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Disappointment of the week with Gann
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The Lyric, Soho, W1
W1
W1D 7LT
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Lyric
ORIGINAL REVIEW May 2016
I was impressed by this small street corner Soho pub.The entrance has some fine glazed tiling,the front windows are curved and mostly contain original etched glass and the wood fittings are pleasing and authentic.The interior has a small fireplace with a Sky flatscreen above and just a single table and chairs with a tun acting as another table to rest your beer.Wooden stools around the perimeter are the main seating option and there is a drinking ledge to the front of the pub.Good mirrors help to make the interior feel less cramped and there is a lot of room around the bar for service.
I was in afterwork on Friday in good weather ,so a lot of punters spill outside into a cordoned off section running along the pavement and behind the pub.Consequently you will be asked if you are drinking outside and will be issued with a plastic mug if so.I stayed inside with my glass pint,and it wasn't too crowded,in bad weather I may not have been so lucky.Sport is shown on the flatscreen but at a sensible muted volume so it doesn't impinge too much .There is a perilous descent to the gents while upstairs in signed Ladies and Dining Room ,but I didn't venture to see if there was any room up there,and there was no obvious sign of food at the bar.
The focus on the pub is their beer selection (helpful chalk board above the bar) with 6 cask ales and a real cider ,besides 11 keg taps offering an interesting mix of craft beers,some at high ABV's.The real ale selection on my trip was Siren Craft Soundwave (£4.20,very good, very reasonable price),Big Smoke Solaris Session,Seven Brothers Ruby Red Ale,Wild Weather Keyboard Warrior Brown Ale,Truman Swift and Zephyr.I went through the card and ale condition matched up to it's GBG 2016 listing,and I liked the mix of styles and strengths showing some thought had been given to the selection.The impressive pump clip display shows that quality micros will be found in here,and with pricing starting at £3.80 this isn't a pub trying to rip off transient trade in a tourist hot spot.
The pub is opposite the Windmill Theatre,which these days has dispensed with the statuesque nudes and has become a seedy looking lap dancing club.The pub,however, is popular with a wide mix of customers and certainly attracts some good looking women,while the young bar staff are curtious and most efficient even when very busy.Classic rock standards played at a sensible volume enhances the atmosphere and ,given the ale range,for me this is firmly on the list for a revisit .It was a very pleasant surprise in this honey pot area.
June 2017
The interior is much the same but there had been a marked downturn on the ale selection.The six handpumps were drawing a real cider,two regulars in Big Smoke Solaris Session (very good nick but quickly ran out) and Truman Runner with guests of Signature Brew Session (a poor malty brew) and 3 Brewers Blond (ok condition but dull)with the sixth pump reversed throughout a busy Friday evening session.The inability to replace ales that had run out left a mundane selection ,all with low ABV's,and the distinct impression of slipping standards.A downgrade from me,despite a decent interior it's now just another West End boozer serving some real ale.
UPDATE
The significant change here was a much wider and more interesting cask ale selection and an even larger array of craft beer options advertised on a small flatscreen above the front window.Interior unchanged .The ale selection on my trip was Oakham Citra (NBSS 4),Harvey's Sussex Best (both regulars) with rotating guests Moor Nano Cask,Exeter 'fraidNot,Siren The Night Market,East India Porter (NBSS 3.5) and Broken Dream Breakfast Stout (NBSS 4). There were also 3 real ciders on handpump ,with 4 pull unused.
I was impressed with the style range and conditioning and so an upgrade from me to a must visit when in Soho despite the busy nature at peak times .
On 29th March 2024
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Will Larter left this review about The Lyric
Slightly rough and ready corner pub with 13 hand pumps. Three were for ciders, and there were eight cask beers, half of them with hand written pump clips. Beers from Moor, Bristol Beer Factory, Allsopp, Dorking and Tring plus Harvey's Sussex Best and Oakham Citra. I had a half of Tring Side Pocket, which was in very good condition (NBSS 3.5) and only £5.20/pint. I'd be more inclined to put this on my "must return some day" list if the music wasn't so penetrating.
On 9th January 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3734 recommendations about 3471 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Lyric
The pub’s name dates from 1892, previously having been the Ham & Windmill, this rebuilt in 1906.
The Lyric has reinvented itself as a specialist real ale emporium and probably the only one for quite some distance. I arrived intending this to be the first of my mini-crawl, but it was so packed and with mainly fizzed-up squealers, that I though I’d tipped up at the wrong destination, but no, so I decided to return a couple of hours later at the end of my crawl.
There’s some rainbow bunting to the fascia, but nowadays it’s hard to work out whether this is to celebrate the NHS or gay Soho, but this doesn’t strike me as being a gay pub. Entry is through an attractive vestibule, with polychromatic Art Nouveau glazed tiling to a curved wood front. The interior is traditional and fairly small, dominated by a TV and large quantity of single-use plastic cobwebs, as Hallowe’en was just 12 days away! There’s a white Lincrusta ceiling, festooned with hundreds of ale clip faces.
Service was swift and professional, with 13 pumps dishing up around two ciders, with six unused and too many to list, even if I could have seen all of them. I went for the Red Willow Wreckless APA at £2.70 a half; passable for the area, but too much for this type of pub format. It seemed on good form, but wasn’t really the style of beer I’d go for again.
This is a good little place with nothing like it in W1, but I’d prefer no TV, polluting cobwebs or Prosecco-heads, none of which troubles the Harp over the way in Covent Garden.
On 30th October 2021
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about The Lyric
A revisit - again, at closing time. Don't know why I always seem to end Soho Crawls here.
Noticed that they have 13 Casks and much more keg on. And I missed Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. Not that there was anything wrong with my Jaipur. I just panic ordered when faced with so much choice - at a bar, and no table service in freedom week :-)
On 26th July 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1337 recommendations about 1323 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Lyric
Today was my first visit to the Lyric in almost 5 years. It is a small pub that appears to be one of very few to have re-opened in the West End. Having been all around the country over the last 6 weeks, I was dismayed to find many of central London's pubs still closed. Most will be bigger than the Lyric. So, this is a great shame. But just wandering around the streets, it can be seen that London is much quieter than normal.
A few other customers were in and there were 3 bar staff. The ale and cider range was not as large as normal. But the selection was still ok. The regular ale is Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. Guests were Tring Pale Four, Big Smoke Distant Lands & Southwark El Dorado. The real cider was Abrahall's Slack Alice. In addition, there were about a dozen craft beers.
Certainly one of the better pubs in the West End.
On 14th August 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Lyric
Odd little pub, comprising a sparsely decorated 'L'-shaped bar with a limited amount of furniture. There is also an upstairs room; but, when the weather permits, most of the customers are either standing outside or using the tables in the small rear patio area. However, my latest re-visit occurred towards the end of the Covid-19 lockdown when this place was notable as being one of the very few central London pubs open for take-outs and thus a very welcome brief stop on my first (essential travel) visit to the capital for more than three months. Unsurprisingly, most of the handpumps were temporarily out of use, but two cask beers - the Strickland dry Irish stout collaboration between Thornbridge and Adnams, and the Distant Lands golden ale from Big Smoke - were not only available and in good form but also remarkably priced at just £2.50/pint. Well done for keeping things going...
On 4th July 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8092 recommendations about 8092 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Lyric
Well, me and my chum decided to pop back and see if things had improved in the intervening five years since my excoriating dismissal of the place below. The interior looks to have been blandized a bit from what I remember, but is essentially similar. The range of ales remains and we were both drawn to the Titanic Plum Porter and Siren Craft, as, it appeared, were most of the other punters. We were quite impressed and decided to stay for another – a chance to fully bury the hatchet! – but sadly our following two beers were insipid dishwater. That’s more like the Lyric I was expecting…I suspect this will be my last visit as there’s a distinct Bree Louise feel about it, (a local CAMRA branch more interested in choice over quality and people who assume choice = good rather than actually appreciate how well a cask ale has been cellared). As the PL showed, there are more than enough of them to keep this place ticking over, whatever I might think.
September 2013
A little pub situated round the back of Shaftesbury Avenue, which I had been tipped off about being yet another recent beer-centric conversion in the capital. Entrance is through an attractive Art Nouveau green/orange glazed-tiled entrance porch, complemented by appealing curved bay windows (inset wood with frosting). Inside is a pretty small single room bar with a dining area upstairs. Interior in brief: wood flooring, painted tongue-and-groove wood panelling, an old wooden beer barrel for table, collection of knick-knacks on high shelving plus some framed pics of various military personnel. Unusually, no piped music. Pub attractions included free WiFi and live Jazz on Sundays. At the bar - six eclectic ales, one proper cider (Gwent y Ddraig) plus an array cask keg and Camden bottles in the fridge. Cask priced by abv, £3.50 through to £4.20. The list of ales on the blackboard above the bar bore little reality to the pumps. I tried a couple of casks; the Milk St was fine though was clearly the first of the day and not pulled through. The Alley Cat tasted like an actual alley cat may have bathed in it. Pub offers a loyalty card, buy 9 pints get 10th free. Barmaid was busy plunging the errant dishwasher and failed to wash her hands before serving me. Overall, pretty disappointing and I felt like that this was less of a Damascene conversion to the cause of good beer and more a bit of bandwagon jumping. Rated 5
On 5th June 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about The Lyric
The beer gods were smiling on me on Saturday night. Having failed to get in some upmarket cocktail bar nearby for a pre Ronnie Scott’s wettner due to queues, I managed to talk the good Lady into squeezing into this one after seeing something resembling a decent beer range from the window
The negative of this place is its small size and we were lucky to squeeze onto two bar stools at the far end of the bar. But that is more than made up by the fact that it punches well above its weight for beer choice and especially in this particular bit of town.
Ilkley Brewery Crossroads, Big Smoke Brewery Solaris, Redwell Extra Pale Ale, Tring Vampire, Southwark Routemaster Red and Portobello Star Amber Ale were on for our visit and the couple we tried were well kept. And also an impressive range of keg fonts as well reported below..
Totally agree, this one is now firmly in the memory banks for a return visit when next in the Soho area.
On 14th November 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Lyric
A basic one room pub with an upstairs dining room not investigated, all as described by Bucking Fastard below, beer-wise this was a real find in Taylor Walker land,beers on were an excellent 360 degrees Session IPA backed up with Longarm Lucky Penny,Trumans Zeyphr,One Mile End Dockers Delight,Arbour Blue Sky Drinking and a perry in the form of Bee Sting,plenty of Craft Keg options as well. Impressed and now firmly on the map.
On 24th October 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about The Lyric
Lots of interesting beers - I went for a Harbour Brewery Amber Ale - in fine nick.
With the exception of the beer quality, this is a typical London Pub.
Worth checking out.
Photos at my blog - http://bit.ly/2dAN8k3
On 30th September 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 277 recommendations about 276 pubs]