The Robin, N4

A beer forward pub with six cask and ten craft beers available, on cask were Oakham Citra, Salopian Darwins Origin, Gun Chummy Bluster, Iron Pier Rosherville Red, Orkney Dark Munro and Fyne Ales Jarl at a pocket friendly, for London, £4.88 a pint, the craft beers were all top level stuff from the likes of Verdant , Deya and Beak to name a few. The room , loosely triangular in shape is fairly unremarkable though the addition of some artwork on the walls and an upright piano make for some interest as well as the lively clientele giving a vibrant feel but the beer here is the real interest and as such I would certainly return.

This unusual shaped pub appears to be never ending if you approach from the top of Crouch Hill, until you eventually reach a corner entrance which leads you into a bare boarded room with plain painted walls and a row of steamed up windows along the front wall. It's a narrow space, tapering slightly to the rear, where the servery fills the right rear corner. Cramped banquette booths can be found along the left-hand wall, with hanging plants trailling down from above and some pub themed paintings on the wall. A long banquette runs down the plainer right-hand wall with chairs in support and there are some low and mid-height stools under the front windows. The bar has a plain tongue and groove counter with more plants hung from above, and a simple bar back to the right. Pavement-side seating has been arranged out the front under some graffiti art style murals and there's a drinking ledge to the left of the bar with high stools, but this is in a particularly dull part of the room and was consequently not so popular, remaining empty throughout my stay. On the bar, a pretty good cask range comprised Sotomayor Pale Ale, Marble Manchester Bitter, Durham Dark Angel and Fell It's Mild For This Time Of Year (£4.74 a pint). The barmaid was quite friendly and served up a well-kept pint of the Mild - a style of beer that's virtually impossible to find in London these days, so I was pretty grateful for that. I thought this was a bit of a mixed bag, as the good cask ale range was offset by a pretty unmemorable, bland interior that I struggled go settle down in. I think the positives outweigh the drawbacks and seeing as the place only opened in its current guise six or so months prior to my visit, it may still be bedding in and merit another visit at some stage, which doesn't sound like much of a chore to me. Date of visit - 21st March 2024

Visited 29/07/24 Not visited before and almost unrecognisable from reviews below, even quite recent ones. Now called just the Robin and a very cool venue that has a beer range (cask and keg) that would be very hard to beat almost anywhere. Quite a small venue and so it packs a substantial punch. Layout wise it is a rectangular bar, with the servery on the far (relatively speaking) right corner from the entrance. Outside seating offered around the perimeter that was understandably super popular this evening on arrival a bit before 7pm. Inside the seating consists of stools around the bar plus some wing back leather chairs a la Rowley Birkin monologues and some leather Chesterfield sofas and regular wooden dining table style chairs. The large windows at the front of the venue were thrown open to let the summer in. There was a real buzz to the place. There were six hand pulls all operational. The list Marble Mild from Manchester Marble Brewery, Velveteen Chocolate Milk Stout from Dark Revolution, Titus from Saltaire (my choice and it was very well kept), the intriginly named (and looked like brewed especially for the venue) “No Champagne No Bookings No VIP” from Deya, Plateau from Burning Sky and 70 Shillings from Newbarns. The keg range was most excellent also and comprised of What Are Dreams Made of from Verdant, Milk Shake a milk stout from Wiper & True, Our Ram in Veneto from Pastore, Into the Haze an IPA from Deya, the Flowers witbier from Queer Brewing, Pale Fire a pale ale from Pressure Drop, Fresh the AF IPA from Cloudwater, the fantastic named Existence as a Radical Act also from Queer Brewing, the IPA from Small Beer and, to ensure even lager drinkers were offered something, the Studio Lager from Signature Brew. Wines were provided from three taps also! So, for the two traditional, and very good, pubs I have preceded this venue with this evening add a much better cask and craft offering in a much smaller space that had combined ten times the number of punters and so it is hard to argue that this place hasn't got things spectacularly right. Beers are attractively priced as an added bonus. This is unquestionably one of my pubs of 2024 and that and it might well end up being my pub of the year for 2024. Almost made it a maximum.

Official site of The Robin - www.therobinlondon.com

Official site of The Robin - www.therobinlondon.com

Modern corner bar in an area that I haven't been drinking in for almost 5 years. It was quite on our Monday evening visit and I got the feeling that they would have preferred to have served us at the table, had we not waltzed up to the bar. We were certainly pointed in the direction of QR codes on each table for a beer menu, but instead preferred to gaze at the pumpclips and keg fonts. The solitary real ale was Redemption Trinity, which we'd just had in the Lamb at Holloway, whilst a second handpull was clipped with Thistly Cross Whisky Cask cider. As with so many London pubs nowadays, craft beer seems much more popular. The range was Brick Peckham Pale & Redcurrant and Blackberry Sour, Deya Steady Rolling Man & Invoice Me The Microphone, Brew By Numbers/Boxcar #21 Pale Ale, Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout, Dig Brew Potion, Dig Brew/Exale Enter The Void & Siren Futurist. Once again, the keg cider was from Umbrella. Food from the kitchen smelt good, but the menu is limited to burgers at tidy prices.