London Pub
Posted by Degan on February 21st, 2011
First of all I love pubs, secondly I love watching the city change over time and thirdly, I drive past it every day so it’s not surprising that I’ve been back to the London Pub more often than any other new restaurants.
It opened in 1903 as the London Pub, complete with a “Ladies” entrance and roped off area in the bar. At some point it became a grotty bar called the Pacific where you could get Labatt’s on off sales and where people smoked in a glass-walled room. And recently it underwent some extensive renos to return it to its past glory.
The tiled threshold is still there, the Ladies’ entrance is still there, as are the exposed brick, but the lines are clean, they have cask nights and I didn’t eat there before, but I’m sure the food is much better.
Did you know that “London particular” is a soup? In typical British fashion, the thick, soupy smog over the Thames was identified as a particular London phenomenon and the name somehow got attached to thick pea soup. At London Pub it’s served with enormous croutons and bread and would make me happy even if I had to eat it every day.
I first had it with their jumbo pretzels (served with spicy cheese dip) which I can unfortunately never eat again because I think I gained 10 lbs just from looking at them. Man they are delicious though and I would be in trouble if I saw them after a couple of beers.
Other British pub favorites are bangers and mash (not made with Cumberland sausage but nevertheless pretty damn tasty), beef cottage pie (pictured above), steak and Guinness pie…so much comfort and we haven’t even gotten to the beer yet.
Even the more standard (North American) pub fare is good. Burger and beef dip have both been sampled and given the nod. The only dishes I haven’t tried yet are the Indian-influenced curries and spreads, and their pizza.
As for brew, they have Tetley’s and Boddington’s on tap, an array of imports in bottles and regularly scheduled cask nights.
There is nothing pretentious about this place. There are darts, pool and plenty of space for people to hang out and drink.
I quite like it.
London Pub is located at 700 Main Street, Vancouver.
