Hack & Hop, Fleet Street, EC4

New-fangled beer house featuring 12 craft keg offerings (some very expensive, but available in 1/3rds to try) plus four real ales on handpump. The latter included Waen Hellish Good Beer, W&E Windsor Knot and Revolutions Clash London Porter (£3.90). The exterior of the former Coach & Horses has been refreshed but otherwise still looks fairly traditional, but the interior has been thoroughly refurbished in a modern white paint / very dark wood style. Also has an upstairs room (not visited). Not to everybody's taste, I'm sure, but a good addition to the area.

Official site of The Hack & Hop - thehackandhop.com

Now the Hack and Hop. Very bland small ground floor bar but a nice original wooden gantry. Upstairs room with bar but probably for functions. Nice toilets. No outside space.4 cask beers and 10 keg. Beer from Harbour-Roosters-Moor and W +Eton on cask but as nothing new I foolishly tried Keg from Pressure Drop £3.45 a half even around this area is a tad too much.

Re-opened on Monday under new management, albeit as of yesterday re-wiring was still in progress. The ground floor is a smallish single room, wider than it is deep with the bar across the rear, and there is an upstairs room which I haven't visited. Decor is fairly minimalist, walls being a light blue/grey with pinkish woodwork and thus far a few pictures on one of the walls, all of which seems to work better than it probably sounds, and I thought there was a friendly pub feel to the place. The three ale pumps were offering Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, or Hardy's and Hanson's bitter, the last of which was a very good pint at £3.50. The menu was the fairly standard sort of pub meals, with mains from £6.50-£9.00. I would drop in here again.

This place is ok for watching Sky Sports on the plasma screen or maybe for a couple on games of pool on one of the two tables upstairs, but I wouldn't go in here on my own again just to relax over a pint as I found it a little cliquey. Maybe it is just my aversion to pubs that have prints on the wall that are for sale. I can't see myself returning.