The Old Dairy, N4

Facebook page of The Old Dairy - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Old Dairy - www.facebook.com

Set in an impressive old building, presumably owned by a dairy at one point, this is a very big pub that had an impersonal feel on a quiet Thursday night, to the point that the barman suggested I return on Saturday, when it fills out more and offers a much better atmosphere. The interior follows a rough L-shape, but is so angular that there are little nooks, seating areas and hiding spots everywhere you look. The room is bare boarded throughout with loads of exposed brick walls and at least one massive skylight. The left side has high tables and stools plus a small separate room and a slightly raised recessed seating area with Chesterfields opposite the bar. Seating is mostly in the shape of high tables and stools through here and also around the main bar area, with a lone raised, padded banquette to the rear. The bar has a very plain counter, modern metal frame gantry with lots of plants on top, and a uniform bar back. Beyond the right end of the servery, the room turns towards the rear, into a dining space with all the diners on this evening sat along the left-hand wall's banquette, like they were about to be shot by a firing squad. Some more, but less appealing, seating stands opposite and there is a side room space to the right which was empty despite the better lighting. The whole place was a bit bare and lacking character, not helped by loud tunes playing to no-one in particular, but to be fair, there was no sign of any TV screens. A slot machine and stack of board games comprised the main entertainment options. The ale selection was a bit pedestrian, with three operational handpulls dispensing Greene King IPA and Scrumdown (£4.95 a pint) plus Deuchars IPA. The barman seemed pretty cool and happy to chat on a quiet evening and my pint of Scrumdown was drinkable without really standing out. I thought this was a bit of a soulless, cavernous place with some unadventurous beer choices and no atmosphere, but I appreciated the good service and take on board the barman's point that a weekend visit might have left a more favourable impression. With the Robin a short walk away, this place feels more like a wildcard option or somewhere to try on an extended crawl, rather than a destination in its own right. Date of visit - 21st March 2024

Enjoyed reading the excellent collection of reviews as I arrived and tried to make sense of the place. Perhaps the biggest difference between my visit and most of those below was mine at 5.30pm on a blazing hot Monday evening where I am sure that everyone that is as lucky as me to be out quaffing in a decent pub part of town are probably gravitating to out door drinking (hopefully under umbrellas or with plenty of sunscreen on their exposed parts)! You could count the number of fellow inhabitants of this grand and sprawling venue on the fingers of one/two hands. With the massive skylight over the bar and the pleasant decor (bare boards, exposed brickwork, decent quality leather and upholstered seating, sturdy banquettes, quality, albeit mish mash, tables and woodwork painted a green hue that I am particularly partial too) I thought this was a rather decent pub experience. I can imagine that the rammed and noisy version of this at a weekend or during a big sporting occasion no doubt extensively shown on the plasma screens dotted around the place I would be taking a modestly more negative view. The interior shape is almost S-shaped, the places to park your butt on my attendance and enjoy my quaff felt almost limitless on my visit. As noted below there are four hand pumps. One I would hazard a guess is permanently unused and carried a clip explaining what cask ale is. I prefer experiment when it comes to quaffing ale and would have preferred to rely on my experience rather than an explanation. The other three provided experiential opportunity of two GK beers (obviously IPA and something called False Nine described as a golden ale and I can vouch for it being perfectly decent) and the guest of Deuchars from Caledonian (one of my least favourite ales). Plenary of keg options, lagers were Peroni, Madri, Jubel Peach, Asahi, Camden Hells and Amstel), Guinness, the same two ciders as in my starting point today (Aspall and a flavoured Old amount option. The more decent (to varying degrees) keg options were the GK beers Level Head and Hazy Days, Neck Oil, Munchener Hell from Hacker Pschorr, Little Faith from Northern Monk and Lumina from Siren. Happy I managed to type up my summary in the time taken to do one loop of the venue at fast walking pace! It was a pleasant if verging on existential visit as by the time I left at 6pm I was the only punter. No crowds, no live sport (if you ignore Olympics without commentary), no kids clubs, no pets, no diners, no internal barriers between the different zones of the venues, just two lads behind the bar having a good natter. Even the music was a la Thai spa - no massage provided though as far as I am aware. Right feeling pretty chilled to try the pub on t side of the start of Crouch Hill.

This was one of the 79 Greene King pubs that did not reopen after the Pandemic shutdowns, and it was feared that we had lost this on for good. Fortunately, it reopened in April last year after a bit of an internal makeover. The large multi space internal layout is unchanged but there are a few cosmetic changes and there seems to be a lot more exposed brick from my remembrances and some impressive chandeliers in the main bar area. The TV in the spacious corner section room with its large windows out onto Stroud Green Road and Hanley Road has now been removed, which is a good thing as it provides a decent sized area of the pub away from the TV screens. The other three in the main bar, side room and dining area remain, but are now enclosed in wooden cabinets, which is something else I don’t remember from previous post pandemic visits. Perhaps they were previously but were always open, so I didn’t notice. They were all closed for my early Saturday evening visit but the staff kindly opened one so that we could watch the Saracens v Exeter rugby match. TV’s open on request now seems to be the order of the day which is another good thing in my book. Another change is the bar top that has been remodelled and the number of ale pumps had been reduced from five to four and only three were operational for my recent visit, with GK IPA, TT Landlord and a very pleasant Deuchars IPA. So sadly not the ale focus or choice that the Old Dairy was worth visiting for pre covid , but you can say that about a lot of pubs nowadays, and at least there was a well kept alternative to the insipid Greene King brews. This continued on the three banks of keg taps where, alongside some from the GK stable there was a decent range of craft options from both the usual suspects (Beavertown and Camden) and Northern monk and the Wolfpack Lager, which was appreciated by a Saracens supporter. The food menu seemed to be more aligned to standard pub fayre than gastro dishes and the Steak and Ale pie I went for was the absolute classic pub food accompaniment to go with a decent pint. Very glad to have this one back and on my list of goto pubs for a pie, pint and a game of rugby. No need to alter my previous rating, despite the slightly reduced focus on ale. Its still a very comfortable pub.

Official site of The Old Dairy - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

Official site of The Old Dairy - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk