The Jolly Butchers, Stoke Newington, N16

This is a fairly large, single room pub on Stoke Newington High Street with an emphasis on providing interesting cask and keg beers and pairing them with good food. The pub's interior is a bit odd, with the large open plan room having what I assume is a 'shabby-chic' look to it, thanks to peeling paint on exposed brickwork and exposed tiles in various parts of the room contrasting with an unusual piece of modern art which takes up almost all of the back wall. There are some nice features, especially the large arched windows, some of which have stained glass semi-circular designs on top of them. The empty space is filled with an orderly arrangement of tables, chairs and the odd pew. Behind the bar there are a few signs advertising foreign beer brands as well as the obligatory collection of pump clips. In the rear corner, the kitchen area is visible and a quick look at the menu suggests that it's not exactly traditional pub fayre on offer. Almost all of the dishes list a suitable beer to try with the meal, which I think is a nice touch and potentially a good way to introduce people to beers they wouldn't normally try. It was very quiet when I arrived on a Saturday lunchtime, so I was unable to see if it really does get as noisy as some of the previous reviews suggest, although trade did pick up a bit just before I left. The beer is the star here as far as I'm concerned though. On handpull there was Hardknott Katalyst and Dark Energy, Dark Star Hophead and APA, Hewitt’s Gorilla and Black Isle Organic Ale. Three handpulled ciders included Broadoak and Fanny Bramble whilst the keg range offered the likes of Brewdog 5am Saint, Meantime Helles, Camden Wheat Beer and Hell's Lager and various other Belgian, German and American imports. Menus on the tables listed an extensive bottled range and there was a decent wine list too. I tried the Hardknott Katalyst, a brewery I'd not managed to come across in the capital until then, and thought it was an excellent pint. All ales were served in dimpled mugs by the two very friendly barmaids who were more than happy to offer samples and chat to their customers about the beers. This pub was apparently modelled on the Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak but, with the exception of their pub sign which is closer to plagiarism than homage, there aren't too many similarities once you get past the excellent beers on offer. I found this pub to be very welcoming and I would have happily stayed here for a decent session if I hadn't made other plans. It's not very easy for me to get to this place, but I'd certainly consider a return, perhaps during a busier time so I can see just how noisy it gets.

The pub is a large open plan noisy barn of a place with a high ceiling supported by six circular cast iron columns. The bar runs along two thirds of one side with the remaining corner being infilled by an open kitchen/food servery. The back wall is peppered with strange and rather unsettling circular plate size face portraits, walls are purple, the ceiling black. Thankfully being a corner site, the windows all round let in plenty of light otherwise this would be a dark and dismal interior. The windows themselves have attractive semi-circular leaded and occasionally stained glass toplights. Seating generally is at wooden tables in a variety of sizes but at the normal level, with wooden chairs without cushions. The lack of any soft furnishings at all together with the high ceiling make for a resonant echoey area. The main draw here though is the first rate selection of drinks. Ale and Cider House it proclaims outside. There are nine handpumps on the bar with small local breweries well represented. Saturday afternoon had Brentwood Gold, Windsor and Eton Conqueror, Boggart Rum Porter, Brodies Kiwi, Redemption Hopspur, Otley Hedbo and Otley Thai-Bo (a limited edition the clip said). The two ciders were Sandford Orchard and Fanny's Bramble. In addition there are a wide range of bottled Belgian and American beers plus a good range of craft beers from the like of BrewDog, Meantime, Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn. It's fair to say that that is some line up. I asked about beer styles and was given tasters before choosing. Pints (and halves) do come by default in dimpled jugs. I found the staff to be helpful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable as well as downright friendly. Most ales were in the £3.50-60 band with the ciders being £4. The food servery was busy dishing up burgers, ribs and fish and chips as well as a few mainly fish related specials generally around a tenner. I don't usually like stripped out noisy barns full of affluent 30somethings but the beer selection in here is certainly eclectic and makes this place a destination pub in my view.

Visited in June 2010 The Jolly Butchers, occupies a prominent street corner position on the main A10 road in the centre of Stoke Newington. It's reinvented itself from an earlier incarnation as Father Ted's. Never having visited the establishment in those days - well with a name like Father Ted's, you wouldn't would you ? - my evening visit was my first to the premises. It's now back to what was apparently its original 16th century name Externally, it markets itself as an Ale and Cider House, which, given the range of drinks on offer, is fair enough, but, as you go in, the overwhelming initial impression is of a gastropub, mainly due to the prominently visible open kitchen in one corner, paper menus, small candles etc. There are some attractive original features - the small semi circular arched stained glass windows high up, pillars and tiling - but the often used phrase "stripped out" seems appropriate here. The establishment is clearly aiming at the local urban professional crowd of 30-40 somethings and they seemed out in force on my visit. Predictably perhaps, TV's and fruit machines are notable by their absence. There's no pub garden, but there are some outside tables on the side road pavement. On the drinks front, there's 7 real ales which, on my recent visit included beers from Thornbridge, Redemption, Dark Star and Crouch Vale. All beers sampled by me - Dark Star Hophead, Redemption Urban Dusk and Crouch Vale - were in good condition and perhaps not as expensive as might have been expected ( eg - Dark Star Hophead - £ 2.90p ). 2 pumps were serving cider. Somewhat annoyingly, and similar to The Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak, it appears that you automatically get served in a jug unless you specify to the contrary. Staff appeared enthusiastic and there were no short measure issues. Food is categorised into "Small Plates - Big Flavours" and "Big Ones". The former includes for example, Chorizo Salad - £ 5.50p - and the latter includes Erdinger beer battered cod fillet with triple blanched chips cooked in duck fat - £ 10.50p. Food that I saw looked appetising and seemed to arrive promptly. Perhaps unusually, the pub doesn't open for lunch midweek and food starts at 5pm on those days, with, according to the website, a 4pm opening. My main criticism - and it's a fairly major negative as far as I'm concerned - is the total absence of any comfort, soft furnishings or degree of intimacy / privacy whatsoever. The floor is bare boarded, the chairs and tables are wooden and uncomfortable and there are no screens / partitions etc to break up the interior into more personal spaces. The end result of all this is a rather noisy, echoey environment where the ability to conduct meaningful conversations diminished as the evening wore on and as it filled up. A few rugs and the creation of some seating booths would make the place much more attractive and welcoming. The beers were in fine form and it was nice to meet up and sink a few beers with several friends, but this isn't really my kind of place and, taking the experience as a whole, I'm not noting this one down for a revisit.

The hanging sign outside says ‘Ale and Cider House’ and I’m glad to report that it is as there are nine hand pumps on the bar that were serving up an array of ales and ciders with none of the usual suspects that are found in most London pubs. I’m no aficionado on beer as I usually plump for the Guinness, but as the only draught options were premium German/Belgian beers I opted for a pint of Hophead which was very enjoyable. The pub itself is a plain open plan area full of wooden tables and chairs and there is an open kitchen at the rear that was serving up above standard pub classics in the form of burgers and fish and chips. There are no TVs, but there was some music playing so low that it just sounded like white noise in the background. I wasn’t expecting to find a pub like this on Stoke Newington High Street, but it was a pleasant surprise and although it’s far from a traditional boozer (some creepy modern art on the back wall) I would not hesitate in recommending to others.