Evening Standard
David Ellis was charmed by a “gloriously proper pub” – once frequented by Dylan Thomas and George Orwell, and neither a gastropub nor a boozer – that has been relaunched with “handsome terracotta flooring, lots of dark stain panelling, litres of postbox red paint. There are candles, silver tankards, old posters. The cutlery is heavy and ornate; the wine glasses have thick stems.”
Food and drink are simple and attractively priced: pints for £7, mixed drinks £10 and wines from £26 a bottle. Starters cost £9 at most – including half a pint of pink prawns served in a glass tankard on a doily with Marie Rose on the side – and the main courses are exclusively pies: “done properly — pastry all over, not just a stew wearing a cap — with the top blackened and heavily peppered, and the meat inside slow-cooked to its point of surrender”.
“This is pub dining the way I remember it growing up, when people went out for fun they could cheerfully afford. It’s nice to know someone else hasn’t forgotten about that, either.”
David Ellis - 2025-08-24
