Balfour at St. Barts, Smithfield, EC1

This is a very smart pub with balcony and big chandeliers.No real ale but Affligem is a beer I like so that was me sorted

Formerly a Jamies bar, this current incarnation was launched a while back by the team behind The Distillers in Hammersmith and The Bedford in Balham. It promotes itself as a modern British pub, but in reality it’s more of a gastro restaurant and wine bar hiding inside a pub skin. Downstairs its one large open plan space whose décor is more flock curtains and chandeliers than traditional pub, mainly laid to tables around the two windowed walls and in the open space. There is an area up by the long bar, but this is not the type of establishment that you would envisage large groups going in for vertical drinking. And then a large stair case on the left leads to an upstairs mezzanine floor type section which has some pleasant, out the way booths along the walls, and an additional separate function room for hire with its own small bar. It mainly focuses on wine and continental Lagers from what I could see, although there is two handpumps on the bar which had been dispensing Caledonian 2.8 and Adnams Regatta but both were off for my Saturday lunchtime visit, which was extremely ironic as I was only there for a GroupOn beer tasting event being hosted on the premises. I’m sure this place provides a viable alternative for the workday crowd to the more traditional pubs available nearby, and has the advantage of being open on a Saturday when other establishments around Smithfield and the Barbican are not, but I can’t see myself returning here again.