Green Man & French Horn, WC2

Visited here in the early 2000s and this was indeed a long thin gloomy boozer full of bewildered tourists. It can’t have been very nice because I recall me berating my friend for arranging to meet at such an awful place, us necking our drinks and leaving sharpish. What a shame though that it’s now a restaurant.

What a change; and although it remains a long and narrow space, the new glazed entranceway and bare brickwork has certainly brightened the place up. Mind you, it now operates almost as a French restaurant with all tables laid for dining, and with just a few stools along the side bar. No draught beer, and a smallish bottle of Coopers Original Pale Ale is a wince-inducing £4.50 (but at least served in a simple, but extremely light weight and thin-rimmed glass that really brought the flavour out).

Official site of Green Man & French Horn - www.greenmanfrenchhorn.co

Having seen that this place had re-opened, in a moment of reckless abandon the other day as I was passing, I decided to have a look inside. This is nothing like the narrow dark boozer that I used to know. It’s essentially a French restaurant, but when I was greeted at the door and said that I just wanted a drink I was pointed towards a stool at the bar. So, it just about qualifies as a pub, but to be honest I just wanted to test it out and see what it looked like now. It’s really not the sort of place to come if you just want a drink. The only beer comes in bottles, advertised on a chalkboard behind the bar counter – Camden Hells Lager (quite good actually), some wheat beer (both £3.50), Coopers Pale Ale (£4.50), and something called Loirette for £5. The walls are mainly exposed brickwork; the floor’s parquet, and there are loads of odd pictures on the walls mainly featuring people with bottles and corks. I had a look at the menu, but couldn’t understand much of it as it was in a foreign language (French probably), but did establish that there were no pork pies, scratchings or anything like that on it.

Official site of Green Man & French Horn - www.greenmanfrenchhorn.co