The Red Lion, Stoke Newington, N16

Impressive boozer in Stoke Newington, very much a young 'n' trendy North London clientele present when I visited on a busy friday evening. Harvey's Best, London Pride and Deuchars IPA were available as well as the usual mix of faddy premium lagers. Worth noting as well for its deceptively spacious decked beer garden at the back, and a small upstairs area which on my visit was hosting an improv comedy night; It also had a pool table, a jukebox, table football and old school pinball. Decent.

This place has gone under different guises over the years and a sign of the days when it was called the Red Lion are still visible, but it is now just named The Lion. This is emblazoned on the front of the pub with a large bulb lit sign which doesn’t work properly making it look ever so tacky. Thankfully I found the interior of the pub to be quite pleasant and I’m not a big fan of open plan pubs. The bar does a good job of splitting the pub up a little and there is a large projector screen on the wall that was showing the Ryder Cup and this can be seen from most of the seating that circles around the outside walls. There was a good crowd in and the service could back up at times, but a couple of the staff were busy taking food up the stairs to the function room and when they had finished normal service resumed. There were three hand pumps on the bar that were drawing Pride, Harveys Best and Deuchars and there was also a premium draught selection. This place has strange opening times of 16:00 until midnight Mondays until Wednesdays, 16:00 until 1am on Thursdays, 16:00 until 2am on Fridays, midday until 2am on Saturdays and midday until 23:00 on Sundays. I’d imagine with these opening times there are regular events and I did spot a sign for a ukulele jamming session on the last Monday of every month. I didn’t spot any menus and nobody was eating, but I think that bar snacks were available. I liked it in here and based on my Saturday afternoon visit I would have no problem with returning.