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Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
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Stormbird, Camberwell, SE5
SE5
SE5 8TR
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Stormbird
This place has been a long-term target of mine, given its regular appearance on lists of the ‘Best Pubs in London’ and its links to the pleasant Hermit’s Cave pub over the road. Having been denied entry during the pandemic due to a lack of free tables, I finally managed to check it out recently on a mini crawl from Camberwell to Brixton, but have to wonder whether it was worth the effort. The pub has a single room, open plan layout with the bar in the far rear corner and plenty of seating through the remainder of this bare boarded space. The seating is a mix of chairs, pews and canteen benches, many arranged under large windows along both sides of the street corner, which makes them good spots for a bit of people watching. The bar has a typical dark wood panelled counter and decent matching bar back decorated with interesting beer bottles, pump clips and neon light figures of a penguin, angel and deer. A beer board hangs to one side, mounted in what looks like an old frame for an honours board or similar. Shelving to the left of the bar was lined with bottles and cans, perhaps for takeaway purposes, whilst the walls were decorated with good quality enamel brewery signs, old photos of the local area and large plain mirrors. My main gripe with the place is that there are very few soft furnishings, so the room gets incredibly noisy and feels a little cold. The tables are mainly on the larger side, so as a lone visitor, I had nowhere to sit without taking a whole table for myself, and worst of all, the punters had formed a queue from the bar to the door, although I ignored this and walked to the other end of the bar, where I was served relatively quickly.
The handpulls yielded three cask ales - Siren Broken Dream and Suspended in Citra, and Lost and Grounded Autumn Protagonist, along with a real cider and two unclipped pumps. The focus is more on the craft keg market, with around 15 keg taps pumping out plenty of microbrewery beers to a mainly young clientele. I took a pint of the Autumn Protagonist, which was served so cold that had I not seen the barman pour it, I might’ve thought I’d been given a pint of keg beer.
I had high hopes for this place, but found it tricky to get comfortable, far too noisy and with beer kept far too cold, not to mention stupid customers practically queuing out of the door to get served. Having said that, it seemed like a popular spot with a comprehensive craft keg range and the barman who served me was a good laugh, so it wasn’t all that bad. I’d be more inclined to return to the Hermit's Cave the next time I’m in Camberwell and wouldn’t label this as the destination pub I’d been led to believe it might be.
On 3rd January 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Stormbird
Stormbird is what I would call a destination pub, in beer terms anyway. Single roomed,which is light and airy with plenty of sensible seating. The bar is along the back wall and houses six handpumps with five available on my visit, these were Good Chemistry High Plains, Anspach & Hobday The Ordinary Bitter, Stockport Dark Mild and Howling Hops Swingtime. In addition to the cask options there are 17 keg taps with a good range of beers from the top of the tree brewerers including The Kernel, Deya, Verdant and more. I liked this place a lot.
On 7th August 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Stormbird
A long rectangular room which returns very slightly one end, L-shaped bar, boarded floor with unusually narrow boards. Foreign beer advertisements form most of the decor, fairy lights are in abundance but there are a reassuringly large number of beermats around the bar area. Seating is mostly regular with normal chairs and a few long sharing benches, as is becoming rather too prevalent, many tables featured reserved signs. Emma, Luke and Harriet, this is a pub, not a restaurant.
Beers on (cask) were Dark Star Hophead, Kent Pale (£3.00), Harbour East India Porter plus a cider from Thistly Cross. On the longer return side of the bar there were a long row of shiny chrome keg taps. The beers were advertised on a board behind the bar, priced curiously by half and third measures, no pints. Clearly there was not an issue with me buying a pint and I seemed to be up on the deal as proportionately a half or third comes in at a premium, assuming I was correctly charged. £3 does seem a deal these days. Lots of Bright Young Things were however wandering around with what looked to me like wine glasses of beer, I find this trend all rather worrying.
Nice pub though if you can time it right when the clientele is more down to earth I guess, it is worth a look in.
On 10th January 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about Stormbird
Stormbird is a corner pub that i thought would be a keg outlet,as usuall i was wrong.
Once inside there is a small single oblong shaped room,the bar is to the rear right,the room is bare boarded,there are normal tables and chairs to the front and pew seating down the left side.
There were three real als on the bar plus two real ciders,i had a drink of Marble Pint which was a decent enough drink,the other beers were Dark Star Darkness and Darkstar Pale Ale.
There was some decent background music playing.
This is a decent pub where you can have decent drink and watch the world go by outside.
Pub visited 13/8/2014
On 13th August 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about Stormbird
Rather attractive large corner pub with windows on 2 sides so its bright and airy.Not much in the way of decoration inside but a display of bottled beer behind the bar.Limited seating outside at the front.About 10 craft keg pumps and 4 handpumps with 3 beers from London Fields,Darkstar and 5 Points.I took advantage of the 1/3rd measures to try Partizan -Black saison which was good.
On 31st May 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]