Edinboro Castle

beccywiseman

9th June 2009

0 found this helpful

This is a gorgeous pub for a family Sunday roast. It is so relaxed and the food is fabulous!

AlexWoods

Re: Most pretentious pub in Camden...? 25th March 2009

1 found this helpful

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use the term "w*nkey" on Trusted Places... If I cause any offence please just let me know and I'll change it to something more banal. "Self-consciously aware of their own need to be different. So, so different. Resulting in being much the same as so many other places across town". You see? W*nkey is just a bit more concise.

As far as Camden is concerned, this place is different, in a same-same-but-different way. Bless. It's quirky, cavernous, and quite interesting in character. And it has an enormous and quite lovely garden in which to drink beer. Ah. Your first challenge is to get to the bar. This can be tricky. The bar is almost invariably rammed. Even if the rest of the pub is empty, people are queuing three, four deep at the bar. The reason for this soon becomes apparent. If there are more sullen, detached, idle and incompetent bar staff in London I would like to know about it. Know about it so I can go and shake their disaffected, grouchy hand. The service is just appalling, to the point that any redeeming features of this place have a dark, dark shadow cast over them.

Your chances of getting served seem to depend largely on pot luck. Or how "cool" you look. This could be nonsense, but I don't own a pair of converse trainers and tend to blame most of my misfortune in life on this and this alone. The sensible answer could be to buy some converse trainers, but who wins then, huh?

When you eventually do get graced with service, or the closest they can come to it, you are likely to be disappointed. I gave up drinking beer here. IF there is any bitter on it is invariably sour. Much the same goes for the Guinness. The wine list fails to impress and everything is overpriced.

I genuinely believe that this could be a nice place, if it wasn't screaming "NO, NO! You don't understand me! I'm a tortured genius!" quite so loudly, and if the staff were a little more... well at all switched on.

Great potential, thoroughly let down by shoddy staff and a painful self-awareness. But in the summer, the beer garden really does draw 'em in, and probably me too, like a metaphorical fly to an allagorical turd...

Danielpickford

Great pub, good atmosphere, friendly staff 9th March 2009

1 found this helpful

This pub has an independent and quirky feel to it. Food is really good and they do a BBQ in the summer. They have over 20 draught beers on tap as well as 4 ciders and 2 real ales. The atmosphere is really good and the staff are really friendly and helpful.

This place does get packed in the summer because of the beer garden (I believe it's one of the biggest in central London) but if you avoid post 9pm on Wednesday evenings which is when all the sweaty softballers pile in en masse and take over, then it's a great place to enjoy a cold beer on a summer's evening.

brenna

Great summer pub but terrible service... 12th February 2009

1 found this helpful

...such a shame. I love this pub, especially on summer evenings after work or softball in Regents Park. The BBQ in the large beer garden is pretty good, but getting a drink from the bar is a nightmare. The staff are ridiculously slow and the queue is often 10 people thick!
If you have the patience for this then it is a nice place to hang out, away from the busy Camden High Street.

ben1982

Great pub, slow service 25th September 2008

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A huge terrace, stylish wallpapered interior, great selection of beers and a barbecue throughout the summer are all reasons to pay a visit to this pub. But be ready for some of London's slowest moving bar staff. The sheer volume of people justifiably found here on any sunny evening coupled with a small(ish) bar mean it takes an age to get served, but this is the only problem with what is otherwise a great great pub.

dllk001

The bar makes up for the staff 6th August 2007

2 found this helpful

This is thee place to go on a warm summer evening after work.

I must however agree with the previous reviewer the staff really let the place down. They can only be described as incompetent!! The last time we were there my friend was at the bar for 40 minutes!

Don't let that put you off though. It has to be one of the best beer gardens in London.

girlswear

Great Beer Garden, Bad Service 11th June 2007

2 found this helpful

I've always heard great things about this place especially the lovely beer garden patio.

But their service was ridiculously bad even after complains. Not only the bartender let this couple cut in line of me because they've already have a shots tab going on, then he let another couple cutting in front of me after i've politely told him that i've been waiting in queue for a very long time. The bartender after serving the couple and went on his break. So i complain my wait to another bar staff, he just shud his shoulders in slow motion and said we're short staffed. Honey, that's not my problem, then serve customers faster! Finally it was my order, half pint of Fruli. The same slow motion bartender searching for half pint glass but they ran out, and asked if it's okay to pour into regular pint glass but just half way. I just wanted my beer, i don't care less. Thank God for being in Britain and we don't pay tips here!

Other than the terrible service, it was a very nice pub with great beer selection. They also carry Brothers Pear cider. At 10:30pm, they started kicking people out.

If it's wasn't for the Fruli, not sure if i'll go back again.

shelo9

5th May 2007

4 found this helpful

Great pub. Refurbished and now very classy inside. The beer garden is very big and great in the summer. Prices are not the cheapest for london (especially for a glass of coke) but it has a great vibe.