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Disappointment of the week with Real Ale Ray
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Detail Pages
The Angelic, N1
N1
N1 0RJ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Moby Duck left this review about The Angelic
A big lump of a pub, a large single downstairs room with upstairs seating available. Four handpumps with just London Pride and Lillys Mango Cider available with a mix of premium lager and craft on keg. TV sport was on but muted with music also on at the same time. The service was relaxed and laid back with a couple of used tables left unattended. Can't see a reason for a return visit.
On 17th March 2024
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Angelic
A relatively-sympathetic modernisation of a good old pub, retaining some original features in the high-ceilinged bar including some attractive ceramic work. The mismatched tables and chairs perhaps don't quite go but otherwise a nice pub. There is also a function room upstairs (not visited) and pavement tables outside. Ales on were TT Landlord, a house beer from Truman and Doom Bar.
On 16th September 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Angelic
This is a large corner pub with an impressive facade that draws you in, only to find a considerably less impressive interior within. The pub was clearly once a pretty spectacular multiple roomed affair, but is now a bit of a mess, with ugly sanded floorboards and large open spaces with no furniture combining to create a noisy, echo chamber in which I was unable to hear what the bar staff were saying even on a moderately busy mid-week visit. . A nice tiled entrance area in what was presumably once a porch area, leads into the vast room where pews and chairs serve large sanded tables under the front windows. The servery is opposite, on the back wall, running in a staple shape with a nice counter top and frontage that has been painted a lurid shade of blue, whilst the bar back is quite tidy and has some nice carved support posts. More pews and chairs can be found to the right, whilst the left hand side has padded stools and acres of standing room before you reach a few sofas that surround a nice glazed tile fireplace under a skylight. Every wall has been painted in grim gastro-pub grey, which sadly leaves the pub’s primary attraction – a lovely tiled frieze that skirts around most of the pub, just below ceiling level – looking extremely incongruous. A few small etched panes above each entrance are also worth a look, but it’s very clear that the majority of the pub’s interesting features have been lost and what is left remains scant consolation. Elsewhere, there are a number of cheap looking statues and busts of classical figures, including several en route to the toilets which are down a tight spiral staircase. Music played in the background but this was almost entirely lost under the boom of the customers in this acoustic hellhole of a room.
There were four handpulls in operation when I arrived, offering a choice of Windsor & Eton Windsor Knot and Father Thames, Sharps Doom Bar and Trumans Angel Tears. My pint of the Father Thames was in reasonably good shape and the bar staff seemed friendly enough, if impossible to hear.
Visiting this pub was quite a sad experience, reflecting on what a fine establishment it must have been in its heyday and what a sorry specimen it appears to be now, thanks to a make-over that no right-minded customer can possibly think is befitting of such a building. A half decent pint was some degree of consolation, but whilst this pub remains in its current state, it will be a case of missed opportunity to capitalise on a potentially excellent venue.
On 15th October 2018
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about The Angelic
No ale of any great strength but there was some decent craft stuff. Would not revisit.
On 19th January 2017
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Angelic
A visually pleasing Victorian street corner pub with Dutch gables and a corner turret, inside there is the usual opened out single room with a boarded floor, scrubbed tables but with some nice original features in an ornate tiled wall cornice, green painted fluted columns and an attractive, if possibly not original, dark wood carved bar back. Clear glass windows let in a lot of light, a Greek style white statuette sits on the corner of the bar.
There are four handpumps, Truman's Blindside, Sambrook's Junction, a pub beer called Angel's Tears which Whatpub tells me is brewed by Sharp's for the pub, whether exclusively I'd be very sceptical. Another from Sharp's, Atlantic, was reversed.
Foody but not a gastropub, the Angelic Burger is £12.50, they do oysters, either individually or 6 for £13. Never fancied the slimy looking things.
Steady if not spectacular , worth a look in depending on what they have on if the real stuff is your bag.
On 5th October 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Angelic
My first time in here last Saturday and having passed it a million times, I knew it wasn't going to be my thing. The venue was chosen as an easily located meeting point for my friends.
Contrary to reviews below, this isn't actually a gastro pub at all. It's a pub which sports much contemporary décor and happens to serve food from a contemporary menu - if you and your mates want to get off their faces here on Jägerbombs, then that's fine.
As mentioned, this is a substantial single-roomed pub which was formerly The George IV. Indeed it does display some very fine polychromatic glazed tilework to the interior. Naturally, being a Saturday evening, the place was heaving - this is a destination pub for professional 20-somethings looking to blow off steam. The lavatories are truly weird, resembling some sort of dungeon/Soho peep show preceded by a stone dragon's head which doubles as a fountain at the bottom of a helical metal staircase; dark and black as hell, I didn't know whether to have a pee or hold a Black Mass - episodes of Black Adder Goes Forth played over the sound system.
The staff were efficient. Premium lagers were many, ales served were Sharp's Atlantic, Sambrook's Junction and Truman' Somersault - all were fine and around the £4.00-mark which is what you'd expect here. However, despite the fact that music wasn't loud, the volume from ambient conversation coupled with the resonant acoustics meant that having a chat was impossible. The completely smashed customer, face down at his table, didn't appeal either so we left to find something more civilised that caters for adults; I can't see any compelling reason to return.
On 14th September 2015
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Angelic
Very attractive building outside and in.Duechars,Sharps house beer and good quality Trumans-Runner.Would revisit.
On 10th May 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Angelic
This pub hasn’t changed since previous reviewers’ visits. It’s still housed in a magnificent edifice of a building, which I hope will never change, but the interior is typical Islington with scrubbed solid tables and re-cycled school chairs. However, on the plus side a fair bit of original (Victorian for sure) tiling remains at the top of the walls; some mosaic flooring is still in place just inside the entrance; and the bar back definitely looks original. However everything else has been re-modelled over the years.
The ale choice was reasonable though, with Wadworth Horizon, Waggledance, Sharp’s Angel’s Tears (a house ale I guess) and Theakston’s Masham Four and Twenty on. The Masham Four and Twenty went down very nicely indeed, although inevitably served a little too cold. Being in last Friday, somewhat predictably the special was “Friday fish n chips”, at £12.50 a go. But they also advertised a set menu, with two courses at £12.50.
I don’t think that I would go out of my way to visit again, but it’s OK as far as it goes, and with a reasonable ale choice it’s a decent enough place to drop in for a pint if you’re passing. But a traditional pub it isn’t.
On 3rd June 2013
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Angelic
Housed in a substantial building, although the bar area - comprising a single room with a notably high ceiling - is not as large as one might expect. Largely stripped out and redecorated in typical gastro-pub style, but there are still a few original features of interest if you take a little time to look around. Four real ales on handpump - Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster from Sharps plus Pegigree and Theakston Best Bitter (£3.60).
On 2nd April 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Roger Button left this review about The Angelic
Islington is just the place where trendy gastropubs thrive and the Angelic should therefore come as no surprise to the visitor despite numerous name and image changes over the years.
The interior is one large room with high ceilings and large curtainless windows, stripped back furnishings and blackboards offering the likes of Forge Farm Organic Pumpkin Ravioli. The beers (apparently “tasted and rigourously tested before being put on the menu”) included 4 ales on my recent visit – Greene King London Glory, Sharps Cornish Coaster, Marstons Pedigree and Sharps Doom Bar with prices FROM £3.50. I would happily taste and rigourously test them for nothing if it meant they would be sold a reasonable price.
There are a few remnants of its traditional pub past with some mosaic patterned floors in the entrance and the journey to the loos is an event in itself that involves descending a spiral staircase next to a plaster statue to a running water fountain at its foot. It’s OK, you don’t actually use the fountain for the deed at hand – the loos are further on although they have their own entertainment value.
It is usually quite bustling with a younger but more professional type customer base, most of whom will invariably be tucking into Tapas or swirling around red wines. It really isn’t a beer drinker’s environment but its popularity suggests that it is good at what it does if you like that kind of thing. Anyone left in any doubt of the Angelic’s pretentiousness should look no further than their own labeling of their food and drink as elixir and ambrosia. I’ll stick to Pork Scratchings and a pint of Best in future.
On 23rd December 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]