Foxglove, Barnsbury, N1

There were six handpumps on the bar, although only three were in use. The three on were: Darkstar Hophead, something called Croesco Pale Ale which the handwritten pump clip tells us its ABV is 4.2%, and Yeovil Brewery Lynx Wildcat (£3.90 a pint) which turned out to be a rich (and definitely not boring) brown bitter in excellent condition. There was a "try before you buy" sign, but unfortunately there weren't many to try. I didn't see a menu, but it's the sort of place that would do food. This is a simple one-room bar, with some banquette seating at the front and at the sides, plus some normal tables and chairs. So far, so good. I don't normally mention wallpaper, but here they some featuring hot air balloons, in a sort of P Fogg or Terry Gilliam way. Certain features suggest a traditional pub - the apparently ancient bar counter, and the stone splash area around it, but it's not particularly traditional now of course. Things like having little herb bushes on the tables is an unusual thing for a pub, but certainly not traditional. The TV was showing a World Cup match of course. For a pub that stresses its commitment to real ale three handpumps not in use, leaving just three on, is not impressive. Nonetheless it's a decent enough pub, and certainly worth a visit if you're in the area.

Found this to a tired dull old style pub.Few customers on my visit.Lots of seating to the front.Nice clean toilets.Small screen showing football.Three decent real ales were on Salopian -Darwins and Hopstuff -Fusilier were my choice.

This is a fairly simple upmarket pub, a ten minute or so walk north of Angel tube station. The place has a rather bland, characterless feel to it at first, with bare floorboards, pastel coloured walls and some unattractive scrubbed tables and chairs filling the U shaped front room. The walls have been decorated with a few old beer adverts (Noakes and Co, Butler and Co, etc...) and a pump clip collection, whilst chandeliers made from up turned wine glasses hang around the servery area. Some shelves display an odd assortment of unrelated objects such as a car horn, bugle, globe, scales and a model of a routemaster bus, none of which really helps the overall effect. Music played throughout my stay and there was a TV near the entrance showing Manchester City’s exit from the Europa League. A second room to the rear was set up more formally and I imagine this is where most people would sit in order to eat, although I didn’t see any food coming out during my stay. The rear wall has large windows, which I suspect might look out over a beer garden, but I couldn’t tell in the dark. Either way, there are a few benches out the front if you fancy a pint outside. There is a large structural pillar at one corner of the bar counter and in front of it there is a display cabinet full of beer bottles, although it wasn’t clear if these were available behind the bar or just put there for show. The ale choice was easy to establish, with four hand pumps in the centre of the counter dispensing Truman’s No 8 (£3.40), Skinner’s Cornish Knocker, Brodies Old Street Pale and Otley O4. I gave the Truman’s a try and thought it was in decent enough shape, if not the tastiest pint I’ve ever had. CAMRA members can take advantage of a generous discount by producing their membership card. A board in one corner of the room explained that the pub had served 180 different ales since August 2010. I did warm slightly towards the interior after a while and thought it would be a good choice of pub to take friends who aren’t regular pub visitors to. The beer would be the biggest inducement for me to return and on that front, this place puts up a strong challenge to the Charles Lamb for best ale house in this part of town.

There are four covered picnic tables outside the front of this pub and a walk through the entrance takes one to a bar that supports around nine hand pumps, most of which were unused during my visit a couple of Saturdays ago. The ones that were on were drawing Tribute, Elgoods Golden Newt, Harvest Pale and Stormstay Premium ale which is probably a good enough selection for most beer hounds. I didn’t spot any signs advertising sport, but there was a plasma screen that was switched off. There were also a few board games that can be borrowed from the bar. Some more seating can be found out the back of the pub in a small enclosed decked garden. This place seems to be very food orientated and all of the seating at the rear of the pub was set for Saturday evening dining. I thought that it was pretty good in here, especially for a food led pub and I would return.