The Jackalope, W1

Steve of N21 left this review about The Jackalope

I have paid a few quick visits to this wonderful mews pub since it’s transition to The Jackalope, but this recent Thursday Evening was the first time to spend an entire evening here.
It may have lost the odd snob screen, but most of the glorious dark wood from the Sam Smith days is still in situ. I used to visit when it was the Dover Castle as it was reliably one of the few SS outlets in London where you could find their Old Brewery Bitter on hand pump. But safe to say the beer line up has improved greatly under the Jackalope guise. Although there is a focus on keg here with several interesting craft options on the tap wall, it was good to find all four of the ale pumps in operation on the front of the bar with a very interesting selection. Started with a decent Abbeydale Brewery Salvation Vanilla Stout, then the equally good Howling Hops small batch Dark Mild before ducking the available Bateman XXXB to finish the rest of the evening on the Torrside Brewing Mosaic, which turned out to be an excellent session ale.
The pub wasn’t that busy when we arrived just after 5, but it soon filled up and it was banged out by 6.30, and especially after the downstairs Thai canteen opened at 6pm, the queue for which at one point was out of the restaurant and snaking itself up the stairs towards the bar.
Now the only issue I encountered was, despite the fact that I am respectful of the role of the bar staff, especially those who work the early evening shift in London Central pubs and the four behind the four behind the jump were certainly earning their corn, the combination of some lively new on casks and overly fast pulling was leading to several woefully short measures and several top ups had to be requested on every round. Yes, I know there’s a big throng at the bar, and the next bloke when it’s his turn, ordering 7 pints of ale is not really what you want to hear, but not great to see attention to detail go out the window, especially with today’s London prices.
However, despite this I am still inclined to rate this pub highly as I think it is still a solid pub experience, especially as on the plus side my assorted round of 7 ales came to £37.60, so just under £5.40 a pint, which I thought was pretty good for a pub a 10-minute walk from Great Portland Street or Oxford Circus.

On 18^th March 2025 - rating: 8
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