Builders Arms, Kensington, W8

Good-looking pub from the outside but the interior is decidedly gastro, with the usual dark shades of grey colour scheme and rows of plain tables bearing menus on clipboards. They do seem to have kept an interest in ales though, with a new barrel properly pulled through for us. A row of outdoor tables is fenced off from the pavement. Draught beers were Landlord, Skinner's Betty Stogs, and Doom Bar with a Purity beer waiting to go on.

This is a spacious, open-plan back street, corner pub with a classic working class name and a decidedly more upmarket clientele. The front part of the pub comprises a large open space with large windows down two sides and two entrances. One porch, liberally draped with all sorts of greenery, leads out to a small front pavement seating area. The room is bare boarded and has lots of standard tables and chairs throughout, with a few plush armchairs and sofas over to the right hand side. The servery spans the rear wall and has a basic dark wood counter and an interesting bar back with a bright mosaic tile design depicting palm trees, for no apparent reason. Decor is fairly limited and what has been added is fairly uninspiring, with blackboards, plain mirrors and a very limited number of framed pictures providing the only forms of visual distraction. To the right of the bar, a lit fireplace was a nice focal point for those who’d just arrived on this chilly Autumn evening, whilst to the left, the room extends a way to the rear, where you’ll find a small space with a drinking ledge down one side and a couple of booths along the other – it’s a fairly dark and unwelcoming spot, but seemed popular enough on a busy midweek evening. The pub appeared to be packed with poseur types but a few students and tourists appeared over time and I ended up chatting endlessly to an American couple who were super-enthusiastic about all the pubs they’d been to in London – apart from this one!! Four ales must qualify as an unexpectedly decent return for a pub like this, with customers given a choice of Black Sheep Holy Grail, Sharps Doom Bar, Taylor Landlord and Rudgate Hop For Heroes. I tried a pint of the latter and thought it was rather nice, which was a relief, as upon ordering, the barmaid somehow managed to smash a half pint glass that was trapped inside a pint glass, which she then used to serve my pint! This place felt a bit like it was trying to be a refined, high-end pub suited to the locals, but fell a fair way short of achieving this, leaving us with a slightly pretentious feeling pub with nothing particularly marking it out from other such places in the area. I was happy enough here, chatting to my new American friends over a decent pint, but nothing here really grabbed me and made me want to rush back.

Again, nothing special beer wise. All below 4.5%. I went for Caple Road cider at 5.2%. Another pub not to be returned to.

Yes, this is a pub with a contemporary modern blue/grey though restrained interior but I wouldn't call it a gastropub as the mainstay of fayre is 'posh' burgers, fish 'n' chips and sandwiches with unsightly condiment bottles on tables and we didn't see any tables laid for diners - not exactly Masterchef then. Furniture is fairly conventional with some leatherette sofas and high stool/table combos and there's at least one real fire. The crowd in here is affluent, young and professional which is no surprise. However, Euro '16 was on and the sound was channelled through the pub's stereo system and it was *deafening*, so much so that one barman asked another to turn it down; it wasn't. Football at real-life volume in a pub is bad enough, but it was half time so all the adverts were blasted at us at full volume - I don't want to be told to do The Shake 'n' Vac (or whatever) at a volume which would have made Lemmy run for cover. Ales: Sharp's Doom Bar, Timothy Taylor's Landlord, Adnam's Southwold and Salopian Hop Twister at a very steep £4.45 (this is W8), though very nice it was too. We left The Tinnitus Arms and doubt we'll return.