Crown Tavern

Farringdon is always dead on Sundays so most pubs are almost empty. I went to this one with my improv group after class and we had lunch at about 3.30pm.
While they were doing Sunday roasts they were out of yorkshires and gravy so my friend had to manage with mint jelly and the other usual condiments. I went for the fish and chips which was ok, but the peas were a blob on side that looked a bit weird so I didn’t want to eat it. The chicken salads that my other two friends got seemed pretty good though.
I think the atmosphere will be much nicer when the pub is full and there’s even games that you can play so it’s ideal for groups. I would say to avoid it on Sunday though because it won’t be up to speed.

The Crown Tavern is a little hidden gem. There’s a very nice choice of beers and has a lovely friendly atmosphere. The staff are attentive and very helpful.
Downstairs is a normal London pub, but upstairs has a very nice intimate feel. The seating upstairs is on the eclectic side, very odd shapes and has a lovely small open fire. A ‘real’ fire.
The food is good, better since the menu got smaller. My only gripe is that if you’re upstairs you need to go downstairs to get a drink as the staff rarely venture upstairs unless they know you’re eating.
Overall, it’s a lovely place to go and I’d recommend it if you’re ever in the area.

Has been great at off-​peak times but lunch service can be a little peculiar, often requiring one to simply help oneself to knives and forks that have just been forgotten and then the requests for them have also been lost. I’m told Fridays are worse. Still, would happily return.

Mediocre service, sweltering hot upstairs room, but the clincher was how generally rude and arrogant the other clientele seemed to be! Perhaps it was just a bad evening, but definitely won’t be going back.

bloody expensive! £4.80 for a pint which is unbelievable… why not call it a 5er and be done with it. even more so when a walk up the road to exmouth market and the same pint is £3.75.
that being said its location, as always. and on a summers day it goes off. in fact any day where the sun is out it gets real busy on the clerkenwell green.
my work local.
oh and the food is pretty decent.

We came here for a friend’s birthday drinks on a Friday evening right after Christmas. When I walked through the door, the place was quite warm and smelled of mulled wine. That’s always a good sign (not that I had any mulled wine). Our friend’s weren’t in the downstairs part of the pub, but there is an upstairs room as well, and they had a table there, so that’s where we spent most of the night.
First, if you’re reviewing a pub, I suppose the beer is always the first place to go. They had a nice selection of five cask ales on draught. That’s always the sign of a good pub for me! The more cask ales I have to choose from, the happier I’ll be. And it’s not like going to a Sam Smith’s or a McMullen’s pub where you only have their beer to drink, it was a selection from several different places. I had a dark ale, which went down like a dream. However, other people seemed to be enjoying the dark lager (not on cask), which seemed a bit strange to me, but it was being had quite a bit by the group.
The food here is also delicious. I had the pork and chorizo burger. It wasn’t the best burger, but better than most pub burgers, plus the chorizo really added something to it. It skinny fries were very tasty and we got a side of beer battered onion rings as well. They were very light and not at all greasy (which is something I look for in a delicious onion ring). The other half had the pork belly with apple mash and fried blood pudding. He said it was really delicious!
If you’re in the area and want a pub that seems a bit less trendy and chain-​like, this is the place. The food is very gastropubby without the pretentious atmosphere!

Headed here for a swift lunch last week, and found a little gem.
The guys behind the bar are really nice, the atmosphere really relaxed — and the food delicious.
We had burgers, me the cheeseburger, him the chorizo and pork. Both were amazing, and I’m dreaming about them still. Can’t wait to go back!

Cosy, warm and smelling of mulled wine, I visited this pub a couple of times before Christmas and enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Why? Because it looks like your run-​of-​the-​mill pub and in every respect it is, apart from one fantastic perk — its staff! Both times I came it was busy. Bustling in fact, with over-​eager Christmas drinkers coming in hoards from work and taking up all of the valuable seating space.
The staff couldn’t have been more attentive when asked if there was any space left upstairs or in the dining area. The second time I visited the manager even came over to help us move stools to a little spot we had found in the corner and told us he’d keep an eye out for seats and give us first dibs if any became available. How sweet!
I had a house white which was a chenin blanc — it was cold and reasonably good — my friends partook in the festivities with a bit of mulled wine and were extremely happy. It did smell good.
All in all a decent pub with lovely staff. I wouldn’t choose it as my first watering hole as there are probably more ‘atmospheric’ places in the area, however it was a nice stop around the holidays and decorated beautifully for Christmas. I wouldn’t mind popping in again sometime when it’s a little less crowded!

I want to like this pub more than I do, but there are things that are acceptable, and there are things that are most definitely not.
On purchasing a round of drinks from the bar, the total came to just shy of £20.00, I handed over a 20 and asked the bar tender to ensure that he gave me the bill. He took the money, processed my receipt and handed it to me then walked away.
I looked at the paper in my hand to confirm my suspicion, and yes, I was owed change. I looked up to see the bar tender at the other end of the bar, so I caught the eye of his colleague and told her that he had not given me my change. She in turn advised him of his mistake and he returned to the till opened it and without even acknowledgement of the mistake, let alone an apology, he handed me what was due to me, but the way he did is was like I was in the wrong somehow.
I got the sense that this was something that he did often, my thought process is that due to the busyness of the bar and how load it is, people will just think ‘Oh never mind’ and not bother following up in their change. Do that a few times and you’re laughing.

Great Saturday Lunch in a relaxed atmosphere

Passing by Crown Tavern everyday on my walk to and from work, I have been able to observe its charm on wet, windy, cold, sunny, and warm days. As London weather would have it, I have experienced Crown Tavern on a wet, windy, cold, sunny, and warm day — all in one day.
Crown Tavern always manages to draw in a crowd, especially the after-​work crowd and more so on Thursdays and Fridays (obviously). I’m not just talking about a butt-​to-​gut situation in house — I’m talking butt-​to-​gut in house, entire outside area dominated, and a whole lot of spilling onto the sidewalk directly opposite.
Dressed casual, smart, or just right for a date later on in the night, the crowd here is anything but homogeneous as there are people anywhere between ages 18 – 50, students to executives, longtime locals to tourists to expats.
I’ll tell you now that it’s definitely not the limited selection of beers and the slow service that keeps us all coming back. It’s the people and the energy. This is what sunny days after work in London are all about.

I wish this was my local!
As it is, I came here on Saturday for some relaxed birthday drinks before moving on to a nearby play.
How refreshing to find a part of London that is not heaving with people on a Saturday. We started off on one of the tables overlooking the green (and our car — the parking meters had scoffed all our change but not spat out the promised tickets …) and later moved indoors for lunch. This actually felt more like being in a French village than so close to the City of London.
The menu includes a good selection of comfort food you would expect from a pub nowadays. It’s all extremely well cooked, nicely presented and delicious.
We sampled a good selection of their beers and wines — how refreshing to find a place where you don’t have to choose by matters of elimination but actually leave with a few options still unsampled.
Good selection of staff as well who ranged from Russel Brand’s younger brother to a tattoed matron trying to stop us from leaving by telling us the play would be rubbish …

Tucked away in what looks like a Hollywood backlot (or does a Hollywood backlot look like this? Mr Baudrillard would be so proud…) the Crown Tavern regally rests beckoning wary Sunday revelers in for a pint.
(By beckoning, I mean it’s the only place open in the ghost town that becomes Clerkenwell Close on the weekends, so just having lights on pulls us in like mosquitoes to a bug-​zapper.)
A big bold house Shiraz for £3 pulled me up to the bar, but it was the impressive 20+ draught selections from specialty beers to ciders, real ales, and fruity fruit beers that kept me there for another round. And of course the kicker — board games galore! While I chose to avoid the grub based on other, ahem, Unilocaler experiences, I did find the upstairs to be warm and cosy with a toasty fireplace, a pint and a game (or five) of scrabble. It has now become my Sunday routine. Scrabble Sundays at the Crown. There’s a nice ring to that…

3 friends and I went here on a Sunday evening. I was in the mood for a veggie Sunday Roast and yay they had one! The nut roast was yum with all the trimmings, the others had the pork belly, lamb and roast chicken and all were satisfied. If that wasn’t enough we had the cheeseboard after, perfect way to round off a nice meal. Good selection of beer including Kirin, a Japanese beer, very tasty. They also had a selection of fruit beers and ales.
We sat in a cosy corner where we all felt very relaxed, I think all of us were horizontal at some point in the evening! It was the perfect place for a lazy Sunday afternoon, the only thing that could have made it better would have been a game of scrabble.

Great place on a hot summer evening (which we haven’t had a lot of in London this summer… boohoo). Stay outside, soak in a bit of the London crowd, sipping on your fruli strawberry beer. It gets really crowded, but that’s all part of the fun, methinks.
Great clerkenwell village ambience, surrounded by old edge of east london low rise buildings. This, for me is the epitomy of London outdoor pub life. Despite crappy weather, this city still has one of the best outdoor scenes ever.

A rustic pub with Marxist history.
The first thing that hit me when I walked through the door was the funny smell in the air. I’m not sure if this a permanent feature of the venue, but it was a little unpleasant when I had lunch here in late March.
The food is decent pub grub but you probably wont be raving about it to your friends and family when you get home. If you’ve been to a Mitchells & Butlers pub in the past then you’ll probably be familiar with the menu. For the money, you can’t really argue.
There seemed to be a decent selection of beers on draft, but I wasn’t drinking so I cant comment on the quality.
Service functional and didn’t stand out as great or sub par.

ehh… I don’t really have anything redeeming to say about this bar. Our drink orders had been made improperly several times, they seemed confused when we brought things back to be remade because they tasted awful and weren’t what we had ordered… The back room was sweltering hot, and has this lovely little glass window that looks into the kitchen… yeah, we saw the kitchen staff clearly eating off of plates that were being brought back while they were scraping them off into the garbage…
ahh…
…
That’s gross.
Health code violations aside, the drinks were a little too pricey to warrant a return trip… I lived within two blocks from here and I would rather take a bus into central London if that was my only other option, luckily, there’s plenty of pubs in the area… I suggest you find one of them… There’s several in close proximity, do yourself a favor and venture around.

Very interesting place for those who interested in Russian revolution. Lenin and Stalin met here in the beginning of 20^th century. The drinks are typical for London pubs. I drank Timothy Taylor ale and liked it. On the 1^st floor there is a big mirror on the wall and very comfortable old armchairs.
In the toilet there was a person who pushed liquid soap on visitors hands and gave them paper towels after hands-​washing.

My view of the Crown Tavern was slightly dampened by a small ginger boy that cried for the entirety of our visit, well, until his parents bought him a pint of coke and some chips. After that he just climbed everything in sight– including my boyfriend! To call him annoying would be an understatement… he was deliberately trying to choke himself with scrabble pieces!
As far as the bar itself goes the Crown Tavern is fine. Just fine. Whilst they had quite a nice selection of beers on draught and an extensive wine list, it turned out that a lot of these were ‘off’ as we were told by a very surly barmaid. Drink prices were pretty average for Clerkenwell but still more expensive than I would usually pay. The seating was comfortable, especially at the back room with all the sofa’s but generally the décor was nothing special. In fact, all the squinty paintings started to really bother me but maybe that says more about my own OCD.
I suppose the best thing about this bar is really that it is one of the few places in the area that bothers to open on a Sunday. Most places around here seem to close as soon as the city boys leave for the week and so it can be quite hard to find a pub that’s open. For this reason alone I expect I’ll probably find myself back here some day.

A top pub. I worked around the corner from this place for the last few months and was a regular. Loved it. A great selection of beers, excellent pub grub (the burgers are a must-​try) and insanely comfortable seats and couches.
The staff are generally very friendly, and even when it’s jammers busy (which is frequently is on a Friday night) they keep their cool and their smiles.
When it’s warm enough, there are seats outside and they’ll even come out to take orders if they know you. Very handy!
All in all, it’s far too easy to spend the evening here :-)