St Stephens Tavern, Westminster, SW1

Located in a prime spot directly opposite Big Ben and the House of Parliament, this is unsurprisingly something of a tourist magnet and was pretty much full to capacity on our Sunday lunchtime visit. As far as I could make out, all punters were dining and the eastern European (?) landlady made it fairly clear that you weren’t welcome to take a table if you weren’t planning on eating. We weren’t, but did manage to stand in the middle of the small back room, clustered around a high table provided for this purpose. We did feel a little in the way though, with waitresses and punters continually squeezing past. The ground floor of the pub consists of two rooms, an impressive high-ceilinged room at the front and a smaller bar at the rear. The front bar has tall windows with red drape curtains giving good views over Parliament square, some very impressive carved wood panelling on the ceiling and black Chesterfield style fitted bench seating around the permitter. An elaborately carved backdrop behind the bar ran right around the corner and this was interspersed with etched mirrors, and behind this was red flock wallpaper. A number of old black and white portrait photographs were on the wall, as well as an old wooden clock. It really was quite an impressive room, although difficult to fully appreciate given that you could really only just poke your head in the door without getting in the way. The rear room was somewhat cosier with lower ceilings and wood strip on the floor, although still quite elegant in places with more wood panelling filling an entire wall, elaborately carved and filled with arched mirrors. Beers on tap were all from Hall & Woodhouse with their Fursty Ferret, Badger and Tangle Foot. The solitary cider meanwhile was Mortimer’s Orchard. Overall, I was a little disappointed with this given it’s highly regard reputation, but perhaps if I’d visited at a quieter time when I could sit down and appreciate it a little more I may have felt differently.

Badger ales on hand pumps - I had Tanglefoot. More bottles in the fridge. Very busy with both bars being full of diners, most of whom were tucking into very nice looking fish and chips. Would return.