The Sail Loft, Greenwich, SE10

The previous reviewers sum this place up nicely. Like them, I found the ale choice a bit uninspiring with London Pride, Seafarers, and Oliver's Island on. I didn't see a menu but they obviously do food. The upstairs, or mezzanine, floor is labelled as a dining room, but the tables weren't laid for diners and there didn't seem to be anything stopping us from having our drinks up there. But we were in on a Wednesday lunchtime, and it might be different in the evening. It's clearly very modern in appearance, but some effort has been made to recognise the area's maritime heritage, with model ships as decor, what looks the remains of a ship's wheel as a table upstairs, rigging supporting lights, and one wall at the top of the stairs covered with bits of old packing cases. The furnishings are comfortable enough, if quite modern. The main selling point of this pub is its enviable riverfront location, with excellent river views from the upstairs dining room, or from the outside seating at the front of the pub on the river pathway. It's nice enough even if there's nothing remotely traditional about. But perhaps in a 100 years or so pubgoers will be enthusing about this place an unspoilt example of a classic late Elizabethan glass and steel pub.

Opened in January 2016, this is a shiny new development from the Fuller's Brewery on a prime riverside site that marks it out as an obvious destination pub for the many tourists in the area. As you might expect, the interior is large and spacious, with the main room focussed around an interesting elongated oval island servery. The bar has a nice panelled counter with a pewter top and a smart bar back topped by an integral clock. The room has laminate flooring and some patterned tiles around the bar area. High tables and stools run along the riverside wall and are presumably the seats to bag in the day time, with fine view across the water towards Canary Wharf, although it was dark when I arrived and all I could see was my own reflection. Some of the tables here are made from various bits of former industrial machinery, which might suggest that some sort of theme based around the area's former industry might be found throughout the pub, but this was all I spotted on that front. Further back there is standard and padded bench seating opposite the open kitchen, whilst the left hand side of the room sees more high tables and stools under some nice back-lit display cases full of wine bottles. There is a lot of exposed wiring and piping running around the ceiling, but a glance up will also reveal some interesting light fittings and a mezzanine area that looks down to the bar. This upper level is seemingly set up for formal dining, but as far as I could see, people were eating and drinking wherever they liked. A good soundtrack played throughout my stay and despite arriving shortly before closing time, there was still a good crowd in on a Friday evening, suggesting that the place is proving popular with the locals. For such a high investment, prime location venture, I expected to find an extensive range of Fullers ales available, but the two banks of four hand pumps both had London Pride, Oliver's Island and Seafarers clipped, with a final pump unused on each bank. Other Fullers options were available in keg and bottle format, but I found this fairly underwhelming and my pint of Oliver's Island was nothing special. Some kudos should go to the bar staff who seemed very friendly and enthusiastic. Fullers have shown with recent venues such as the Admiralty in Trafalgar Square, that they are perfectly capable of creating a smart, interesting mass-appeal pub in a tourist focussed location. For me, this place doesn't match up to such previous standards and I felt that a lot of emphasis had been put into exploiting the enviable views at the expense of a high class pub-going experience. It's still a decent place to unwind over a pint or two, but I left with the nagging feeling that it could have been so much better.

Official site of The Sail Loft - www.sailloftgreenwich.co.uk

Official site of The Sail Loft - www.sailloftgreenwich.co.uk