The Jackalope, W1

As has been said recently, this is a mews pub that you'd have to know about in advance in order to locate. We walked up to it from Oxford Circus and along Regent Street, past Broadcasting House. The location is quite serene and the interior certainly has a bit of character. However, it had quite an empty feel about it. Whether tables and chairs have been removed during the pandemic and not yet replaced, I'm not sure, but something didn't feel quite right. The main bar area is quite small, whilst there is an adjoining seating area to the side which is equally small. A larger room can be found behind the bar, with toilets down some stairs in between. There is also some kind of oriental food place downstairs. You could certainly smell the food, but there was no sign of any life. The 2 cask ales were Redemption American Pale Ale & Thornbridge Astryd. There was also a much more extensive craft beer selection - Howling Hops Pale Ale, Hawkshead Route 590, Peckham Pale Ale, Thornbridge Green Mountain, East London Brew American Pale Ale, Siren Lumina & Northern Monk Hazy Pale Ale. Opening hours have stopped me from visiting here previously, with the pub not opening until 4pm on a Monday and closing all weekend. However, now I know it's here, I may just give it another go if in these parts again.

Official site of The Jackalope - jackalopelondon.com

Official site of The Jackalope - jackalopelondon.com

First time to visit this one in its new guise and new name since the former Sam Smiths days and was pleased to find the wonderful dark wood heritage interior largely unchanged and I still found it a good pub. This was one of the SS houses that used to have OBB on pump so clearly three operating Ale pumps with a decent Adnams Mosaic, 5 Points Best and one other I didn’t note provides more choice that those days. But as mentioned below there is more of a focus on Keg craft here and the nine taps had a decent range of styles and the Siren Porter I also tried was very good. There is a Thai kitchen in the downstairs room with its own tables, but you can order down there and they will bring it up to the upstairs pub section. I do like London mews pubs and it was good to find this classic pub still in operation.