Waterloo Tap, SE1

Better than I was expecting,I went in at a quiet time and noted that the double circular banquettes at the rear of the bar were a comfortable place to sit and could accomodate a group of friends if you could nab one,so it may not be vertical drinking all night.There are various beer shelves to rest you pint and a small outside area has a wall at shelf height,making it a discrete place to sup. Another feature was the very reasonable real ale prices for London,I had a terrific Bad Seed Cascade for £3.80.The other cask options on my trip were Redemption Trinity,Vocation Heart & Soul,Siren Craft Soundwave IPA and Great Yorkshire Blacked Out which I thought was a very decent range,with a mix of styles and well thought out.Although keg options dominate,5 decent real ales mark this out as a place to visit when in the area,and it's on the way to the South Bank from the station ,so a great place for a pre performance beer.Not quite an 8 ,but very worthy 7 .

Pretty cold soulless interior with large arched windows to front and back gives it a goldfish bowl effect.Dirty aged brick ceiling would have been nicer with a clean.One shared toilet with queue when busy.Good beer selection and the prices are very good for this area.Electronic beer boards are hard to read unless you can get near to them or have 20/20 vision.Still cheap beer and good selection outweighs the other gripes.

As described below, functional and basic, which is a good thing in this part of Town. Not at all busy, possibly because of its understated and dated exterior, not appealing to the masses when compared with other businesses here. Toilets are a bit primitive, which might also keep out the tourists. Indeed, the only customers in where ale lovers. Six cask and 20 keg beers on this time. I went for the Redemption Trinity which was in very good condition. I can see this being a regular pit-stop.

Surprisingly not all that busy on my Saturday night visit,maybe due to the bank holiday weekend.Minimalistic in furnishings so little in way of interest apart from the beer of course,all taps were were operational so the choice was vast,I didn't initially realise cask beer was available as its not really clear without a bit of studying what is what,the middle six taps are cask. I went for a keg offering though in Beavertown Gamma Ray which came up to expectations. Although the venue leaves me a little cold I'm sure to re-use it due to its location and impressive beer range.