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

After a short period of closure, this place reopened to great fanfare in November 2012, reinventing itself as a brewpub with a strong emphasis on food as well. The pub is a short walk from Barnet High Street, passing some attractive buildings along Wood Street on the way. Inside, you find a large, opened out room but with a number of clearly defined individual areas. You enter into the drinker's area with the L-shaped servery directly in front of you and some good mixed seating to the left including tub chairs, pews and high stools, with a stone fireplace on the end wall acting as a good focal point. The servery has a rather plain modern counter and bar back and the whole room has rather uninspiring Farrow and Bull paint scheme, bare floorboards and minimal décor, with a few black and white photos and the odd painting having to make do. To the front right is a carpeted square space with half panelled walls and three rows of standard tables and chairs, all but two of which were reserved for non-present groups on my Friday evening visit. From here you can access a large roadside garden which has a large lawn and a smaller patio section with loads of seating options but no real sense of peacefulness thanks to the relatively busy road. A final space to the rear, beyond the bar, had been set up as a formal dining room and had a faux brick wall at the back, lots of formally set tables, also mostly empty but reserved, and a large plain mirror on the end wall. A half decent funk/rock soundtrack played throughout my stay and I was able to bag one of the few unreserved tables, although this happened to be next to a couple with two very annoying yappy dogs. The pub has it's own brewery (Barnet) out the back, so I was looking forward to trying some of their beer, but an initial glance along the hand pumps suggested that none were available, so I had to choose from Marstons New World Pedigree, Vale Gravitas, BCA Fireside, Hatfield Prior Reid Dark Mild, Merri Men Be Merri, Aylesbury Brewhouse Three Mile Island and Hambleton Stallion. I couldn't resist the Dark Mild (£3.70) and I have to say it was a fantastic pint that went down in no time. Having wandered around to the other side of the bar, I then spotted another pump dispensing Barnet IPA, but by this time I was totally sick of the yappy dogs and their useless owners, so I didn't try it after all. This has got elements of a great pub, with the beer range and quality in particular being a major draw. I'd hoped this would be well worth travelling the length of the Northern Line for, but I was disappointed to find a half empty pub with virtually nowhere to sit and felt the place gave off quite a food-focussed vibe, when I'd expected the beer to be the main driver. Its a good addition to Barnet's fairly limited ale scene and I'd definitely give it another go if I was back in the area, but I left a little underwhelmed and would hope for a better experience on returning.