Steam Passage Tavern, N1

Another Islington clone pub. 3 real ales on but nothing to inspire me to return.

It looks like two rather different buildings have been amalgamated at some stage to form this pub, which has been opened out inside to form an island bar (albeit with the surrounding seating area having been partially raised around the back). Traditional furniture and decor. Sports TVs. Patio tables out front. Now has five handpumps in operation, offering Adnams Lighthouse, Doom Bar and the from Brains: Rev James, SA Gold and IPA (£3.35, and served in a jug). Overall, nothing special but gives the appearance of being well managed.

From memory of my initial visits many years ago, the Steam Passage has extended sideways into the adjoining building at some recent stage making the interior bigger albeit they don’t appear to really make the best use of the floorspace with the large island bar squeezing everything else to the edges of the pub. A circular walk around the pub reveals several drinking sections running into one another with the rear slightly raised. There isn’t a great deal of interest to be found and the place feels very much like the High Street PubCo establishment that it essentially is. It is generally populated by people who are too unadventurous to explore the back streets or office groups who are hesitant to go beyond their regular safety zone. The 3 ales available include the pretty standard choices of Pride and Bombardier complimented by Brains Rev James (£3.20)served in a dimpled mug for a traditional touch (I recall the old days when you could actually get beer in 2 pint glasses here). The pub grub menu seemed reasonablty priced for the area with main courses between £7.50 and £10. A selection of cocktail, smoothies and shooters was also on offer. There are a couple of TV’s dotted around with some quite intrusive music that didn’t seem to suit the customer base. All in all it is quite a bland and safe choice for a pint without doing anything to warrant spending too much time in given the other local options.

It was fairly busy in here on Saturday night, but the service was instantaneous and I found all of the staff to be very friendly. I spotted Amstel and Peroni available in amongst the sea of standard draught and surprisingly all three hand pumps were still in action when I left at 1am and these were drawing Brains SA Gold, Dark and Pride. There were plenty of signs up for food which is served all day and much of what was on the menu seemed to be in direct competition with Wetherspoons. The pub itself is a typical nondescript high street establishment with plasma screens throughout for watching the football etc on Sky Sports, but these were all muted as some music was being blasted out of the speakers. The bar is in the centre of the pub and there is plenty of seating at the rear and also lots up the right hand side of the pub, where a quiz machine can be found, and some café style seating can be found out the front. This was being used by smokers and some nosey people that were watching the plight of the ever so common young Saturday night reveller that has overdone it and ended up slumped in the adjacent doorway covered in their dinner. For a late drink I thought that this place was perfectly acceptable and I would return if I found myself in Angel at midnight again.

This is a fairly large pub with a bit of a spoon’s vibe about the place. Central serving area with a seating area in front and two quite large sections to either side of the bar. Several tele’s dotted about the place but not that you could hear them above the loud droning music system. Three handpumps on which had the ubiquitous London Pride but then also Brains Bitter and SA Gold. I would have liked to have tried both the Brains but had to leave as the oppressive music system was starting to do my head in.