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Detail Pages
Maple Leaf, Covent Garden, WC2
WC2
WC2E 7LJ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 4 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about Maple Leaf
Dating from 1739 as the Dukes Head, it had become the Bedford Head Hotel by 1792, rebuilt in 1873 and known since 1984 as the Canadian-themed Maple Leaf, eh.
There’s a modern boarded floor, with bare brick to the rear, but then planking to walls, some of which displays red maple leaf motifs; there are similar motifs to the modern wood bar front. The ceiling is low, with white matchboard and flush aircon. Furniture is untraditional and is completely mixed. Décor amounted to a life-size toy moose head above the bar, then framed Canadian sporting memorabilia and not all of it relating to ice hockey, hard though that may be to believe. What really cannot be avoided though are the 10 – yes 10 – TVs showing the football, with just two showing baseball. Customers were quite mixed with many becoming quite animated when Scotland scored.
My card payment unmasked this joint as being owned/leased by Greene King, but despite this, there’s no real ale here unsurprisingly (no loss), with just loads of chrome founts, me opting for a half of Neck Oil at a punishing £3.50, served by a pleasant English barmaid.
This is a pretty awful place, but then I wasn’t expecting much; a Canadian friend once told me he wouldn’t be seen dead in here.
On 23rd September 2022
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1982 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about Maple Leaf
No real ale at all, just keg/craft offerings. Not to be revisited.
On 18th January 2017
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Maple Leaf
Its a bar with lots of sport on tv. Average selection of mass produce Canadian beer.Very busy.
On 5th October 2013
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Maple Leaf
This is a Canadian themed bar, of sorts, close to Covent Garden Market. The pub has a long, narrow interior and had more than a hint of a drinking barn about it as it started to fill up late on a Saturday afternoon. There is a load of stereotypical Canadian stuff stuck on the walls including ice hockey sticks and shirts, a load of Moosehead beer mats and posters and the eponymous maple leaf flags. Somewhat surprisingly a number of TV screens were showing rugby, as opposed to any Canadian sports for which the pub is well known for screening.
Two handpumps offered Young's London Gold and Wells Bombardier, but both of these went off, as did the Sleeman IPA which was on tap alongside their Honey Lager, so I had to settle for a bottle of Moosehead Pale Ale, which was very nice, but a bottle of this, plus the last pint of Sleeman IPA, cost a prohibitive £9.00, so I savoured every last drop before making a note to never order one again.
I didn't really like it in here, and not just because of the expensive beer. I thought the place lacked any charm or atmosphere, despite being packed, and felt it poor that so many beers could all be off at the same time, leaving just lagers available. Not one I'd return to and I was glad to move on to the reliable Porterhouse, which is a little further down Maiden Lane.
On 3rd April 2011
- rating: 4
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Maple Leaf
Perhaps it was different in the past, but the Canadian theme is pretty notional - just a couple of flags and a few Moosehead posters about the walls. Otherwise this is much like any other dark and shouty low-ceilinged London pub. I was surprised to see two real ales on - Deuchars IPA and Youngs London Gold (so-so, but reasonable priced at £2.99) - and too late I spotted a couple of fonts dispensing Sleeman beers (so I may try a Honey Brown lager in the unlikely event I go here again).
On 30th July 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Maple Leaf
This is a Canadian themed pub that is very popular with the tourists visiting the area, but local Londoners tend to avoid it due to it being expensive and tacky. I was in here for over an hour whilst a large group of my work pals met up before moving on and the table was not cleaned once so it had about thirty pint glasses stacked up on it. The service at the bar was rude and the wait was unbelievable.
There are screens and sports are shown, but this place really isn’t worth revisiting.
On 3rd April 2007
- rating: 3
[User has posted 5228 recommendations about 5196 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Maple Leaf
Coming into here as a neutral on a first visit, I thought it was all rather so-so and that a lot more could be done with the place. The Canadian themed touches seemed to be awfully reminiscent of the sort of "I've been to London" tat that our cheap market stalls sell to American and Japanese tourists, rather than real Canada (I've been there three times, so I like to think I have a vague idea of what that is) - someone can set fire to the flea-ridden bear if they like. The place really seems to be aimed at sports fans, the bar was packed with TVs showing the ice hockey. I will say though that the Sleemans Honey beer was nice and that might well tempt me back in at some point, unless anywhere else in London sells it...? It was frighteningly expensive but at least they can claim that it's a genuine import, unlike some other establishments nearby selling UK brewed 'foreign' keg for £3.50+ a pint...
On 15th February 2007
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]