The Black Horse, Barnet

Sat on a corner of mini roundabouts, The Black Horse is now an opened out gastro-pub and being quite large and spacious doesn't help it in the charm stakes,there is little if any ambiance to the place. There were a couple of young family's in the beer garden and two or three couples inside, but it still seemed cavernous on cold inside,and despite having been open an hour, there were still stacked chairs and tables around the edge of the room. That said on the beer front it was a little more interesting with a range to cover most tastes, Pride and Seafarers via Fullers, Portobello Autumn Red and Market Porter,Farr Brew Pale, Directors, presumably Courage but this was just handwritten on cardboard, and the beer I chose Barnet Hoppy Ending,brewed in the pub and was very good. Despite being happy with the beer, I couldn't warm to the pub at all.

This pub is well described by those who came before me. Inside it's completely opened up,with gastro-grey everywhere. About half the pub area had tables laid for diners, with the "drinkers" area being furnished mainly with recycled dining room tables and normal chairs. It's true that the garden is sizeable and well maintained, but being right by the very busy main road does detract from it somewhat. In fact even though my group visited on a nice day we opted to sit inside in order to avoid the traffic noise and fumes. The micro-brewery (Barnet Brewery predictably) is still operating in a small room, or garage perhaps, at the back. There were no menus on the tables; I guess you ask for one at the bar if you plan on eating. There were seven real ales on when we visited on Wednesday afternoon (a couple of handpumps were unclipped), plus Weston's Rosie Pig cider. The ales were Doom Bar, London Pride, Gale's Seafarer, Thwaite's Wainwright, Mighty Oak Supernova, and the Barnet Brewery pair of Battle of Barnet and Glory. My companions and I (the blokes that is) all rated the Battle of Barnet as our beer of the day. The beer selection was very good, and the place was comfortable enough even if a bit more restaurant than pub. This one is definitely worth dropping into for drink if you're on your way from the Olde Mitre to the Lord Nelson.

A nice old building that abuts a junction. A modern, modish, rattly open-plan gastro interior in mushroom shades with an impressive beer garden out front (shame about the busy road!). Selection of papers and a small number of books, though whether you’d be able to concentrate on that over the drone of the background muzak is another matter. The selling point of this place for the drinker is that it has its own in-house microbrewery (Barnet) and that there’s a push on the ale in general, though sadly only one of their own brews was available on my visit. Nine pumps at the bar and an eclectic bunch (looks like they’re working off a pubco list) with Barnet IPA, Black Sheep, GK Golden Breeze, Sharps Doom Bar, Fuller's London Pride, Marston New World, Vale Moon, Backyard Navvy plus Westons Old Rosie cider. We obviously went for the Barnet which was a fairly average beer but in decent condition nonetheless. Overall it's a reasonable place if you're ale hunting and worth a try if you're nearby, but there’s no pub cosiness to make it a singular destination venue. 6.5