The Masque Bar in King's Cross is either a pub (to judge by the local crowd who seem to have crawled out of the nearby KX estates), or a trendy bar (a select collection of bespectacled northern European trendies on both sides of the bar spend their time fiddling with vinyl or greeting each other with cliquey secret handshakes), or it might even be some sort of tiny club (from the imposing DJ booth and disgusting floors).
Whatever, Gastroboy visited the Masque yesterday as part of an impromptu 'how do we get from Islington to Soho' pub crawl. Now it might be because it was the Saturday before New Year's Eve, or maybe just that it was a bit early, but the place contained an un-atmospheric 4 customers and managed to be both filthy and simultaneously reek of disinfectant. In particular, the toilets are a work of art. Not exactly dirty but damp and musky. Every available surface was wet to the touch, and there was some evidence of stalactites forming on the bare electrics hanging out of the holes in the ceiling.
That said, the music was ok (until they put the best of Sheryl Crow unplugged on) and it is very red. And it is of course next to King's Cross Station, making it automatically a lot better than most of the local competition.
Beer is not nice, but not overpriced at £3 for a Kronenbourg. It was not noted whether food is served, but this is not a good venue for a Sunday lunch in any case.
Sunday, December 31
Monday, December 11
The Duchess of Kent, The Buffalo Bar
Everyone likes The Duchess of Kent, a friendly gastro at the slightly less gentrified end of the Liverpool Road. Difficult to describe because it does a pretty decent job of being most things to most people. It's light and airy, with a Provencal paint job and a liberal spread of surrealist paintings. At the same time it's warm and cozy with leather armchairs arranged around the roaring fire. And, of course, like most pubs in the area, it's definitely not one to visit on match-days.
The pub is shaped like a giant L, with an (Islington style) drinkers bit at the front complete with sofas and the daily papers, and a large non-smoking dining area at the rear. The food served is decent enough (gastroburgers on breadboards, daily specials depending on the catch of the day) but feels a little over-priced due to their strange practice of rounding all the prices up to the nearest fiver.
Gastroboy celebrated his birthday there over the weekend, a disorganised affair involving around 20 people all arriving and leaving at different times. Perhaps consequently, the service was a little random, with some table orders taken for food and drink, others ordering at the bar and things generally not getting cleared away. None the less, the antipodean leaning staff were extremely friendly ans helpful, a refreshing change from the snooty attitude found in many of Islingtons top-end gastros or the pretty ineptitude of the staff in some of the noisier youth-oriented establishments.
A great pub.
The Buffalo Bar is a tiny venue hewn out of the basement of the diabolical Famous Cock next to Highbury and Islington station. Gastroboy refused to enter the Buffalo bar for a long time in the mistaken belief that it was connected to the footie-focused chunder factory upstairs. It turns out the Buffalo Bar is actually a brilliant little venue, bringing up-and-coming Indy rock and roll bands to trilby sporting Islington trendies. Not a gastro so doesn't really belong on this blog, but worth a mention because it was where Gastroboy concluded his birthday. An interesting layout, great bands playing late, decent bottled beer at a reasonable price (for a club venue) and a rock-oriented disco until 2 all contributed to a brilliant night out for a well lubricated Gastroboy and a comprehensive schedule of UDIs on Sunday morning.
The pub is shaped like a giant L, with an (Islington style) drinkers bit at the front complete with sofas and the daily papers, and a large non-smoking dining area at the rear. The food served is decent enough (gastroburgers on breadboards, daily specials depending on the catch of the day) but feels a little over-priced due to their strange practice of rounding all the prices up to the nearest fiver.
Gastroboy celebrated his birthday there over the weekend, a disorganised affair involving around 20 people all arriving and leaving at different times. Perhaps consequently, the service was a little random, with some table orders taken for food and drink, others ordering at the bar and things generally not getting cleared away. None the less, the antipodean leaning staff were extremely friendly ans helpful, a refreshing change from the snooty attitude found in many of Islingtons top-end gastros or the pretty ineptitude of the staff in some of the noisier youth-oriented establishments.
A great pub.
The Buffalo Bar is a tiny venue hewn out of the basement of the diabolical Famous Cock next to Highbury and Islington station. Gastroboy refused to enter the Buffalo bar for a long time in the mistaken belief that it was connected to the footie-focused chunder factory upstairs. It turns out the Buffalo Bar is actually a brilliant little venue, bringing up-and-coming Indy rock and roll bands to trilby sporting Islington trendies. Not a gastro so doesn't really belong on this blog, but worth a mention because it was where Gastroboy concluded his birthday. An interesting layout, great bands playing late, decent bottled beer at a reasonable price (for a club venue) and a rock-oriented disco until 2 all contributed to a brilliant night out for a well lubricated Gastroboy and a comprehensive schedule of UDIs on Sunday morning.
Saturday, December 2
The Red Lion, The Angel
2 pubs.
The Red Lion is lost in Mayfair's maze of backstreets near Shepard's Market. It's not a gastropub, but it's a good solid fancy a pint style boozer. Not really worth posting, except that Gastroboy went there for a pre-departmental Christmas thing drink last night and is now very hung over. The only things of note that he can remember is that there was board announcing the day's selection of sausages.
The Angel (Highgate) on the other hand is a gastropub. Gastroboy is used to Islington prices, but even he was taken aback when asked to pay £8 for a pint of Kuppers and a white wine spritzer. But then this might have been the first time he's ever ordered a spritzer, so maybe that's what they cost.
The team used to go to the Angel quite a bit but gradually became irritated by the limited and unchanging menu, the slightly flat Star, and the beautiful young people behind the bar who are to few in number to cope with the pub's popularity and probably more interested in talking to the beautiful young people on the other side of the bar than actually serving. And so it was that Gastroboy's first visit to the Angel in quite a while was a pleasant surprise.
The menu's changed a bit (not much but slightly) and offered Gastroboy, amongst other things, Beef Wellington for £13.50. This turned out to be a giant Cornish pasty filled with a quite delicious sirloin steak served somewhere between blue and raw. An even cleverer trick given that they never asked Gastoboy how he would like it cooked. Now this could have just been because the chef was too busy being beautiful and talking to his friends to notice that he was serving practically raw food, but Gastroboy is going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that either the Angel takes a strong and fundamentally correct view on how long to cook red meat for or that the beautiful people also possess telepathic abilities.
Beer-wise, the pub's got better. At least 3 euro-wiessers, fruli, leffe, some other silly things too. At first GB thought that Kuppers was the only non-specialty lager, but the bar staff grudgingly admitted to still serving stella and Carlsberg. Wine list's pretty good too, currently featuring seasonal mulled wine. Wasabi peas and pistachios in brick-heavy tumblers complete the set.
And it is still the best looking pub in Highgate. A beautiful effort.
The Red Lion is lost in Mayfair's maze of backstreets near Shepard's Market. It's not a gastropub, but it's a good solid fancy a pint style boozer. Not really worth posting, except that Gastroboy went there for a pre-departmental Christmas thing drink last night and is now very hung over. The only things of note that he can remember is that there was board announcing the day's selection of sausages.
The Angel (Highgate) on the other hand is a gastropub. Gastroboy is used to Islington prices, but even he was taken aback when asked to pay £8 for a pint of Kuppers and a white wine spritzer. But then this might have been the first time he's ever ordered a spritzer, so maybe that's what they cost.
The team used to go to the Angel quite a bit but gradually became irritated by the limited and unchanging menu, the slightly flat Star, and the beautiful young people behind the bar who are to few in number to cope with the pub's popularity and probably more interested in talking to the beautiful young people on the other side of the bar than actually serving. And so it was that Gastroboy's first visit to the Angel in quite a while was a pleasant surprise.
The menu's changed a bit (not much but slightly) and offered Gastroboy, amongst other things, Beef Wellington for £13.50. This turned out to be a giant Cornish pasty filled with a quite delicious sirloin steak served somewhere between blue and raw. An even cleverer trick given that they never asked Gastoboy how he would like it cooked. Now this could have just been because the chef was too busy being beautiful and talking to his friends to notice that he was serving practically raw food, but Gastroboy is going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that either the Angel takes a strong and fundamentally correct view on how long to cook red meat for or that the beautiful people also possess telepathic abilities.
Beer-wise, the pub's got better. At least 3 euro-wiessers, fruli, leffe, some other silly things too. At first GB thought that Kuppers was the only non-specialty lager, but the bar staff grudgingly admitted to still serving stella and Carlsberg. Wine list's pretty good too, currently featuring seasonal mulled wine. Wasabi peas and pistachios in brick-heavy tumblers complete the set.
And it is still the best looking pub in Highgate. A beautiful effort.
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