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Chat about:
Disappointment of the week with Tris39
on the Pub Forum
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
Perfectly described below. Something of a novelty factor and not something that lends itself to the adjective 'pub', but the ale selection is very agreeable and the place does grow on you. Worth visiting if in the area.
Date visited: March 25th, 2017.
Originally rated 6.
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Popping in last night and of the five pumps on the bar, just Portobello's Westway and Hammerton's N7 were on, the N7 being utterly off. I can't now think of a reason to return.
On 2nd May 2022
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
The most ramshackle and superficially unappealing Antic pub I have visited, with the whole place looking like it has been recovered from a demolition site... However, the central bar counter is tidy enough and the overall effect does start to grow on you once you have a decent pint in hand, and Volden Session (£3.30) and Pale were amongst the real ales available from four of six handpumps.
On 15th April 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
Now all house owning parents whose kids excel in knocking lumps out of the décor should visit this pub as a salient lesson to what your home would end up looking like if you decided to do no DIY or repairs at all.
There’s Shabby Chic, then there’s downright shabby, and then there’s Antic’s Farr’s School of Dancing that looks like it’s under restoration. But stick a modern style bar serving area in the middle of the reclaimed skip furniture, chalk up a decent modern hipster attracting food menu with plenty of sharing options on one of the bare brick walls, and the modern youth will come.
Strangely I warmed to the place, although this might have been something to do with a fine glass of Dark Star Hop Head. The good news is that if I ever find myself in Dalston with my son and daughter I now have somewhere to take them where I won’t be ridiculed for my choice. The bad news is that I’m still looking for the equivalent for the wife.
On 4th April 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
So shabby, this one looked as though you were walking into a derilict building, until I saw the bar in front of me. I went for the Five Points Pale Ale again, which was in good shape. The toilets are quite a climb in here right at the top of a concrete staircase. Also if the gaps in the floorboards became any wider, you'd fall in between them. Another novelity factor this pub, but still its attracting the punters.
On 1st April 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
I have been in a few Antic pubs,but this is the shabbiest chic of the lot,and worth a visit for that alone.MM has described the interior well,I had a look downstairs at the Cocktail Bar which wasn't operational on my crawl visit,it's a large space with it's own servery and a boudoir feel,no place for supping real ale but the fairer sex may enjoy it.
The 6 handpumps were offering Dark Star Hophead,Volden Session & Pale and Five Point Pale which was a disppointing range,quite samey, compared with their other pubs.Worth a crawl visit,but I wouldn't base myself here for an evening session without growing a beard first.
On 26th March 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Farr's School of Dancing
A seriously scruffy, unlovely looking building so obviously an ideal venue to add to the Antic stable. Inside there is an open boarded ceiling, a boarded floor with gaps in it, unpapered walls with several areas having deliberately hacked off plaster, some of the seating is in rows of ex-cinema seats and there are tables made of roughly hacked up bits of wood. Conversely there are rather elegant draped curtains in the front windows.
There is an island bar, situated towards the rear rather than central and having a padded red cushioned front. The area behind the bar is rough exposed brick and Crittal windows with peeling paintwork.
It is a strange business model but in a way refreshing, in any case you are always going to find something worth drinking in an Antic pub, this visit had Five Points Pale and also Railway Porter, Volden Pale and Dark Star Hophead. Home made sausage rolls are advertised and there are clipboard menus on the table with some rather off the wall dishes available. Not a bad spot at all if you can find somewhere comfortable to sit, my revolving chair had a mind of its own but I got through without spilling my beer.
On 12th February 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about Farr's School Of Dancing
Farr's School of Dancing is pretty close to Dalston Junction station.
This pub looks pretty grotty from the outside,once inside there is a large square shaped room with the bar facing to the rear,the floor is bare boarded,the seating is bench type on the right side and to the rear with chairs,there are wood benches in the middle area and tall tables and stools to the front.
There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Dark Star Hop Head which went down well,the other beers noted were Five Points Hook Island Red and Arbour 02.
I thought this was a decent enough pub just a shame they could not make the front look a bit smarter.
Pub visited 11/6/2016
On 30th July 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Farr's School Of Dancing
A large square room with the usual mish mash of interior furnishings to be found in most Antic outlets complete with distressed and peeling paint on the walls,however this set up works for me and quite liked this place,it was fairly busy on a Saturday afternoon as you would expect. A good lineup of beer from the likes London Fields, ELB and Siren Craft amongst others, the only downside was that although drinkable my choice of ELB Quadrant Oatmeal Stout was nearing the end of the barrel and one of my group who ended up with the third pint drawn found his to be undrinkable and returned it to the bar and it was replaced for an alternitive although not with complete good grace, getting a lecture on how all there beers are regularly tested and that his returned beer was OK, except it wasn't as I had taste comparing it against mine and it was going.A point docked for that.I did like it here though and will return.
On 31st May 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Farr's School Of Dancing
Less than a minute's walk from Dalston Junction station, this Antic pub apparently takes its unusual name from a 1930's dance school that was previously the occupant of this building. The pub is easily spotted on approach thanks to a large logo sprayed onto the shutters of the neighbouring premises, although should you somehow miss this, there is no other signage to indicate you've got the right place. You enter into a sizeable main room with the usual half finished look that Antic seem to go in for. The rough floorboards have large gaps between them that could probably swallow your phone if you dropped it, and the walls are undressed and accordingly very ugly. High tables and rickety looking stools line up under the front windows, each table sporting its own angle poise lamp, which seems a bit daft as they are the best lit tables in the whole pub. A banquette runs down the right hand wall under a selection of black and white photos and there are long canteen style tables and benches filling the centre of the room. Seating options are rounded out by what appear to by old cinema chairs on the left, serving some very low, small tables which are underneath wall mounted suitcases, an ancient looking telephone and rather unexpectedly, a motorcycle which has been hung from the ceiling. An island servery appears mid way into the room and has an unusual red padded counter front and a collection of old radios on the canopy. Behind the bar you can find another seating area, mostly offering curved banquettes and more hideous bare walls to stare at. An uber-indie soundtrack played throughout my visit, but even the hipsters seemed to have forsaken the place, as I was the only one in on my Sunday afternoon visit.
As with most Antic pubs, dubious design is often forgiven thanks to good beer and there was a fairly good range available to me, comprising London Fields Love Not War and American Black IPA, Caledonian Deuchars IPA, Adnams Lighthouse and Revolutions Go Go American Pale. I tried a pint of the latter which was in very good shape and the barman was careful to pull the line through before pouring.
I normally find that the Antic folk achieve a good balance with their interior design, but this place left me pretty cold. I was left to wonder whether I might have felt differently had the pub been a lot busier, as perhaps a bit of ambiance might have offset the drab surrounds. This might be one that needs further investigation and the fact that this would be tempered with another good pint makes that a much more enticing prospect.
On 19th January 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Farr's School Of Dancing
This is one of the latest additions to the Antic range, and like all their pubs every expense has been spared in endowing it with an air of elegance. As usual, furnishings are mismatched tables and chairs, some banquettes, what look like re-cycled cinema seats and gash bits of wood as tables. By the window are some tall, backless uncomfortable looking stools with more gash bits of wood serving as tables. Apparently this was a dance school before WWII, so maybe it’s re-cycled dance studio stuff. Solid and well worn planks of wood form the flooring, and in the antic way the generally unfinished decorative state imples work in progress, although there was no evidence of any work in progress.
But on the plus side there were the usual half a dozen or so ales on – I had something called Revolution Reward (£3.90 a pint), which was a very tasty best bitter. Beer was served in dimpled jugs, with no choice given. They do food, but nothing resembling pub grub. The menu advertised things called “Parker House Rolls” – “fried chicken & kimchi” (£4.50), “brawn mustard & pickle” (£4.50), “colston basset, pear jam & rye cracker” (£6). I didn’t know what half this stuff was, so didn’t partake.
If you like the Antic so-called “shabby chic” then you will like this place. But whatever else, Antic do seem to manage to provide a decent ale selection.
On 21st March 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]