The Reliance, EC1

This is a rather narrow but deep pub that blends contemporary stylings with a more traditional pub set-up to create a venue that should work for a wide range of customers. A small porch leads you into a bare boarded room with bi-fold doors to the front which open out to a few pavement seats outside on warmer days. High tables and chairs fill the front part of the room, with basic tables and chairs down the left-hand wall eventually giving way to a sofa at the rear. The bar is down the right-hand side and has a chunky timber fronted counter that looks quite cool, plus a bare brick bar back with a nice arched window to one side that looks through to the aforementioned entrance porch. A large blackboard across the bar back lists the full draught range whilst another on the opposite wall details the food options. To the rear, there’s a narrow dining area with lot of tables and chairs under bare brick walls with plenty of beer themed décor on display including a huge Guinness flag. Stairs lead up to a first floor function room with a large TV screen and plenty more seating. Three handpulls were operational upon arrival, dispensing Taylors Landlord, Five Points XPA and a Seacider cider, but the pub seems to major on craft beer, offering eleven keg options that, aside from a couple of mainstream brands, were quite interesting. My pint of XPA was a reasonable £4.80 and drank pretty well – certainly a rare low price for this part of the city. The bar staff seemed pleasant enough and there was a modest sprinkling of customers on an early Saturday evening, marking this out as a decent option for a quieter pint compared to a lot of the surrounding bars and pubs. I quite liked this place, which seemed to have given a bit of thought to how it might attract a mixed crowd, resulting in a comfortable drinking environment with a couple of good ale options and polite service. It doesn’t really do enough to stand out from the crowd, but I enjoyed my time here and would have no complaints if I found myself back here again some time. Date of visit - 3rd June 2023

Official site of The Reliance - therelianceshoreditch.co.uk

Official site of The Reliance - therelianceshoreditch.co.uk

Despite the name and appearance of being a traditional old pub, this is in fact a modern shop conversion. Quite a woody sort of pub with bare boarded floor and a frontage which concertinas open. Furniture is ordinary and there's some bare brick. There's a TV (off, thankfully) but the music's really a bit loud for my elderly ears. Ales: Fuller's London Pride, Dragonfly Brewery's 2 O'clock Ordinary and Sambrook's Junction at £2.30 which is rather steep, though this is super-trendy Shoreditch and not the once poverty-stricken Shoreditch. This isn't a bad place and certainly not as bad as some on our crawl of the area. Actually, despite the age of the place, this is about the closest thing you'll get to a traditional pub in the immediate vicinity.