(Bloomberg) -- UK pubs are in a well-documented crisis, threatened by the high cost of everything from staffing and rent to utilities and beer to proposed legislation banning smoking in pub gardens. In 2023, 769 pubs went bankrupt, according to accounting firm Price Bailey LLP; now, the company’s most recent data says 11% of UK pubs are at risk of closing.
But a clutch of London operators are not only bucking the trend—they’ve also created buzzy, thriving destinations. By setting up shop in wealthy neighborhoods and offering high-end dining options, while preserving the uniquely homey appeal of a traditional pub, they’re drawing in crowds, especially young, affluent diners and drinkers.
They are, in some sense, gastropubs. But they’ve evolved since the 1990s, when they took London by storm. “By the 2010s, what was exciting and pioneering had become dull and mainstream,” says Ben Tish, executive chef at Cubitt House, which owns eight pubs in and around central London. (A few gastropubs, like the pioneering Eagle, remain, see below. So do traces of the defining rickety, mismatched furniture and slam-it-on-the-table service.)
Now the destination food pub has a well-designed dining room without a wobbly, reclaimed chair in sight. It has proper, printed menus, staff with restaurant training and buzz, rather than a frenetic cacophony.
Prices have been upgraded, too: Starters at Cubitt House pubs average £13 ($17), while mains hover around £30; the bar’s Scotch eggs and sausage rolls are £8.50. It’s a hefty increase on traditional bar snacks, but “local,” “seasonal” and “artisanal” are the buzzwords, for both beer and food.
The Public House Group’s wildly popular London pubs—The Pelican and The Hero, plus two more in the pipeline—opened in the past two years and follow a similar format. The group’s co-founder James Gummer says the energy and sense of community that came out of the pandemic have fostered renewed interest in local pubs, and “great food offerings make a business viable in a way that traditional pubs are not.”
Gummer says these places are still very much pubs, which he defines as “the essence of British hospitality. Regulars come in three or four times a week—you don’t get that in restaurants.” And unlike cramped-for-space gastropubs, his new iterations are spread over several floors with multiple revenue streams. “Come in for a quick pint, book the space upstairs for a party, or reserve a Friday night table for dinner,” he says. Supper clubs are part of the pull-in-the-locals strategy as well.
The restaurant powerhouse group JKS (whose portfolio includes Bao, Lyle’s and the new Ambassador’s Clubhouse) has opened three pubs in the past few years: The Cadogan Arms, The George and The Hound. In fact, the London pub is far from dead: Here are six top destination food and drink spots, plus a pair of classic stellar gastropubs still going strong.
The Hero, Maida Vale
On a corner site near Little Venice’s canals, The Hero is a handsome, high-ceilinged pub, all blond wood and bare plaster, restored to something close to its Victorian grandeur. The ground-floor bar serves British comfort food like sausage and mash (£13). The first-floor, open-kitchen grill is more ambitious: starters of grill-crusted lamb sweetbreads bathed in lobster gravy (£16) or sweet little clams with smoked butter (£18). For mains, whole John Dory—enough for two—is sauced simply in lemon and olive oil (£50), with shatteringly crisp fries on the side. Cask ales are downstairs, plus a short, well-chosen European wine list upstairs; as befits the new-wave gastropub, however, they travel both ways.
The Devonshire, Soho
Oisin Rogers, former landlord of the Guinea Grill, opened the Devonshire in late 2023, and the place hasn’t been empty since. The ground-floor bar is permanently packed with drinkers—the pub’s Guinness turnover is 15,000 to 20,000 perfectly poured pints a week. The short menu, helpfully printed on the bar mats, includes sausage on a stick (£2) and a steak sandwich (£12). But upstairs at the Grill Room is the place to eat: Executive chef Ashley Palmer-Watts’ (former Fat Duck head chef) has an impressive in-house butcher program, with specialties including luscious beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding (£26). Bookings open three weeks in advance and are rapidly snapped up.
The Barley Mow, Mayfair
With its long, ornate bar, ales on hand pump and a bar menu featuring black pudding sausage rolls with apple sauce (£8.50) and sage-spiked, soft-yolk Scotch eggs, Cubitt House’s Mayfair outpost has all the trappings of a classic London pub. The upstairs dining room is swankier and clubbier, with a menu to match. Beef pie (£23) has a crust the same mahogany shade as the bar, with the option of a fried oyster or two to boost the Dickensian mood. On weekdays, a classic full English breakfast is served, and, as at all Cubitt House pubs, the Sunday lunches are blowouts.
The Audley Public House, Mayfair
The spruced-up Audley is part of gallerist Hauser & Wirth’s expanding hospitality empire under the Artfarm brand (including The Fife Arms; The Groucho Club; and the soon-to-open Da Costa, in Somerset). The Mayfair fixture since 1888 now offers a menu steeped in hearty Britishness, such as shepherd’s pie made with lamb from Hauser & Wirth’s farm (£21); a side of chips has the option of beef dripping béarnaise sauce. Draught ales are from Sambrook’s in Wandsworth and Fuller’s in Chiswick. The Audley is worth a visit just for artist Phyllida Barlow’s stunning, bright-colored ceiling, a vibrant riposte to the nicotine-brown decor in most London pubs.
The Cadogan Arms, Chelsea
A few years ago, the King’s Road institution got a renovation from JKS, as well as a culinary director, James Knappett, who also runs the two-Michelin-starred Kitchen Table. The decor evokes a glamorous Victorian gin palace, with glossy embossed walls, plush upholstery and ceilings dripping with chandeliers. The menu has more than a whiff of nostalgia, too: cayenne-dusted prawn cocktail (£9) with a tangle of herbs; beef and Guinness pie, topped at the table with extra gravy and served with clotted cream-enhanced mash (£26). The reimagined ham, egg and chips (£24) comes topped with a perfect fried egg, and a bucket of chunky chips and pineapple chutney—a nod, perhaps, to JKS’s Indian heritage.
The Tamil Prince, Islington
A pub with an Indian menu sounds modern, but desi (“back home”) pubs—Indian-owned establishments, typically serving Punjabi food alongside traditional beers and spirits—have been around in the UK since the 1960s. Originally they were a refuge for immigrants; soon they became universally popular. Two years ago, The Tamil Prince began pairing top-notch Indian cuisine with a range of zesty craft beers (from Purity Brewing and Harbour Beer) that match the spice. Last year the team opened sister spot The Tamil Crown in nearby Angel. Both teeter on the edge of being a restaurant, but, crucially, drinkers are as welcome as diners. Must-try dishes include the crisp-fried, warmly spiced onion bhajis (£7.50) with a cool mint chutney, as well as channa bhatura (£10.50), a puffed-up puri served with chickpea curry and creamy raita.
Plus Two Enduring Classics
The Churchill Arms, Kensington
The gloriously over-the-top pub near Notting Hill Gate, festooned in riotously colorful hanging baskets, has a vast collection of Winston Churchill memorabilia (as you might expect) and chamber pots (as you might not). The pub dates to 1750; in 1988 it introduced its then-revolutionary Thai menu. Order at the kitchen counter—top options are roast duck curry (£15), fragrant with pineapple, coconut and sweet basil; or moo pad prik khing (£13), strips of pork stir-fried with long beans in a punchy red curry paste—before you grab a beer from the bar (the London Pride is among the best-kept pints in town).
The Eagle, Farringdon
Gastropub traditionalists should make the pilgrimage to Farringdon Road, where The Eagle kicked off the trend in 1991. Chef-founder David Eyre has described the menu as “on holiday all around the Mediterranean,” and nothing much has changed in the intervening decades: The open kitchen—run by Edward Mottershaw, just the third head chef in the pub’s history—still knocks out “big flavours and rough edges” (the title of The Eagle’s cookbook) from a menu written twice daily, five minutes before service.
You might find fresh mackerel, grilled and plated with chilli jam and couscous, or menu stalwart burnt Basque cheesecake (The Eagle was an early adopter of the trendy dessert). Prices are still below restaurant-level, and there’s a great wine list, as well as draught ales from Marston’s and Charles Wells.
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