Mother Kelly's E2, Bethnal Green, E2

A nice modern craft bar set in a railway arch,a vast selection of bottled and keg beers are available,Siren/Surley Blue Sky Blue Sea was excellent,I didnt note the price,probably just as well. Definitely worth a visit here.

This bottle shop and craft beer bar in a railway arch close to Bethnal Green station is described as a 'New York inspired tap room' and is operated by the same people behind the Queens Head in Kings Cross and Simon the Tanner in Bermondsey. The venue is one of a number of hip looking bars, restaurants and coffee shops in this row of arches, and has a large decked seating area out front which I imagine could make quite a nice lively spot for summer drinks. There is large glass frontage which leads you into the bare boarded arch with a high corrugated iron ceiling and cladded walls with New York, graffiti style artwork, all of which obscures the original brickwork which I thought was a bit of a shame. Four upturned barrels with high stools fill the space under the front windows, whilst two long canteen style tables run through the centre of the room, with additional benches down the right hand wall and an impressive series of beer bottle filled fridges occupy the right hand side. The servery is on the rear wall with a typical craft beer bar set up which sees countless beer taps protruding from the back wall. The bar has a very simple counter and the whole room is set up so that the only interesting features are those of a beer related nature, such as the small 'beer library' to the left of the bar where you can browse through a number of booze related books. A chilled indie music soundtrack played throughout my stay and there was a decent mid-week evening crowd in creating a bit of a buzz. The lack of beer boards means that you need to consult one of the daily printed A4 beer menus, which can be found on most tables and at the bar, in order to establish what is available. I counted a total of 20 taps offering a good range of obscure beers from uber-micro producers, with the odd familiar name such as Windsor and Eton, Wild Beer and Siren thrown in for good measure. A couple of foreign lagers are also included as well as one cider and two perries. Irritatingly, everything was priced in typically silly craft beer bar fashion, so I ended up with two thirds of a pint of Northern Monk Mocha Porter for £4.00, which doesn't seem like good value whichever way you try and work it out. If all that isn't enough, the six aforementioned fridges are packed full of exotic bottled delights which are available to enjoy in the bar or to take home as you see fit. Food is restricted to sharing boards of meats, cheeses and pies. I left with very mixed feelings about this place. I liked the exciting range of beers it offers and the quirky setting, but felt they might have made better use of the space and most importantly they seem to have fallen into the usual craft beer bar trap of massively over-pricing everything. I would happily return when I'm next in the area but the prices mean I'd only stop off for the one drink.

Official site of Mother Kelly's - www.motherkellys.co.uk

Official site of Mother Kelly's - www.motherkellys.co.uk

A new pub in a railway arch.Nice glass frontage and is bright and airy with minimal decoration.One wall has a large mural the other wall has fridges with bottled beer to drink in or take away.Long wooden tables with benches with a few tables are the seating arrangements.20 keg taps sprout from the wall so you have to pick up a menu to see whats on.Beer seems to be only sold in 1/2 or 2/3 measures and is not cheap.Beers from Kernal,Beavertown ,Salopian and 7 from DeMolen.Also Siren and my 1/2 of Calypso was £2.50.Not really to my liking.