Sylvan Post, SE23

This is one of the latest additions to the Antic pubco stable. This one set in a converted Post Office, thus the exterior is very plain and ordinary. The interior isn’t a lot better I’m afraid. The original mailing boxes are still in situ, as is what must be the original stone floor, which has had some damage over the years. There’s a bank of tall stools at a ledge in the middle of the room, a few booths with distressed leather upholstered benches on the right, but the majority of furnishings are re-cycled wooden school chairs – the ones with wooden pouches on the backs for the kids sitting behind to use – combined with what look for all the world like formica covered ex-canteen tables. Quirkiness in abundance, but perhaps taken a little too far here. This is the Antic pub that I’ve liked the least. The pub seemed cold (both literally and metaphorically), having no customers other than me, and didn’t seem to me to match up to the standard of other Antic pubs that I’ve visited. Having said that, there was the decent range of ales that I’ve come to expect from Antic. I had an excellent pint of Diamond Geezer (£3.30 a pint) from the By The Horns brewery served in a dimpled mug (no choice offered). I have had a couple of other ales from this Tooting microbrewery recently, and I would recommend them to anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to try them. Perhaps a word of caution for the uncautious – the Diamond Geezer is an excellent 4.3% bitter, but watch out for the Diamond Geezers at above 6% (yes – for some reason they offer two very different ales with just an “s” to separate them). They do food of course, and this pub wins my prize for the most unhelpful menu – 8.95 must mean £8.95, but it was not immediately clear what 8/4 or 5/8 was meant to indicate. On enquiry at the bar I learned that you could have the “Dipped beef and horseradish sandwich” for either £8 for a whole baguette or £4 for a half baguette. I hadn’t encountered dipped beef before but I was told that it was dipped in some sort of wine jus. It came as a roast beef baguette with a bowl of gravy – then you deep the baguette in the gravy. It made the baguette a bit soggy of course, but was quite tasty. All in all a fairly unusual and entertaining luncheon experience. But even with the decent ale selection, this pub is not really to my taste.