The Lyric, Soho, W1

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Quinno _ left this review about The Lyric

Well, me and my chum decided to pop back and see if things had improved in the intervening five years since my excoriating dismissal of the place below. The interior looks to have been blandized a bit from what I remember, but is essentially similar. The range of ales remains and we were both drawn to the Titanic Plum Porter and Siren Craft, as, it appeared, were most of the other punters. We were quite impressed and decided to stay for another – a chance to fully bury the hatchet! – but sadly our following two beers were insipid dishwater. That’s more like the Lyric I was expecting…I suspect this will be my last visit as there’s a distinct Princess Louise feel about it, (a local CAMRA branch more interested in choice over quality and people who assume choice = good rather than actually appreciate how well a cask ale has been cellared). As the PL showed, there are more than enough of them to keep this place ticking over, whatever I might think.

September 2013
A little pub situated round the back of Shaftesbury Avenue, which I had been tipped off about being yet another recent beer-centric conversion in the capital. Entrance is through an attractive Art Nouveau green/orange glazed-tiled entrance porch, complemented by appealing curved bay windows (inset wood with frosting). Inside is a pretty small single room bar with a dining area upstairs. Interior in brief: wood flooring, painted tongue-and-groove wood panelling, an old wooden beer barrel for table, collection of knick-knacks on high shelving plus some framed pics of various military personnel. Unusually, no piped music. Pub attractions included free WiFi and live Jazz on Sundays. At the bar - six eclectic ales, one proper cider (Gwent y Ddraig) plus an array cask keg and Camden bottles in the fridge. Cask priced by abv, £3.50 through to £4.20. The list of ales on the blackboard above the bar bore little reality to the pumps. I tried a couple of casks; the Milk St was fine though was clearly the first of the day and not pulled through. The Alley Cat tasted like an actual alley cat may have bathed in it. Pub offers a loyalty card, buy 9 pints get 10th free. Barmaid was busy plunging the errant dishwasher and failed to wash her hands before serving me. Overall, pretty disappointing and I felt like that this was less of a Damascene conversion to the cause of good beer and more a bit of bandwagon jumping. Rated 5

On 13^th June 2018 - rating: 6
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