East Dulwich Tavern, East Dulwich, SE22

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours over a few pints and a paper in this large Antic pub whilst the good lady explored all the independent shops along the now gentrified Lordship Lane. Initially on one of the external benches soaking up the late afternoon sun and then when she returned in one of the comfy leather seats in the back room watching Wimbledon on the large flat tele. Although nine of the pumps had clips on, unfortunately three were reversed leaving six beers available. But those that were on had a particular focus on local South London Breweries and offered a decent range. Granted two of these were from Antic’s own Croydon based Volden Brewery (Pale and Session Ale) but then there were Canopy Sunray Pale Ale, Pig & Porter Lost Colony, Brixton Brewery Reliance Pale Ale and Brick Brewery Peckham Pale. Went through the last three whilst there and they were all in good condition. No problem with the service levels but then granted it was a late Monday afternoon, so the place wasn’t that busy and the staff hardly challenged but all in all I thought this was a very decent pub.

My first pub of the days action and it was a good hit, a large pub but not so busy as I got there bang on opening time on a sunny Saturday. Lots of oddments on the walls and scattered about in true Antic fashion including sets of ivory handled table knives, thimbles, taxidermy an ancient record player and a piano (not on the wall), the menus were bulldog clipped to old vinyl LP covers,some with the records still in them. There were 10 handpumps, not sure if they've been added to since John's visit below or he was well into a crawl when he got there! Anyhow 8 were in use including beers from Volden,Brixton,Brick,Bad Co,Adnams and Dark Star, my Hophead was a decent start to the day.The only criticism I have was that the TV football volume was way to loud at one end of the pub and at the other end the music was full volume,I don't mind either but not at the same time and at a more sensible level,that aside I really liked the place.

Large busy pub.Very warm on a cold night. Eclectic wall hangings inc a display of wooden coat hangers.Five handpumps with good choice of Gun -parabellum,Arbor -megs bomb and Revolution-blue mondays.Tried all three and good quality.Skysports kept me amused while I drank.Good pub.

The East Dulwich Tavern s a very large pub that is situated next to a very busy road junction. Once inside the pub had three areas,the apex of the pub had bench seating and chairs,there was a small raised area to the right,this area was full with mainly younger people dining,the main bar area is L shaped with a comfy bench seat and small stools,there is a seperate area to the rear which had normal table snad chairs,the pub was very busy on my dinnertime visit,so i sat on a bar stool. There were five real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Milk Street The Usuall which was a very nice drink,the other beers were Adnams Lighthouse,Trumans Original Porter,Alchemy Rye One,and Doom Bar. This pub had a good lively atmosphere,i was quite happy drinking in this pub. Pub visited 25/1/2014

The East Dulwich Tavern, or 'EDT' as it annoyingly refers to itself, is a prominent street corner pub in this affluent South London suburb. As you enter towards the bar you are faced with a well lit triangular area to the left which has a lot of seating set up and was very busy on my recent Saturday afternoon visit, or a slightly smaller and darker section to the right with minimal seating and, during my stay at least, a TV screen showing live Premier League football. The room is quite nicely decorated with a mix of traditional and contemporary and I was particularly struck by the impressive wood and tile flooring. Additional seating is provided by way of a few benches on the pavement outside, but these are situated on a pretty busy corner and I can imagine it gets a bit crowded sat there. We were here for food and as such we were ushered through some curtains towards the rear of the room, which gave way to a fairly large dining room, lit by a couple of large sky lights. The room is decorated with a number of unusual and interesting objects, the most memorable being the deer head and collection of skulls all nailed to one wall. The food we tried was of a very good quality and the pub changes its menu on a weekly basis which may well help to encourage return visits. Four handpulls were dispensing Purity UBU, Sharp's Atlantic IPA, Adnams IPA and Bath Barnstormer, which struck me as a decent selection. I thought the Atlantic IPA was in excellent shape and the barman who served me was very polite and professional in dealing with a rude lady who tried to push in front of me at the bar. There were a few interesting products on tap as well, including Grolsch Weizen, Blue Moon as well as Addlestones and Stowford Press ciders. A blackboard around the right hand side of the bar listed some of their impressive bottled beer range. The pub seems to be very popular with young parents and there were an awful lot of, admittedly well behaved, children, which might be off putting to some but they mostly congregated in the dining room, so drinkers were generally left alone anyway. I thought this might be a bit too pretentious for my liking but I found it quite a pleasant spot to spend an afternoon and I would certainly favour it over some of the fancy looking bars in the area.