Ruse, Borough, SE1

Ruse is situated on the corner of borough high street and great suffolk street. I quite liked the look of this pub from the outside. Once inside there is a decent sized L shaped room with the bar facing,the seating is a mix of pew type which are unusually in the middle area of the room,the other seating is tall tables and chairs and normal tables and chairs. There was one real ale on the bar which was Caledonian Edinburgh Castle,this was a decent enough drink,the pub was almost empty on my Tuesday dinner visit. Background music was playing which was concept style which really gets on my nerves after about 10 seconds. This is a decent enough pub to have one drink in. Pub visited 26/5/2015

I don't normally go in "pubs" with names like Ruse, but with about a half hour to kill, and having spotted a handpump, I decided to give it a go. The ale they had on was Courage Best (£1.85 a half) which turned out to be in surprisingly good nick. They do food between 12.00 - 3.00, and 5.00 to 8.00. The food's mainly pizze (£6.50 a pop), but they also had ciabatta sandwiches (a bit shy of £4), and some other standard meals for a fiver. All very reasonably priced I would say, and although I didn't test the quality, a group of American ladies (took a wrong turn at London Bridge perhaps?) were tucking in with no apparent problems. This is a very modern looking bar. It has a bit of concealed lighting, and more than its share of tall tables/tall stools, as well as some black plastic upholstered square stools and normal tables and chairs. There's nothing on the walls except some modern "arts & crafts" style wallpaper, a few mirrors, and of course TV screens. There's not much in the way of pub character, being more of a cheap "hotel lounge" type of place. But it was better than I expected from a bar called Ruse.

Another awful place to rival the dreadful libertine up the road. Pathetic name too.

Randomness Guide to London - Ruse entry

Randomness Guide to London - Ruse entry