onion) and £7 (steak and onion).

Mains are between £7 (beefburger; omelette with your choice of filling; all-day breakfast) and £12 (rib-eye steak). Vegetarian options marked on the menu are vegetarian shepherd's pie and Thai vegetable curry, both £8. (Not sure why the omelette and the vegetable tagine aren't marked as vegetarian.) Desserts all cost £3.45, and include chocolate pudding, apple crumble, and orange and grapefruit sorbet. Cheese and biscuits is £8.

As well as the normal menu, roast lunch is available on Sundays; there's a choice of beef or lamb, it comes with all the trimmings, and it costs £9. They also do daily specials.

We visited on a Sunday lunchtime; there weren't many customers but it didn't feel empty. The three of us ordered lunch; unfortunately it turned out that there was a problem with the printer meaning that the kitchen didn't receive the third order. Eventually we asked what was going on, there was a small kerfuffle, and the third meal finally turned up shortly after the other two of us had finished eating.

Kake's vegetable tagine (£7) (photo) turned out to be a tomato-based stew involving root vegetables, spinach, and chickpeas. It was far too sweet, but it wasn't inedible — I just wouldn't order it again. Noodles said his Sunday lunch wasn't bad. Kami liked his steak and kidney pudding (£9 — may only be available on Sundays) apart from the rather tough suet pastry; he gave it extra points for the nice rich gravy inside and the additional jug of gravy that accompanied it. The broad beans that came with it were rather overcooked.

Overall: certainly a decent pub, and decent food prices too. Worth a special journey? Possibly not. But definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.

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Last visited by Kake, Noodles, and Kami, 5 August 2007. Food prices and times taken from menu in pub, 5 August 2007. Opening times taken from the Lord Nelson website, August 2007.
OS X co-ord: 538049 OS Y co-ord: 178374 (Latitude: 51.486958 Longitude: -0.011474)
This is version 3 (as of 2007-08-05 18:48:59). View current version. List all versions.