The Three Crowns, Old Street, N1

As mentioned previously, this now appears to be a food-led pub, and has that cafe-chic appearance that’s not really to my taste. But they had on Waggledance, Eagle IPA and Hackney Brewery Best Bitter. I had a pint of the latter, which at £3.60 a pint isn’t too bad by gastropub standards. It was served far too cold, but was OK when it warmed up a bit. The barman went to the effort of making sure we got full pints, which is not always the case in places like this. They also had a fourth handpump doling out Hedge Layer draught cider, as well as numerous lagers such as Erdinger, Estrella and Red Stripe. The front area of the pub has solid wood tables and hard wooden chairs for use by drinkers. This area has the bar counter with the handpumps. This bar counter also has on it dishes of buns and cakes, a bowl of oranges, and bowls of sugar. All very gastro. The area at the back has tables all laid for diners, and a second bar counter apparently for use by diners, and bearing (hopefully fake) joints of meat, in front of the open plan kitchen. The decor is typically minimalist, with just a couple of chalkboards on the walls in the bar area advertising the wine and food menus. There’s no pub grub here – the roast chicken, asparagus and almonds weighs in at 14 (no £ signs in here of course). There are no fruit machines or others of their ilk, which is a big plus. There was some laid back jazz at background levels playing when we arrived, followed by some Motown, but when the (c)rap music came on it was clearly time to move on. There are some distinct pluses with this pub, but it just doesn’t have the comfort and ambience of somewhere I would want to spend any length of time.