The Osidge Arms, N14

Visited 19/05/25 No cask. Keg offering of Neck Oil, Cruz, Madri, Moretti, Fosters, Amstel, Heineken, Pravha, Guinness, original SB. Quite large venue on a small roundabout with some parking out the front. An L shaped venue with the bar counter around the inside right angle and the venue has a well-worn herringbone block wood floor. This place well advertises its Turkish food, and the restaurant area is over to the right of the entrance and has some nice colourful leaded glass windows. Between the restaurant and the entrance is a regular seating area with a mixture of seating types and regular tables. To the left of the entrance is a bar area with a pool table and a dart board that requires a table to be moved to be in play. A large TV screen was showing teatime TV but there was a clear indication this place would be showing live footy if there was a game on! I realised by wandering outside there is a large outside seating area (think picnic benches on astroturf) and some annexe seating (inside but accessed from outside) that suggests that the place can get quite busy and indeed what I thought was a small restaurant area to the extreme right of the entrance had an extension at the side making for actually quite a large dining space. Clearly this place is now a Turkish restaurant with traditional pub frontage. With its limited beer range it doesn't do the trick for me. Another small postcode area for pubs, with only the New Crown having a cask offering (ignoring the paltry offering in the Fishmongers, which I did after tasting the Tribute). I enjoyed the Irish venue Doyles more than the other traditional pub venues, which were a thoroughly disappointing lot!

Official site of The Osidge Arms - worldlocationmap.com

Official site of The Osidge Arms - worldlocationmap.com

As previous reviewers have commented The Osidge Arms used to fall into that category of a traditional estate type pub with a couple of Pool tables, Darts boards, and several large TV screens for the Sky Sports and racing, with a loyal clientele of builders and local workers. Unfortunately that loyal following wasn’t enough to keep it open in these austere times and it shut down in July of this year. However it has now reopened. But Alesonly will be a bit dismayed to hear that it has moved into the direction of the Gastro Pub. I have to say the makeover is very good but it has firmly moved in the direction of an upmarket bar and it is now promoted as a restaurant and bar. The pool tables are gone and the area is now the dedicated dining area, and the rest of the pub is now full of sofas and chests masquerading as tables. The bar remains in the same place but is now plush and dominated by chrome taps (no real ale) and strewn with menus for a range of cocktails. Obvious was the lack of bar stools, and the clear impression is that this is now not they type of place where vertical drinking up the bar is encouraged. Frankly I never used to utilise the old Osidge Arms to any great extent due to the lack of any decent beer and fortunately better traditional pub options were, and still are available not far away towards Southgate and Winchmore Hill. And I can’t really see myself frequenting this new guise either, but then again somehow I do not think I am the target demographic.