The Woodman, Highgate, N6

Up on the main road outside Highgate tube station, this is a decent sized, opened-out gastro pub. You enter into a large open-plan main bar area with exposed floorboards and an L-shaped servery to the rear right. The left side of the room sees a sizable space set aside, presumably, for vertical drinkers, although at quieter times it makes the room feel empty and cold. A few tables and chairs and a tidy banquette in a bay window fail to make this an appealing place to settle down, with most customers opting for the far more preferable banquettes along the front wall, which run opposite the bar in a narrow space that generates a bit of atmosphere. The bar has a dark wood counter and modern shelving unit bar back, whilst the walls are painted mainly in dark shades with Marilyn Monroe artwork a recurring theme and some cool paintings positioned between each window along the front wall. To the right, a door leads through to a more formal feeling side room, where mixed seating including some comfy looking armchairs can be found. A lit fireplace helped create a warm, lounge feel to the room and some far-out artwork lent a quirky edge to an otherwise traditional setting, but I did spot a member of staff here monitoring table usage, so the room may be given over to diners at busier times. A terrible indie pop soundtrack droned away in the background but I didn’t spot any TV screens. I was served by a very polite and formal barman who was a bit too rigid and robotic to manage a welcome of any warmth. There was a decent row of handpulls on the bar dispensing Wells Bombardier, Portobello Westway Pale Ale, Fullers London Pride, Robinsons Hop and Under and something called Dragon’s Fire from an unknown brewery. The Westway Pale Ale was £4.40 a pint and I have to say it was some way past its best, which was a real disappointment. There are glimpses of a decent pub here, but the place falls short on a number of levels, making this quite a difficult one to warm to. I liked the side room and if drinkers can easily bag a table here then you might be happy to settle down here, but the main bar was bland and empty and the beer was subpar, possibly reflecting a wider ale range than the pub can support. There are lots of decent pubs in Highgate, so I’d only recommend this if you needed a quick pint before hopping on the tube.

As mentioned before a pretty poor excuse for a pub, open plan ,lacking any semblance of charm. Beers were Winsor & Eton Champions Day and Canberra,London Pride, Bombardier, Tribute and Enfield Pacific Pale. The pub had an upmarket corparate feel about it and I don't plan to return.

Well this is the closest pub to the tube station and boy do they know it. A rattly, open-plan interior with failed gastro pretensions. Maroon and gold colour scheme etc. Rear curtained room for sports but the big screen aspect ratios were incorrectly set so it’s stick men playing football (so 2005!). A surfeit of black clad staff but the Antipodean Swampy tribute act had the customer service skills of a crushed cigarette packet in a stagnant puddle. Obviously a Star pub with an exciting selection of Bombardier, Pride, a Caledonian brewed house beer, Deuchars IPA and JW Lees Game On. We inevitably had the latter and it was pretty pish. Come here if you want to hate pubs. Truly terrible.

Situated UP the road from Highgate tube, I've been in this early Edwardian (1905) pub once before about 6 years ago and didn't really take to it - I can't remember if the somewhat eclectic and sometimes rather vulgar décor was present then, but it's not an incentive to come back. Like last time I got the impression that some of the characters in here are a bit rum and the vibe isn't great. Ales: Fuller's London Pride, Well's Bombardier, Woody Premium Ale (I doubt this would sell to the US market), St. Austell's Tribute and Caledonian's Deuchars IPA and Over The Bar. I'm not a fan of Caledonian's beers and my half of Over The Bar wasn't nice at all. It tasted even worse given that I had to part with £2.50 for my half. I think this is by far the worst pub in N6 so I won't be coming back.

This is a prominent pub situated on a busy road junction and just down the hill from Highgate Underground station. Internally it is essentially one large space which returns around each side of the central bar. It looks like someone has had a go at trying to turn the pub into an upmarket gastro type place, but has failed heroically. The dismal colour scheme, arty prints and strange lampshades do not gel and the pub feels a little in need of a tidy up. Wood flooring, mostly standard issue tables with one long leather effect banquette running along the wall opposite the bar. There are a couple of sofas around a fireplace to a side area where some decent wood panelling remains. At the time of my visit there was a small area to the rear left of the bar which was roped off for some kind of private function. Despite all the guests being outside in the garden having a barbecue there was extremely loud and very cheesy pop music blaring out. This sent me outside to the large tree shaded garden where seemingly all the other customers were too. The garden is quite pleasant despite the traffic noise, there are a couple of shaded TV screens on the back wall of the pub, and unusually a few Salvador Dali pictures on the side wall. The tree trunks are wrapped in twinkly lights. Beer wise, they had five on which sounds good, but the line up was uninspiring. London Pride, Bombardier, Deuchers IPA, Wadworths 6X and Old Speckled Hen. The Pride was past its best but not rejectable (£3.65). Table service available if required, they have a Monday quiz and live jazz on a Tuesday. This could be a very lucrative spot close to the station in what is a very affluent area but I feel they need to work out which direction to take and some improvements are clearly needed.