The Somers Town Coffee House, Somers Town, NW1

A single J-shaped space with a central bar, boarded floor with stone effect tiling in the bar area. The first thing I spotted on entering was the row of ten clipped handpumps however my initial excitement was muted rather on seeing that all but two were from the Charles Wells stable leaving just Everards Xingu and a cider, Thundering Molly, as non CW offerings. I had the Xingu, a World Cup beer apparently brewed in conjunction with a Brazilian brewer. The others were Youngs Bitter, Special, London Gold and Hummingbird, Directors, Bombardier plus Bombardier Gold and Wells Eagle. The bar back has a Royal coat of arms but this is spoilt somewhat by rather gaudy modern mosaic tiling. Hops around the ceiling beams are a better feature, dark wood panelling, mostly regular seating in the main bar albeit at school style chairs. The rear left area beyond the bar can be separated by folding doors, seating in here is more avant-garde with high backed benches and armchairs. Food is served and features "British Tapas", sandwiches were listed on an old school rolling blackboard. I believe the pub is a 1920s rebuild but that there has been one on the site for a long time and originally was a coffee house. Continental outdoor seating to the front under an awning plus a bit of garden to the rear. Downstairs is something called "The Cosy Kettle", the signage in red neon lettering, I didn't take a look, I doubt it would be my cup of coffee. A nice spot especially so close to the main rail termini and the Marylebone Road, a better choice across those ten pumps would potentially make this a destination pub.

Somers Town Coffee Shop official site - www.thesomerstowncoffeehouse.co.uk

Somers Town Coffee Shop official site - www.thesomerstowncoffeehouse.co.uk

This is clearly an old pub, with dark wood and mirrors. Laid out as an L shape around the bar, the interior is roomy and laid out with tables and a mixture of traditional wooden pub chairs and 'Regency' style leather chairs. There were four real ale taps serving three ales, Pedigree, Courage Best and Directors. The Best and Directors were delicious. Mrs Staal and I ate the food which is described as 'English Tapas'. This means evrything comes in smaller portions. I mean this in a positive way - Mrs Staal and I shared a Lancashire Hotpot, Barbecue Wings, Pork Bon Bons and Fish and Chips. After this, we were both stuffed and agreed that we had eaten a delicious meal. The bill, with drinks, came to a little over £30.00, which we both thought was very reasonable. We are due back down here for the Olympics, and we will definitely eat here again. Very good pub, very good atmosphere, excellent food! Oh, the unpubby Mrs Staal has just shouted to remind me to mention that tea and coffee is also served.

The Somers Town Coffee House is basically a large L shaped pub with an area behind the bar that feels like a drawing room. There is seating in the bar area and on the wide path out the front there are some picnic tables. The bar is stocked with a mixture of standard and premium draught products and one of the three hand pumps was unused leaving Directors and Courage Best as the ale options. I didn’t spot any televisions, but there was some generic background music playing. The service was friendly and the Directors was good. The opening times are from 10:00 until 23:30 so I imagine that coffee is actually served. Gone are the days when my step dad got his nose broken for the first time in here, but I still wasn’t that keen on this place. I’m not sure that it is worth the walk from the station.

I wasn’t expecting much from somewhere calling itself a coffee house, but I was pleasantly surprised by this place. There were three, albeit mainstream, ales on. These were Young’s London Gold (£3.50 a pint), Courage Best and Bombardier, supplemented by a range of lagers including Estrella (tempted obviously but I resisted the temptation in favour of London Gold!), Red Stripe, and Erdinger. There were none of those garish ‘T’ junction lager fonts or those equally hideous refrigerated fonts cluttering up the bar counter. But enough gastropub features were present – such as the large jars of nuts and the like on the bar counter, newspapers also on the bar, as well as a basket of muffins. Even though it qualifies as a gastropub there were more than enough seats around the bar area for those just wanting a drink, with diners apparently consigned to a separate room at the back to the left of the bar counter. It looks as if the only food availabale at this time of the year – judging by the menus on the table in the bar area at which I was sitting – are the three special 3-course Christmas menus, priced at £16, £23.50 and £27. I didn’t bother to note the deatials, but rest assured that there was no pub grub sullying these menus! The interior has some nice wood panelling on the walls, a fireplace on the right with, for some reason, the royal coat of arms on the chimney breast. The royal theme is repeated on the sofas in front of the fireplace, with both of them decorated with the Union Flag emblazoned with the royal coat of arms. All very patriotic I suppose. All things considered it’s not a bad place. It’s nothing like the locals’ boozers up the road – but it does do three drinkable ales which the others didn’t. It’s definitely good enough for a pint if you’ve got a bit of time to spare at Euston Station.