Lyceum Tavern, WC2

Classic Sam's with a downstairs bar and an upstairs diner. Downstairs bar is in two sections, the first part is fairly straightforward with varnish panelling and some booths, also wood panelled inside and out. The section through the wood and glass divider is a bit more personable with the bar also situated here. This is an outlet which stocks cask OBB. I was served up a Double Four lager by a friendly foreign barmaid. There’s an upstairs room too, kitted-out like a gentleman's club. An enjoyable stop.

I came here once before, several years ago and seemed to recall that this was a historic pub with an old and beautiful interior; I must have been a little drunk at the time as it isn't, the pub having originally been rebuilt in 1840 as the White Horse, with the current incarnation being build in 1906. Inside, and there's a modern(ish) bare boarded floor and several small booths. Much wooden panelling throughout, with some red paintwork above and a dining room and bar upstairs. 'twas a fine sunny evening and all Covent Garden's pubs were doing a roaring trade, many with customers crowded outside on the pavement, but at 8.45 in the evening there were just two diners upstairs and two drinkers apart from myself on my brief visit, which is all a bit lame. Ale: do you have to ask? OB at £1.75 a half and not that bad, as for once it wasn't served at absolute zero. Not a bad pub by the usual SS standards, but there's much better to be had elsewhere and the noise of traffic on the Strand - not to mention the noise from the seagulls - is something of a deterrent.

Typical Sams pub with their usual offerings. Nothing spectacular with dining upstairs.