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Detail Pages
The Engineer, Primrose Hill, NW1
NW1
NW1 8JH
Pub Type
Castle (Mitchells & Butlers)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5 of 10) see review guidelines
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Engineer
An attractive street corner pub which still retains a multi room interior ,so pleasing when most of the other pubs in Primrose Hill have been opened out unsympathetically.The main door gives way to the bar and an L shaded small interior with just a drinking shelf and stools and two attracting long and high dark pink seats and tables .These maybe booked for diners but their time of arrival is noted.The bar back is traditional and there is an open kitchen to the side. The section to the left is mainly laid for dining but carry around and you will come to a rear snug where you can just drink.There is an entrace to the pub garden here.
Upstairs there is the Brunel Room,really a dining overflow while the Engineers Room is for private dining.The food menu looked decent with median mains £17,bar snacks are advertised but not priced ?,and there are food and wine matching events at £70 per head.
Clearly food is the main draw but the ale choice of Black Sheep Burrows Blonde and TT Landlord (NBSS 3) did offer some hope to a real ale fan ,and with the decent interior it feels like a pub worth a brief visit.
On 7th March 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Engineer
This pub dates from the the middle of the 19th Century, although some embelishments were probably added to the frontage later in the century. Judging by the pub sign, the engineer in question is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, shown with his trademark cigar in his mouth taken from the photograph of him at the launching of the SS Great Britain. Maybe he has a connection to the area, after all he built bridges and tunnels all over the place, but I don't know what it is.
The pub itself has been largely opened up, although there is a separate fairly narrow room in a single storey adjunct to the main building, reached via a doorway to the left of the main room. The bar counter is old, and possibly original, although like the fielded panelling on the walls and surrounding the windows it has been stripped of paint and varnish. A piece of the bar back on the corner angle is also old, although unfortunately any glazing has been lost to blackboards.
The room on the left seems to be used mainly as a dining area now, and leads back to a further small room on the right behind the servery, and to a garden at the back. The furnishings seemed to be fairly traditional. Also, they seem to have got rid of the revolving stools encountered by the previous reviewer, which is undoubtedly a big plus.
There were three ales on - The Sharp's pair of Doom Bar and Atlantic, plus St Austell Tribute. As you would expect of a pub in this area the beer wasn't cheap, with four halves of Proper Job weighing in at £10.45. They obviously do food, but I didn't see a menu. It's an OK pub, and although its ambience and prices reflect this affluent area, it remains sufficiently publike to be somewhere to enjoy a drink without eating.
On 3rd November 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Engineer
A striking looking building which stands alone on a corner plot just uphill from the Regent's Canal. The interior is sort of J-shaped on the ground floor with the bar directly opposite on entering what is a quite narrow space. There is a food servery with views of the kitchen at the end of the shorter side, the longer side looked to be a preferred spot for dining. The wall on this side is absolutely festooned with all sorts of things framed with barely a bit of wall showing. Elsewhere, there are lots of lighter wood boarding and panelling. Seating is mainly traditional with smart button backed banquettes, the place was rather busy late on Saturday afternoon so I ended up perched on a stool at a single high table, disconcertingly, the stool revolved, rather freely too.
There is a small snug-like spot around the back of the pub with a covered heated garden beyond, upstairs are two further rooms, the Brunel Bar and the Engine Room. Apparently the pub name is connected to the great Engineer himself but I do not know in what way. Also upstairs are the toilets, well the gents, the comments below about the size of the cubicle are not exaggerated, thankfully it was not required.
The place is rather Primrose Hill, certainly not Camden town a mile or so away, there were small vases of flowers and bottles of chilled water on the tables, even my crappy high round one. Prices are Primrose Hill too, my pint of Proper Job was £4.95, also on were Purity Gold, Doom Bar with another reversed (Tribute).
I liked the building and being close to the canal this could be a very good pub. Unfortunately it is expensive, rather too food led and I just didn't feel particularly comfortable, not just due to my wayward stool.
On 12th November 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Engineer
Attractive corner pub with an imposing façade. Small 'L'-shaped bar, furnished with pews and rustic tables. Upmarket dining rooms to side, rear and upstairs. Busy, with a young crowd in early on a Friday evening, and only limited standing room at bar. Three of four handpumps in operation, with Doom Bar, Oakham Citra and Liberation Ale (£4.15) available. Footnote: oddest sight of the month, a man trying to impress a small dog with the range of credit cards in his wallet...
On 25th May 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Engineer
Interior as described below. 4 real ale taps 3 on during my visit. Food served.
On 21st November 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Engineer
A grand corner pub in Primrose Hill, possibly under new management.
The interior is traditional yet modern with a central bar with a breakout area to the rear; I think there's also a garden. Eating is available throughout with a larger more formal dining room upstairs. There were a number of real ales on offer along with premium lagers.
However, despite the pub not being busy on my visit, service was very slow. The gent's crapper is so small I could barely fit in let alone turn round. The drinks here are also probably at the highest end of the charge scale in the whole of the London Borough of Camden; I've paid a lot less for the same in more upmarket parts of Hampstead. I also wasn't amused by having a guitar-playing crooner singing into my left ear combined with the deafening roar of the football pumped into my right ear from the TV overhead. Why the football? This isn't a sports pub - no one was remotely interested in watching it - and I doubt those dining below the TV appreciated the din.
Overall, this pub is just about worth a visit if you have deep pockets and take a dump before leaving home though there are other better pubs in the immediate vicinity.
On 23rd April 2013
- rating: 2
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Engineer
Half of this pub is set up towards dining and the other half feels like a bar that people pop into whilst they wait for their table to be free. The old living quarters upstairs now have set tables and chairs in the rooms to maximise eating space. I've been in bigger toilets in a caravan and the cubicle is like a portable loo, even down to no light. I saw some signs up advertising a garden out the back, but I did not investigate.
Bombardier and St Peter's Organic Ale were available along with some premium lagers.
This is not really my sort of place, but it sits well in Primrose Hill.
On 16th April 2009
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5249 recommendations about 5217 pubs]