Stewart Arms, W11

Not much has changed since Tris C's visit last year. The Doom Bar remains as elusive as ever, although on my visit at least the clip was reversed so my expectations weren't high when I at least showed willing by asking whether it was on. No luck I'm afraid. There was no sign of any food on Thursday afternoon. This is still a three-room pub, with all three rooms having their own door to the outside. The rooms are interconnected by open doorways - i.e. openings where doors used to be. The room on the left could be regarded as the public, or perhaps sports, bar as it contains a pool table and dartboard; it's furnished with dark varnished tables and normal chairs. The centre room is the smallest of the three, but still too large to be a jug & bottle bar I would think (snug possibly?). It is small enough that it contains just a couple of tall tables/tall stools. The room on the right would perhaps have been the saloon bar. It's carpeted, is furnished with a handful of normal tables and chairs, one tall table with tall stools, and the barrels mentioned by the previous reviewer are still there doing duty as tall tables. The button upholstered bar counter front gave the room a 70s feel. There are also a few seats outside at the front. There's a nice wood framed fireplace on the right, unfortunately almost entirely obscured by Guinness St Patrick's Day tat at the moment, plus the Guinness bunting strung across the room doesn't do it any favours. On the plus side, there are loads of brewery mirrors on all the walls, which I think always adds to the attraction of any pub. This looks to be still a locals' pub. There were a dozen or so punters in, and the place had a friendly feel to it. I quite liked it as a pub, but the half of Courage Best that I had (£1.70 a half) isn't really good enough to attract me back!

Rebuilt as an inter-war-years pub which dates to at least the mid-19th century, this is now largely an estate pub that exists in the hinterland that is technically Notting Hill, but in reality is more Shepherd's Bush. There is a covered patio of sorts outside with planters which initially gives the impression that this place could be slightly more desirable than initial appearances suggest. Inside, this is a surprisingly large pub with an unusually voluminous island bar. The walls are either covered with baroque wallpaper or what looks like woodchip. The right bar features a tiled fireplace which I doubt is used whilst the walls are dotted with old advertising signs and posters for products of yesteryear. To the rear there's a pool table and at least one games machine. Furniture is mixed and eclectic; at least one table is simply a topped beer barrel. Sport played on at least two TVs with the sound down. Clients seemed to be avowedly Irish, though I'm not aware of a local Irish community. I asked for a half of the displayed Sharp's Doom Bar only to be told that it was off. Judging by the barmaids rather baffled expression I rather got the impression that it was never in fact on, or at least hadn't been for quite some time. An unknown half of lager arrived with a price tag of £2, or simply "Two" as the barmaid requested. This is quite a lot considering the area. This isn't really my kind of place and I rather got the feeling that there's a bit of a "Did ya spill my pint?" mentality in here, so I'll leave it and its tight T-shirted muscle-bound patrons to its own devices.

Old and a bit run down back street boozer. Three seperate drinking areas and only GK ipa on as a real ale.