The Fellow, Kings Cross, N1

This attractive corner pub is named after The Fellow, a French steeplechaser who won not only the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris (1991), but also the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day the same year, and again in 1992. At Cheltenham he came second two years running in the Gold Cup, the most important race in the world for steeplechasers (though less famous than the Grand National), beaten by the shortest possible margin on both occasions, before winning the race in 1994. The pub sign has a design based on the horse's head, equipped with the blinkers that he wore in later years, and there is a display of Racing Post pages pasted on the walls of the toilets for anyone who can't be bothered to find the details online. Anyway, enough of horse racing, what about the pub? It's a typical London street corner pub with three entrances, one of which seems to be out of use, and one which leads to something called the Black Door Bar (which I didn't have time to investigate) and a roof terrace (ditto). Inside the pub itself, the bar is on the right with a kitchen in the far left corner, and what might be termed a semi-snug in the far right corner. Tables are set out dining-room style, in rows. There is an interesting mix of old (the ceiling, possibly the bar counter) and new (repurposed rough timber - some possibly scaffolding boards - on the walls and pillars. Some quirkiness was evident in a handful of plants in Mason jars, and lamp stands made to look like pineapples. The bar has three hand pumps in the middle of its length, with two sets of seven keg fonts either side. The real ales were Youngs Original (or Ordinary, as I usually term it) doubled, plus Purity Goose. I have had some bad experiences with Ordinary in recent London visits, but as I told the lass who served me, this was actually a superb beer. This pub is so handy for the trains at Kings Cross that it might replace my usual visit to the Parcel Yard in future. If the beer quality is this good the next time, there's every chance.

Just around the corner from Kings Cross station, this is a spacious, open-plan Young’s pub with bare floorboards and tatty half panelled walls. The room sees the servery run along the rear wall, where some nicer panelling can be found and the bar has a pleasant counter offset by a pretty ugly metal framed bar back. A couple of structural pillars with drinking shelves around them stand opposite the bar and then beyond that there are rows of tables and chairs with fill much of the rest of the room. Large windows down two sides offer dull views of the large brick wall that makes up the side of the station, but allow plenty of light in, which seems to filter its way through to all corners of the room. Much of the ceiling is decorated with distressed, old fashioned tiles and the room has been painted in boring gastro colours, despite the pub still being very much wet-led from what I could see. Decor includes a great deal of horse racing themed items, for reasons that were never entirely clear to me, plus a few bits of dubious local interest including a nice ‘Kings Cross for Scotland’ railway poster and one of those daft ‘Platform 9 ¾’ signs. Loud music was playing on my midweek evening visit, but this was very much irrelevant given the even louder clientele whose voices were ably amplified by the echoey interior. Just a paltry two beer line-up on the bar – the inevitable Youngs Ordinary and the expensive guest ale, which on this occasion was Purity Mad Goose at a maddening £5.00 a pint. One real cider was also available on handpull and my pint of the Mad Goose was okay but failed to justify the price. There was nothing inherently wrong with this place, but there were definitely areas for improvement – the interior seems to be long overdue a good tidy up, modernisation needs rethinking and some soft furnishings wouldn’t go amiss – but ultimately it is the excessive prices for average beers that will prevent repeat visits.

Apparently recently made over, signage outside urges visitors to see how "sexy" the pub is. Twaddle, a slightly L-shaped space, bar on the back wall, open to view kitchen in one corner. Stairs lead up to an unvisited roof terrace, in the bar there are distressed blue boarded walls and columns, an exposed brick feature wall and plenty of horse racing related decor including some decent paintings. The ceiling is panelled and of some vintage. A large vase of flowers marked the end of the bar and tea light candles in glass bowls flickered on the tables. I didn't see the menu or prices as it was early before lunch but I doubt it is cheap, the beer certainly isn't. A pint of Purity Mad Goose was £4.80, they also had Young's Bitter and the dreaded Doom Bar. Plastic and pretentious.

One of the Kings Cross type pubs that doesn't have to try too hard to attract customers.Busy.Doom ,Mad goose and Youngs beers.

A pint and a half of Purity Mad Goose here racked up a hefty £6.90. £4.60 a pint? - or perhaps still the £4.50 that Tris C got charged, which makes the half £2.40. Whichever way it adds up, it's still overpriced. Doom Bar was also available, with a third pump unclipped. I spotted a chalkboard menu which unsurprisingly wasn't cheap either with, for example, the burger and chips, etc, at £14.50. The doors, walls, and ceiling are all painted a sort of indigo blue colour, with the exception of the stainless steel section of the ceiling. Tris C sums it up nicely. It seems like a trendy bar, and perhaps not the sort of place a couple of old CAMRA types like my chum and I should have ventured into. I don't think I'll be returning to this one.

Formerly The Duke of York, this pub is a little off the beaten track, to the north-east of King's Cross station; it's not in the most welcoming of locations, but the area is inexorably on the up. This is a fairly modernised pub but not savagely so - conventional modern then. Ales on: Purity Mad Goose (£4.50) and good, Sharp's Gloom Bore and Young's Bitter. There's little in the immediate vicinity and after The Scottish Stores this is the best unless you like banging studenty places; this is what I call an 'easy listening' pub.

I was going to walk past the Fellow, dismissing it as a restaurant, before spotting a couple of customers through the window who were knocking back flat pints of beer that looked decidedly like cask ale. To be fair to my initial observations the décor, table settings and waitress service were all indicative of a restaurant, but there was a bar in the right rear corner. There were also a few high stools and tables for perching upon and in the far right rear corner by the toilets were some larger tables placed for the use of imbibing in groups. The lounge bar upstairs was closed during my recent Friday lunchtime visit, but the decked roof terrace was being used by some local office workers who had decided to have an extended lunch break. I didn’t look at a menu, but I would expect restaurant prices. The bar was stocked with premium keg products and three hand pumps were drawing St Austell’s Tribute, Young’s Ordinary and Sambrook’s Wandle. I found the service to be polite and I could see myself popping in here for lunch with my fellow suit clad work colleagues. Unfortunately I live and work miles away and I don’t wear a suit to work so plans for a revisit have fallen at the first hurdle.