The Windmill, Mayfair, W1

Just a short distance from Regents Street, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this Youngs pub is a typical old London hostelry, but in fact it only became a pub back in the 1980's, having previously been a nightclub with an adjoining escort agency. The pub nowadays presents a simple front bar of the type found throughout the capital, with two additional rooms used for diners. You enter past a lovely stained glass panel depicting a colourful windmill, into the bare boarded main bar which, despite being rather compact, is split into two distinct areas by a section of dividing wall. The servery is located in the left hand side, on the rear wall, and has a dark wood counter and rather plain bar back. Walls are half panelled with predictable pastel shaded uppers and have been decorated with mirrors, photos and various wall lamps. Standard seating is arranged under the huge feature chandelier which is the centrepiece of a nicely decorated ceiling. The right hand side of the room has a mix of bench and tub chair seating under more mirrors and the famous picture of the Queen Mother pouring a pint of Youngs Special. A door to the rear leads you into a relatively new second dining room, clumsily titled 'Pie Room Too' in order to distinguish it from the original 'Pie Room' upstairs. Both of these dining rooms have smart, well upholstered furnishings and set tables. The staircase also leads you to an unexpected roof terrace, offering a rare opportunity for some Central London al-fresco drinking that isn't pavement based. Despite the pub's obvious leaning towards the food market, I thought the bar area was very much in the 'proper pub' mould and there was notably no TV or piped music to distract from conversation. The pub has expanded its ale range in recent years, seemingly without compromising on quality, as recent Good Beer Guide listings will testify. Options on this visit were Youngs Ordinary, Special and Autumn Gold, Southwark LPA and Bermondsey Best, Sharps Cornish Coaster and Hackney Golden with a real cider on the last pump. I had a pint of the LPA, served to me by one of the very competent barmen on duty, and thought it was in fine shape - possibly the best I've encountered from this brewery outside their own taproom. I tend to approach Youngs pubs with more that a touch of trepidation, but I thought this was a good little pub offering some interesting local beer in comfortable surrounds. I didn't try the food, but the place seemed fairly popular with diners and drinkers alike and should you find yourself in the area wanting some proper pub food, I'm sure you could do a lot worse. A good place to know about in an area that struggles to produce excellent pubs.

Young's pub serving 8 real ales. Split level interior didn't venture past the bar.

Split level Youngs pub with sun terrace, opened out in the front area in green and cream, traditional pictures on the walls as well as two large screen TVs. 3 real ales available

Busy but cosy Young,s pub.Seemed to be an older crowd probably attracted by the Youngs beer.Lots of handpumps with Youngs ,Wells and Courage beers all brewed at Wells.Luckily they had Twickenham -Grandstand.

A good sized pub that seems to specialise in pie based food offerings, it doesn’t have quite the same charm that many other nearby establishments do, but is nonetheless pleasant enough. It looks as though it may have had a makeover at some point, and perhaps lost some of it’s traditional character in the process. The pub is carpeted throughout which seems to be coming something of a rarity these days, has chocolate brown paintwork on the ceiling and is broadly one open room with a few partitions to break up the space a bit, and a separate room down a couple of steps at the rear. This is known as “Pie Room Too” and featured a large pie painting on one wall with dark wood panelling on another and another picture of an old windmill which is appropriate enough given the pub’s name. As mentioned, the menu is very pie orientated with most of them priced around the £10 mark. A chalkboard listed another five or six “Today’s Pies” options but if that’s not your thing the menu also offered a good choice of burgers and other pub staples such as Ham Egg & Chips, Sausage & Mash, etc. Good choice of beers on tap with Twickenham Naked Ladies, Doom Bar, Sambrooks Wandle, Young’s Bitter, Young’s Special, Directors and Bombardier. A specials board also listed Deuchars and Twickenham Grandstand, although I didn’t spot these on the bar. After such a good selection of ales, I was especially disappointed with the fact that they only had Strongbow on offer for the cider drinkers, unless you count a mulled option.