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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Taproom
From the outside this looks like a bottle shop ,but persevere inside for beyond this modest display there is a bar and a series of thin refectory tables with long benches.Real ale is from stillage housed in a cooling glass cupboard.Two handpumps remained out of use on the bar .Although quite a few barrels were settling only Siren Craft YuLu and XT3 was being served on a Saturday afternoon and prior to a televised Arsenal game which might indicate that there is more focus on keg beers from 7 taps than real ale.My XT3 was decent and served in a dimple mug but cost £4.40.At the back of the room there is a pizza machine and that's the food option,while a small coutyard is opposite with more bench seating.It's all a little sparse,there is a cellar bar with a minute stage,but there was a friendly welcome from the young barman while a young lady was manning the bottle shop till,with cans from hipster London brewers on sale.
On 18th August 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Taproom
A raw industrial style interior as described below. Up to 8 real ales.
On 26th September 2017
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Taproom
If you call in here on a Monday, all their ales are £3.40 a pint, so lucky us. Five ales on gravity served from a micro cellar behind the bar. We went for the Hammerton N1 Moon So Hop. They also have a premium Gin and Tonic menu and pizza oven. Good music on our visit, some interesting Blues.
On 17th June 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about The Taproom
Decent enough pub with a good choice of IPAs. Bit dimly lit on my visit. Would return.
On 19th January 2017
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Taproom
Still has what you would call a distressed interior although less so than my last visit some two and a half years ago.I didn't make a note of the beers on as I thought I had previously reviewed here, but not the case as it turns out. I had a pint of Hammerton N7 Grapefruit which was decent enough, there were plenty of options available Cask and Keg.It was quite quiet on a mid afternoon on Saturday and the music was a bit on the loud side given the sparse population, it didnt affect the beer though which is really what this place is really all about about.
On 18th September 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Taproom
Just been informed that it's "less of a building site now" so happy days. Will try and get back there soonish...
Feb 2014
As mentioned below, this was originally a ‘pop-up pub’ in an old office building that has subsequently gained a permanent license. A long narrow interior, clearly knocked through. Décor is a mish-mash of ‘distressed’ - exposed brick/breeze block, white tiling with some unfinished walls thrown in. Not exactly my bag, I’m not really up for drinking on a building site. Still, a nice ambience inside and less rowdy and more amiable than the Earl of Essex which was our previous stop. I actually found myself rather enjoying things as time went on. Four pumps at the bar with a further eight ales on stillage (stored in a unique glass-fronted chiller cabinet running along the back of the bar) as well as some craft keg on tap. My Crate IPA was in pretty good shape. I’d happily try this one again as an ale destination even if the décor is somewhat tiresome and faddy.
On 5th June 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Taproom
Located on the A1, a five minute walk south of Highbury and Islington station, the Taproom is a modern, craft beer style bar. You enter into a narrow bare boarded room with damaged exposed brick walls and a servery midway down the right hand side. The area closest to the entrance has a few tables arranged down the right hand wall, opposite a staircase leading down to a basement seating area. As the servery appears further into the room, the seating swaps sides and a mix of benches and high stools around large barrels fill the space before the room opens out at the rear. The walls around the bar area are decorated with modern art prints, gig posters and various blackboards listing wine and coffee options. The rear section is lacking this kind of décor - in fact, it hasn't been decorated at all, leaving a messy room with badly damaged tiles filled with long tables and benches. The servery is fairly tatty as well, improved marginally by a collection of pump clips that are essentially papering over the cracks, so to speak. The basement bar is used as a live music space, but with no act playing on my Tuesday night visit, the space had been filled with a few tables and chairs as well as some stools shaped like champagne corks. The room has brick wall painted white and a 'Taproom' logo covering the floor. Music played throughout my stay at a sensible volume and whilst I didn't see anyone eating, menus were on the tables offering snacks such as toasted sandwiches (£6.50) and scotch eggs (£4.75).
The big attraction is obviously the beer, with four handpulls and eight beers on stilage behind the bar, in an unusual glass fronted, temperature controlled box. The hand pumps were dispensing Ledbury Bitter and two real ciders (London Fields Chocolate Porter having just gone off), whilst the cask cabinet offered Hackney Sauvin Pale (£4.10), Off Beat Out of Step IPA and Outlandish Pale, Goldmark Liquid Gold, Alchemy Onyx, Five Points Hook Island Red, Crate Golden Ale and East London Brewery Nightwatchman. All but one of these were priced at over £4.00 a pint, so don't bother visiting if you're on a budget, although having said that, you could try three thirds for £4.00, so you could technically save money using this option. I tried the Sauvin Pale and Outlandish Pale, both in pretty good shape, with the former particularly tasty. There's a surprisingly modest keg selection and a pretty large bottled beer range to round things out.
I quite liked this bar, but the high prices and woeful décor let the place down a bit. It's certainly one of the best options around the Highbury & Islington area and is well positioned for a pre-gig visit when attending the nearby Islington Assembly Hall or Union Chapel and as such, I'm sure I'll return.
On 5th March 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about Taproom
Well reviewed by Will. Bit of a mishmash but the unfinished look doesn't work for me. Great beer selection does work for me and the 2 beers I had were good. Strangely they have 5 un-branded keg taps but they hide what is on them on a blackboard low down on the wall.I remember when it was the cask pump that was usually hidden in the corner. Good addition to any crawl around Islington.
On 22nd June 2013
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Taproom
This was a pop-up pub in a disused former office building, appearing briefly over Christmas 2012 and again in February. A permanent licence has now been obtained, and a bar plus a very impressive and apparently unique chiller cabinet have been installed, and the pub opened for business in the first week of June 2013.
Apart from the bar and the chiller, no attempt has been made to make this into the sort of pub that this part of the world understands. Seating consists of plain benches and tables, there are bare floorboards (not unheard of in pubs, I know) and bare walls (ditto) and air-conditioning ducts (double ditto). But these are bare walls with a vengeance, and if I say I felt right at home, I'm sure my daughters would understand. I think the phrase that fits these walls best is hacked off, and I don't just mean the plaster. At the back of the long and narrow room are the remains of what were clearly once toilet cubicles, with accoutrements removed and any holes made good. (The actual toilets are downstairs, though there is a disabled facility with baby changing next to the bar.) When I commented that I'd never actually drunk my beer in the toilet before, the barman conceded that I might be next to the toilet but not actually in it.
On the bar are just four hand pumps (two ciders, two beers) with the majority of the real ales in the aforementioned custom-built chiller. There are eight barrels on stillage in here, with the beer served via pipes and taps so that the ambient temperature is maintained at an optimum. Service was friendly and the beer was top notch, both in variety and condition.
I'm told that the present state of the decor is not temporary or just scrimping, that the idea is to have a pub that people wouldn't be embarrassed to spill their beer in (though I reckon you could throw your beer at the walls without detriment). I'm not sure that this is necessarily what Islington has been crying out for - only time will tell. Final piece of the jigsaw - on the sound system during my visit was the Beatles' Abbey Road, so no complaints from me on that score either.
On 13th June 2013
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3746 recommendations about 3483 pubs]