The Angel, Old Street, EC1

Randomness Guide to London - Angel entry

Randomness Guide to London - Angel entry

This is a pretty unremarkable pub in my opinion. Nothing about it stands out. GKIPA, Pride and Bombardier on. I had the IPA which tasted like GKIPA always does. Expensive at over £3 a pint for a very average beer. Can't see any reason for a repeat visit.

Smallish corner pub which is dominated by three flat screen tele's interspersed amongsth the ground floor bar. This is fine if you are interested in watching Sky sports but if not then difficult to find an area where you can sit and not be in full view of a bright blazing plazma. But that apart I found this to be a decent corner pub. Three ales on which were Fullers Pride, GK IPA and CW Bombardier and the pride seemed to be well kept. There is a few limited outside tables on the Leonard Street side, but the density of the traffic on the City road doesn't make this place conducive to enjoying an outside pint. So in conclusion an OK place for a pint close to Old Street station, but probably only for one before moving on to one of the better pubs in the local vicinity.

On my recent week night visit here I enjoyed a decent pint of Pride with a few friendly locals and hospitable staff. Greene king IPA and Bombardier were also available alongside a standard draught selection. There is a small servery at the end of the bar that serves up basic pub grub for the peckish. Sky sports was being shown on all three plasma screens and from the advertisements in the bar I gleaned that another two screens are located in the upstairs bar that doubles up as a function room. I liked it in here and would certainly recommend it to others.

There are so many of these pub/restaurants along the Shore that they all start seeming like each oher. Again the Waterline has a small cramped bar with a larger restaurant area up a few stairs at the back. I saw a Cask Marque sign that I thought was a bit generous given they only had two handpumps, one with the ubiquitous Deuchars and the other showing nothing. One advantage the Waterline has over other bars in the area is a nice outside seating area that I imagine is very popular in Summer.

The Angel is a fairly traditional style pub but quite mainstream in appearance and beers. The neat and tidy interior has some smart leather backed built in seating and a semi circular bar but numerous plasma screens tend to be very intrusive. The patterned windows display Taylor Walker symbols which always remind me too much of Arsenal which isn’t good. The background music was also incredibly dull and did nothing for the ambience. There was also a bar upstairs but I didn’t feel any great inspiration to check it out. The beers are rather standard with Bombardier, London Pride and Greene King IPA making up the ale range and not particularly cheap. On the whole, a very average place that will fill a gap if you have a gap that needs filling but don’t expect it to leave you any great lasting impression.