The Kings Head, Winchmore Hill, N21

Official site of The Kings Head - www.thekingsheadn21.co.uk

Official site of The Kings Head - www.thekingsheadn21.co.uk

A large imposing building overlooking The Green,the interior has been opened out creating a vast dining area to the left side,but a viable drinking area opposite the bar with a row of high butchers blocks tables.There is a sign at the bar advertising life drawings some evenings on the first floor,and the snug beyond the high tables is called the Rude Room and feature paintings of women in various states of undress.This snug also features a high backed chairs that looks more like a throne,besides comfy chairs.However even here it was impossible to escape overloud muzak,a negative in my book.There is a flatscreen above the corner entrance door,switched off although 6 nations matches will feature.There is a modest beer terrace to the rear of the building. At the bar there are 4 handpumps drawing Doom Bar, C&W Youngs Bitter and thankfully Redemption Rock the Kazbek and a decent Truman Zephyr at an absorbitant £4.40.There are mainstream keg offerings but food is clearly a main driver here with lots of ladies who lunch on my afternoon visit. A decent ale selection is a saving grace,and if in this upmarket location at least you can pitch down here just for a drink.However it has a chain vibe ,and a gastro feel so probably not somewhere to embark on a massive ale session.

There were four ales on in here - Doom Bar, Young's Bitter, Young's Christmas Ale, and Twickenham Naked Ladies. The Naked Ladies was £4.40 a pint, and I reckon at the top end of what anyone should be expected to pay in Winchmore Hill. This is a food-led pub, with a large area on the left that had tables all laid for diners. But I didn't see a menu at 5.30 PM, and they were quite happy for us to sit at one of the tables there and have just drinks; I guess because the evening restaurant operation wasn't properly underway yet. The pub is essentially unchanged since the previous reviewer's visit. It's looks quite a magnificent pub from the outside with its imposing turret on the corner. Inside, the main bar area is all tall tables/tall stools, but the smaller room on the right (which I guess must be the library section mentioned by Steve) has more traditional and comfortable furnishings. I would assess that there's a fair divide between seating for drinkers and that intended for diners. The restaurant area was furnished with what looked like re-cycled dining room furniture which seems sensible enough to me. But an enormous illuminated sign on the back said EAT HAPPY. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I suppose that it must be some sort of encouragement to eat. All seems a bit pointless and unnecessary to me and gives it a bit of the look of a cheap diner - but maybe that's just me. The decor's all arty stuff - maybe the Eat Happy sign comes into that category as well. This pub falls neatly into the OK category for me. The beer choice was reasonable if fairly expensive, but it had the uber modern appearance that isn't my first choice for a pub. But if doing that, with the emphasis on food, keeps it as a viable pub business then I guess that's a plus.

The Kings Head was taken over by the Geronimo pub chain about 18 months ago and the first thing they did was put two more handpumps in and start dispensing four ales. That still wasn’t enough to drag me in though based on previous experiences. However Geronimo has put a bit more of a stamp on it and it has just reopened after being closed for a month for a refit and they have done a pretty good job. Still a Gastro food pub and half the floor space is set aside for dining tables. And still a ridiculously expensive food menu for N21 that won’t have me eating there. But the remaining bar area and small library section at the back is now much lighter and airier and less cluttered than before. And with Adnams Ghost Ship and Trumans Runner alongside the more mundane offerings of Youngs Bitter and Doombar I succumbed to enter for a beer. Better experience so feel obliged to up my rating..

There has been an Inn on this site since the time when Winchmore Hill was a small village centred round its village green, set amongst green fields and hedge rows and shadowed by the nearby wood. What is left of the Wood is now part of the nearby Grovelands Park, and the village green still survives as the grass area opposite the pub, but is much smaller now and the duck pond has long gone. The small village Inn was rebuilt in 1899 to support the earlier arrival of the train line from London, into the large commanding Victorian hotel that stands today. It’s gone through several guises over the years but is now a bit of a modern décor gastro pub owned by Geronimo Inns who run about 20 pubs dotted about the London suburbs. Internally it is one area around a central serving area but segmented into a bar area and a dining area. The bar area is wood floored with wooden tables and chairs complemented by leather sofas around the fireplace area and the eating area is carpeted and laid to dining tables and padded chairs. There is a small snug area hidden away at the end of the bar and there is also a very nice outside courtyard area which is particularly pleasant in the summer months. The bar usually supports two handpumps ,one of which tends to be London Pride and the other was Sharps Doombar on my last visit. I tend to only come here when dragged along by colleagues as this place is an enigma to me. Probably the most expensive place to drink for miles with expensive, average beer and well pricey food which gives you the 'How much!' factor when reading the menu. But , of the three pubs close to the green it is always the busiest and the restaurant area is usually full. So I guess whilst people are prepared to pay EC4 price levels in N21 , then there's no reason to stop charging them.

This is a big pub with some tables and a plasma screen in the main bar, but I'd be surprised if there was any Sky Sports. There is a small quiet ‘function' room to the right with some sofas, books and a bar billiards table in it. To the left of the main bar area is a dining area with set tables and I thought that I saw a waitress hovering about. Past the dining area is a nice beer garden with some covered seating under the arch at the side of the pub. Pride, which was ok, and Doom bar were available from the bar alongside a selection of standard and premium lagers. I found the staff to be very friendly, but the other clientele to be very insular and suspicious of a man drinking ale whilst reading the Standard. This is a girl's night out venue or a place you would take the misses for a bottle of wine – Just don't forget the credit card.