The Kings Arms, Bethnal Green, E2

Nice old style exterior with a bare boarded interior. Central island bar was serving 13 keg,3 cask,3 ciders( listed on the right hand wall) and an extensive bottle selection

This pub is essentially unchanged since previous reviewers' visits. The pumps are unclipped, with the beer board on the wall on the right indicating the available beers (cask and keg) and draught ciders. There were four cask ales on - the cheapest being the Dark Star Hophead at £3.80 a pint. My chum and I went for the Marble Manchester Bitter at £4 a pint, which was in excellent condition. Food seemed to consist of bar snacks - at least it did on our midday Friday visit. I saw cheeseboards and meatboards advertised for £8, and scotch eggs at £5 or £6 (I would expect them to pretty impressive specimens for that sort of price). Just about everything in here is painted a sort of indigo/green colour, and on all the walls there seemed to be framed specimens of insects, including many butterflies. This could be the Entomoligist's Arms. So far so OK - but on the minus side I found the place quite uncomfortable. The seating seemed to comprise mainly of hard wooden benches around the sides of the room, and when I was in the heating didn't seem to have kicked in, and with the door kept open it never got warm enough to take our coats off. As good as the Marble Manchester Bitter was, we didn't linger over our pints for as long as we might otherwise have done. It might be nicer at another time, but I couldn't help but reach the conclusion that comfort is not a high priority here.

Official site of The Kings Arms - thekingsarmspub.com

Official site of The Kings Arms - thekingsarmspub.com