The Eagle, W9

Tucked away in the upmarket district of Maida Vale is this classic Sam’s pub. Horseshoe shaped interior, stained windows (too dark to see exactly what was depicted), chequerboard flooring, ceiling fans, real fire, sodium style lighting, brown shades, curtains and a rather attractive doorway. Though oddly there is a pool table round the far side which is incongruous. Worth a quick look are the pictures and prints adorning the walls - lots of historical interest about the area and canal. Upstairs is a comfy dining room/lounge which was unlit and deserted – surely they should be trying to get the punters in to eat on an early Friday evening? Deathly quiet downstairs, clock-ticklingly so; maybe they just live off the takings from the cricket at the nearby Lords ground. The choice at the bar was sparse - no Man in a Box, no OBB – so an Organic Wheat sufficed in all its banana-y glory. Didn’t get much out of this one, overall and had the potential to be much better. 5.5

A Sam Smith pub with an attractive frontage,the interior is all very traditional and old fashioned in the Sam Smith way.The bar is directly infront,the left wing ends in a darts board but no scoring chalk board,while the right side houses a pool table.A rear corridor leads to a staircase to the first floor restaurant ,while the food menu looked classic pub grub with most mains £9-£12. There is no real ale,but a wide range of house kegged beer with a variety of styles.My Extra Stout was too cold and gassy for comfort,got better as it warmed up but at £1.90 the half maybe Humphrey now realises he can ramp up London beer prices. Craft keg maybe all the rage with hipsters but Sam Smith keg wasn't pulling in the punters,the pub was quiet and uninspiring despite some quite pleasing internal features.

Previously this was the Robert Browning, named after the famous poet. There is some nice glazing in the front windows, featuring a miniature bust of Browning, as well as a woman who must presumably be his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This is quite unusual, but a nice feature nonetheless. There's a fair bit of the original glazing here, in both the ground floor bar and the dining room on the first floor. The main room downstairs is quite attractive, furnished with banquettes and normal tables and chairs, with plenty of dark wood around the place, and a black and white (lino?) tiled floor. This is a Sam Smith's pub, and the decor and ambience here is typical of the chain. There's a small courtyard out at the back. Being a Sam Smith's pub the ale choice is less than limited, with only the keg version of Old Brewery Bitter available. This is so typical of Sam Smith's - a really nice pub that doesn't do a decent ale. They have a reasonably priced menu here, with the pub grub staple of bangers and mash at £5.95, and the cheese and pickle sandwich I had was only £4.50. It came well presented in some sort of ciabatta bread, on a block of wood, and with the chips in a little metal bucket. All very gastropub, but this is anything but a gastropub I'm glad to say. The sarny was filled with a mixed mess of grated cheese and brown pickle, but I quite enjoyed it. The don't serve food in the main downstairs bar; if you want to eat you have to go up to the dining room on the first floor. This is a large room with its own marble topped bar counter (not in use when I was in), and tall windows opening out to a balcony overlooking the street (but not accessible to punters). I'm afraid that the absence of a decent ale would deter me from visiting again.