Maple Leaf, Covent Garden, WC2

Dating from 1739 as the Dukes Head, it had become the Bedford Head Hotel by 1792, rebuilt in 1873 and known since 1984 as the Canadian-themed Maple Leaf, eh. There’s a modern boarded floor, with bare brick to the rear, but then planking to walls, some of which displays red maple leaf motifs; there are similar motifs to the modern wood bar front. The ceiling is low, with white matchboard and flush aircon. Furniture is untraditional and is completely mixed. Décor amounted to a life-size toy moose head above the bar, then framed Canadian sporting memorabilia and not all of it relating to ice hockey, hard though that may be to believe. What really cannot be avoided though are the 10 – yes 10 – TVs showing the football, with just two showing baseball. Customers were quite mixed with many becoming quite animated when Scotland scored. My card payment unmasked this joint as being owned/leased by Greene King, but despite this, there’s no real ale here unsurprisingly (no loss), with just loads of chrome founts, me opting for a half of Neck Oil at a punishing £3.50, served by a pleasant English barmaid. This is a pretty awful place, but then I wasn’t expecting much; a Canadian friend once told me he wouldn’t be seen dead in here.

Official site of Maple Leaf - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

Official site of Maple Leaf - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

No real ale at all, just keg/craft offerings. Not to be revisited.

Its a bar with lots of sport on tv. Average selection of mass produce Canadian beer.Very busy.

Coming into here as a neutral on a first visit, I thought it was all rather so-so and that a lot more could be done with the place. The Canadian themed touches seemed to be awfully reminiscent of the sort of "I've been to London" tat that our cheap market stalls sell to American and Japanese tourists, rather than real Canada (I've been there three times, so I like to think I have a vague idea of what that is) - someone can set fire to the flea-ridden bear if they like. The place really seems to be aimed at sports fans, the bar was packed with TVs showing the ice hockey. I will say though that the Sleemans Honey beer was nice and that might well tempt me back in at some point, unless anywhere else in London sells it...? It was frighteningly expensive but at least they can claim that it's a genuine import, unlike some other establishments nearby selling UK brewed 'foreign' keg for £3.50+ a pint...