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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by David Walton
Submitted on Tuesday, 29th October 2024
With picture contributions to 996 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (11 more images)
Detail Pages
Rain Dogs, Shoreditch, E2
E2
E2 6DG
Served areas
Reviews of Rain Dogs (Average Rating: 3½ of 10) see review guidelines
Pub SignMan left this review about Rain Dogs
This modern bar set in a prime, street corner unit at the top end of Brick Lane has been through a few guises in recent years, opting now for a craft beer bar meets cafe look. Inside, it's a rather bare, uninspiring space with dark floorboards, dark painted walls with a few bare brick sections, and large floor to ceiling windows at the front. The servery is on the back wall and has a plain bar counter painted the same colour as the walls, and a metal sheeted bar back with the keg taps mounted on it. A small chalkboard on the bar helpfully lists the draught options to save you squinting at the taps. High tables and stools stand under the front windows and comfier chairs have been arranged down the right-hand wall, with seating rounded out by a sofa at the back of the room. The walls are depressingly bare, which may be a result of the place not yet being fully bedded in at the time of my visit, but is more likely an uninspired design decision.
There are, of course, no cask ale options, but the keg range included a couple from Five Points and some sort of house beer of unknown provenance. I tried one of the Five Points brews which was as reliable as ever, but didn't really feel all that comfortable on a hard chair under the bare walls, and was happy to drink up and move quickly on.
On approach, I thought this looked like a popular spot that should make for a good visit, but I found it all very dull and formulaic. The beer is nothing you can't find in far better, more homely and welcoming venues and the whole place needs a shake up to make it feel more welcoming and somewhere people would want to spend some time. It's not the worst bar of its kind, but at the same time, I'm struggling to find a reason to recommend it.
Date of visit - 7th September 2024
On 26th December 2024
- rating: 3
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]
Tris C left this review about Rain Dogs
Originally the Flower Pot, this pub dates from at least the late 18th century, probably rebuilt in the 19th, reportedly closed as a pub in the conventional sense back in the late ‘20s, later a coffee shop, to reopen as a Latino bar around 2009 and recently now Rain Dogs [Bar], yet another…erm…bar, the interior visible on their website.
Understandably there’s no heritage, but the interior is tasteful and restrained, certainly compared to some of the identikit places round here. The floor’s bare boarded, olive green walls and ceiling with a little bare brick to the bar area and periphery, mixed furniture ranging from Chesterfields to modern inoffensive stuff, with décor comprising trendy framed photos of celebrities – Bowie for example – and anonymous potted ferns, all to a soporific, bosomy jazzy soundtrack; customers were unsurprisingly younger trendy types and overall, there was a good atmosphere.
Sadly, there’s no cask here, with seven taps to a beer wall, dispensing Guinness, a lager or two, a cider, then Five Points JUPA, XPA and Railway Porter, £3.25 a half, typically keggy, served in a truncated Apollo lunar capsule-style glass, lined with one-third, half and two-third measurements, by a friendly barman.
You could do far worse in this area, my natural local pub of choice being the Pride of Spitalfields, but for what it is, this venue ain’ t half bad; if the Five Points offerings – JUPA aside – had been on cask rather than keg, I’d probably stretch to a ‘6’ rather than ‘4’; the place also deserves a special mention for not hosting tedious, childish, environmentally damaging Hallowe’en crap.
Rated 4.5.
On 31st October 2024
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2207 recommendations about 2164 pubs]
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- Official site of Rain Dogs - raindogs.bar
- CAMRA WhatPub :: Rain Dogs - whatpub.com
Hoxton, 0.6 miles, 11 min walk (show)
Whitechapel, 0.76 miles, 14 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- Car Park : No last updated 30 October 2024 by Tris C
- Darts : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Function Room : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Hot Food : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Jukebox : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Karaoke : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Live Music : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Pool Table : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Quiz Night : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Real Ale : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Real Cider : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- Wheelchair Access : No - WCs downstairs. - last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
- WiFi : No last updated 31 October 2024 by Tris C
