Grove House Tavern, Camberwell, SE5

A quite smart pub inside aimed at the young but upmarket crowd, It seems to have gone up a notch in the eight years that have passed since the previous reviews as has the beers, to my taste anyway with a cask choice of Five Points XPA and Three Sods Rooi Kabouter with one other pump clip turned just as I came in. Plenty of keg options both standard and craft, the food also looked good if not a little poncey. Not quite my type of place but certainly worth a look.

Official site of Grove House Tavern - grovehousetavern.co.uk

Official site of Grove House Tavern - grovehousetavern.co.uk

Just Bombardier and Marston's Pedigree on, the latter at £1.90 a half and in fairly poor condition I'm afraid. Just about all the tables had cutlery/napkins and menus in lieu of place mats on them, but there didn't seem to be a problem with sitting at one of them without eating. But I wasn't in at a peak time of course. The food didn't look to be anything special (nothing wrong with that of course) - various burgers are £10 a pop, "chicken dinner" is £9.50, and "stacks" (whatever they are) are £9.50. It looks as if they're trying for a sort of Raffles drawing room elegance, with several aspdidistras lurking in corners, extravagant floral themed wallpaper, standard lamps, plus oriental prints and fans on the walls. It works to some extent I suppose. We have the usual mix of furnishings, with mainly normal tables and chairs, some tall tables/tall stools, and a cluster of sofas/armchairs in one of the corners. At the back on the right through some glazed doors is something called "the snug". Looking through the doors I could see at least one buggy and small children, so obviously I steered well clear of that room. Another point of interest is the table football in the main bar area. The Young's sign outside made me think that there might be one or two of their branded ales on, but no such luck. I'm hoping that I was just unlucky with the Pedigree. This is a large old cornersite and spacious pub, with a certain amount of elegance. It's a comfortable enough place, but not sufficiently good enough to be a destination pub.