The Queens Head & Artichoke, Regents Park, NW1

They had five ales on in here when I visited at Thursday lunchtime – GKIPA, Doom Bar, Cornish Coaster (£3.50 a pint), Timothy Taylor Landlord and Adnam’s Southwold Bitter. The main food available here is tapas, mainly at around £4 - £5 a dish, but with main courses (no pub grub) at around £10 - £12. This is a gastropub, with the emphasis firmly on the gastro rather than the pub. In the main room downstairs almost all of the tables and chairs are laid for diners, with just a couple of sofas and a normal table with chairs on the left not laid up, presumably for those who just want a drink. There’s another dining room upstairs, but I didn’t feel the urge to investigate it. The main room is rather nice though, with its tall lattice framed windows; fielded wood panelling on the walls; the old bar back still with some “Courage” signage on it; and the delightful tiled surround fireplace on the left with a glass display case above it containing what look like antique icons in it. The gastro credentials are reinforced by the enormous flowerpot, containing a succulent of some kind, on the bar counter. Even though there were only about a dozen people in there it was very noisy because the furnishings in the restaurant area didn’t include upholstery, and of course with the floor being bare-boarded all the sounds reverberated around the place. But the tapas we had were very good, and the pint of Cornish Coaster at £3.50 was reasonably priced. This is essentially somewhere to come for a meal rather than for a drink I guess. But it’s a good enough representative of its breed. A number of gastropubs do decent real ale, and good luck to them I say.

Form the outside the Queens Head and Artichoke looks like a traditional boozer with some awning covered picnic tables on the path out front. Alarm bells start ringing when all of the restaurant guide stickers, Michelin, timeout etc., are seen on the door. There is an advertised restaurant upstairs and in the L shaped bar area there were a couple of dining pensioners and some ladies who lunch. The bar is stocked with premium draught products alongside Carlsberg, Guinness and five hand pumps that were drawing Adnams Southwold Bitter, Pedigree, Landlord, Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster. I didn’t see the main food menu, but there was an extensive tapas menu on the bar for the lunchtime crowd. There is no TV, but there was some eastern jazz (for want of a better description) playing in the background. My half of Landlord was well poured, but this place is a bit ‘gastro’ for my liking so I do not plan to return.