The Harrow Inn, Sutton

I guess once this was the best in town, the place for rotary lunches and masonic dinners. It still looks well from the outside but once through the door is much as M&B left it after their final, doomed refurbishment into a mid-market Ember Inn. Along with most of their pubs in the region they offloaded it to Stonegate and it's now one of their downmarket Traditional Inns brand, similar to a Harvester or Hungry Horse. I guess they wanted to avoid taking the Red Lion's custom. Otherwise much as described by Rex, including beer range seeming unchanged since M&B days. I would choose any of the other pubs in the village before this one.

Randomness Guide to London - Harrow Inn entry

Randomness Guide to London - Harrow Inn entry

This is an Ember Inns pub, so it is almost as much of a restaurant as a pub, although a good few notches up on a Harvester. It looks fairly attractive from the outside with its mock Tudor frontage, but inside there’s no pretence of antiquity. The furnishings are a mixed bag, with perhaps too many sofas and armchairs for my liking, but that’s just my subjective opinion. The wall décor consists almost entirely of numerous arty prints and suchlike, and there are plenty of spotlit vases on the shelves and in the alcoves between the drinking areas, plus one-armed bandits and games machines in various nooks and crannies. In the main bar area there is also an open plan coal effect gas fire. They had four ales on, but all from the ranks of the usual suspects – London Pride; GKIPA; Adnam’s Broadside; and Young’s Bitter. But I have to say that the Broadside tasted OK, and at a reasonable price of £2.85 a pint. But the selection is not quite as good as the previous Ember Inn I had been in (North Star at Hook), which had a couple of guests from lesser known breweries. In essence this is a characterless place just like so many in our high streets these days, but they are definitely doing something right to appeal to so many people as it was busy at 14.10 on a Friday afternoon, whereas the nearest real pub (The Railway) only had a handful of punters in. I guess they must come for the nosh, because although I didn’t eat there, my previous experience with Ember Inns suggests that their grub is better than most pubcos’ fare. Either that, or I have to come to the conclusion that most people like spending their time in hotel lounges.