The Alwyne Castle

On New Years Day after Dog eat Dog, we all fancied desserts and thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to find in Islington, How wrong we were!!!
We went up and down upper street and the places were either closed for the day or we didn’t like the look of their dessert menu, someone remembered this pub, so we came here and it was lovely.
The atmosphere was nice, we luckily managed to get the table by the fireplace and it was so nice and warm. We all managed to find something for dessert that we liked.
I had the cheesecake which was lovely, I know some others didn’t enjoy their desserts as they found it too sweet or too dry.
It is a lovely place not far from Highbury & Islington Station, can imagine it getting extremely busy during Arsenal Matches at home.

So the NYE recovery crew continued our food journey on the hunt for the perfect cheese cake. I don’t even like cheesecake but someone in our crew REALLY liked it so cheesecake it was. We ended up at The Alwyne Castle, a place which used to be my favourite place for Sunday roast until their food took a turn for the worst. I hadn’t been there for years.
Anyhoo, The Alwyne Castle is a huge pub a short walk from Highbury & Islington underground station. It’s a great place to hang out with lots of seating and also room to breath, it comes with lots of little cubbyholes were you can chill out with friends, family etc. There’s also a pile of board games and others like Jenga to play for the gamesters.
As soon as we walked in I spotted the seating around the fire place and dove next to the ‘fake’ fire as it was so cold. We all ordered desert and drinks which had to be ordered and paid for at the bar. Some of us received orders delivered fairly quickly while others such as myself had to wait along time. I had to enquire if the desert was still coming and in the end two lots of my dish came, with one being sent back to the kitchen. Due to the cold I ordered jasmine tea (they only had 2 or 3 teas to choose from), and sticky toffee, date pudding with vanilla ice-​cream. The jasmine tea served in a teapot was fine but the pudding was sickly sweet (even for me), I could only manage maybe a tenth of it before I had to stop eating. The ice-​cream was average. The feedback from the crew were mixed.
Overall, a cool place to hang out but I’m not sure about the food.

So we seemed to have ended up on a lunch crawl on New Year’s Day and after walking the whole length of Upper Street without finding a dessert place open, or anywhere having any decent desserts, especially cheescake (and I don’t even like cheesecake!) we ended up here on St Paul’s Road, passed Highbury and Islington, with its open fire and restaurant ambiance, not a pub feel at all.
Then the cheescake turned out be more peanut butter cookie dough. However, the profiteroles, and the warm choc brownies with vanilla ice cream were good though. Shame they had ran out of the mulled wine.
We sat at the table by the open fire, which was lovely. Check out the ceiling mural by the bar.

Ah maaaan! So it’s New Year’s Day and I was with a bunch of lovely Unilocal friends looking for dessert in Islington! Easy, right?!! Oh how wrong you would be. We walked the length of Upper Street with no luck for a place either open or serving cheesecake! After debating whether to give up, we took a gamble and walked over to this lovely looking pub, which is been eying up since I moved to the neighbourhood! What a great decision that was!
Not only was this place OPEN. It was serving dessert including cheesecake! Win win and they had board games and a cute looking log fire! Oh my:. something out of a dream! Exciting!
Dessert wise, we couldn’t decide, so we choose pretty much the entire menu. The desserts, it sounds stupid but they were just too sweet for us and we couldn’t finish them at all! I think it would better if they could do a mini dessert platter, so you could try them all, like sample size!
Onto the desserts, we tried the peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake. Which was. Well as we discussed there was no words for it! It was just too much. Very, very heavy and I maybe they overdid it with the peanut butter. Like it was nice, but no way we could have more than a few bites. I reckon they need more cheesecake and less cookie dough in it.
It was a similar story for the rest of the desserts, the sticky toffee pudding, which was like way way too sweet, m. The profiteroles were nice, but a bit too rich to eat too many of them, was so glad I was sharing these.
The brownie was my favourite, hot moist chocolate with ice cream melting all over it! Oh yessss!
Super cute place, which is great for catch up with friends, as we did or a date night! Next time I’m back, I’m trying the mains, it could move to 5 star after this and also checking out the board games.

Both times I have been there, the food was delayed for so long that we wanted to leave rather than wait. First time, we ordered eggs and soldiers and the egg was hard boiled. It didn’t seem a complicated order and yet it wasn’t done right.
As a chef, and in my personal opinion, they have too few people working in the kitchen and too many people ordering food. The menu needs to be much simpler and there needs to be more people on hand. Last time I was there, on a Tuesday evening, the place was absolutely rammed and there was one lone chef. This issue of understaffing is also common at the bar, which is about as many people deep as the Oxford Circus train platform at 7 p.m.

***Rating does NOT include food, as I did not eat here***
I came to Alwyne Castle tagging along with a friend to attend someone’s bday gathering, and I knew nothing about it. For someone that doesn’t really ‘do’ pubs, I found this place to be a pleasant surprise.
The best part about Alwyne Castle is the sprawling beer garden space (less emphasis on the «garden» part)…it has a slight ‘upmarket’ aesthetic compared to other outdoor spots (well-​placed color arrangements, cozy banquettes with mosaic tile tables), and I really appreciated that. The music when I went (a Friday night) was good ol’ soulful old school tracks from the 80’s, and it felt in no way hokey or contrived.
The downside would be the service (as everyone complains about)…it takes quite some time to get a drink here.
Other than that, on a rare nice day or evening in London, I wouldn’t mind a re-​visit at all.

A recent refurb has upgraded both the interior and the huge outdoor space and made it much more inviting, despite the noisy traffic on Balls Pond Road. Now, just in time for the warm summer evenings, they have installed many more tables and organised the outdoor area with booths, tables and bench seats with a much more appealing layout.
Service is still a bit slow somehow but it’s probably one of the best places in the area if you want to sit outside. Inside they have a pub quiz on Tuesday evenings. Plus the beer garden stays open late, more than I can say for some other pubs nearby. Haven’t tried the food. Beer prices are a bit on the steep side though but overall the positives outweigh now.

As a pub to spend a Sunday afternoon I would definitely recommend this place for a quiet drinks and relaxing time in the sun out in the beer garden.
But if you’re looking for a decent Sunday roast I’d definitely look elsewhere portion size is pretty average but quality is very poor (nearly as bad as the customer service). Had to send my food back twice (waiting 30mins before I could start eating) before it was actually cooked I like my steak rare but prefer my chicken not be frozen inside. I got pretty much no sympathy from the staff which would explain why when I finally got my food why some of it had mysteriously disappeared.

It’s a nice pub with a large beer garden. However the service can be extremely slow, even at times there are very few customers at the bar.
The selection of beers is ok, it’s fairly priced. In terms of food, poor value for money, not a Sunday Roast recommended. Burgers are fine.
To summarize, it’s an ok pub, in the summertime, if you’re not hungry.

It a good local bar with a great range of beers and spirits.
No old people, just a community vibe.

Sunday lunch and a couple of pints with friends before they fly home to Australia. Tube station quite close by so convenient for their trip to Heathrow.
In future, however, we’ll go a bit further down the road to The Snooty Fox.
At the Snooty, the portions are much larger for the same price (£12). The menu said pork with crackling. The crackling was about twice the size as my thumbnail. The pork at the Clapton Hart (where I frequently go for Sunday roast) is huge in comparison with oodles of crackling too and for the same price. Somehow or other the vegetables were all cold within five minutes. The dribble of gravy wasn’t enough to enliven the crusty yorkshire pudding. After finishing it off I was still a bit hungry.
A friend who wasn’t quite so hungry as me ordered a plate of sweet potato wedges. It was one sweet potato, not a large one, divided into quarters. For four quid! What a rip off!
On to the ales… London Pride and Doom Bar were two of them. Sigh. Why such boring run of the mill ales when there are a thousand plus breweries in the UK? Boring, boring, boring. So I went for the Leeds Brewery stout. It was okay but nothing to write home about. I’ve had Leeds beers elsewhere and they seemed to be of good quality. In this pub the mouthfeel was too watery, the flavour bland. And for £4.10 a pint! The nearby Snooty Fox does better ales at a cheaper price.
And that’s where I’ll be eating and drinking when I am in that area in the future.

I really liked this pub — it was the first one I visited upon arrival in England (for this particular trip) for a choir tour. We looked confused about how to order and a server asked us if we were alright. She was really nice and advised us how to order our food. Once we got to the bar to order, the bartenders kind of ignored us, but the one who eventually served us was really honest — when my friend asked what the usual tip is, he said nothing or one pound if you wanted to be generous.
I can’t remember what my friend ordered, but I ordered gnocchi and it was EXCELLENT. Some other friends also ordered «authentic» Pimms which was really good. They also have specialty iced teas which are nice, but be warned: they don’t always have every variety that is listed.
All in all, I’d go back to this place, mostly b/​c the food was very good and the servers were nice and not snobby.

Okay, I suppose it was late Friday night, and I was probably too sober to appreciate whatever joys this pub holds over the shouting but my god was it a disappointment indoors when we we moved in from the (lovely!) beer garden! Super loud music played over bad speakers making tunes and tones completely undecipherable from each other, not that they really sounded like they’d be interesting tunes to listen to anyway.
Looks like a nice little pub on the outside but inside they’ve ripped out whatever character full furniture there presumably once was and managed to replace it with a complete lack of character!
Shame really as the staff are nice and they’ve several decent real ales on but I’d definitely steer clear late on a Friday night. Should know better I guess I’ll try it on a sunny afternoon and may come back with a more positive report.
c*

Me
and my bf went here on Saturday and it was overovercrowded. Maybe we
had to reserve a table but we just want to had a few quick beers
before going to the club. We wait at the bar for more than 10 minutes
and nobody looks interested in our presence. So we left and surely we
will never come back.

I absolutely hate central beer gardens that are full to the brim during any hint of sunshine in olé’ London town, and the Alwyne has never let me down for outdoor space! They have a massive front garden (which is admittedly odd, but works) and are far enough away from tube stations to shoo the non-​regulars away.
The charcuterie platters are excellent and they have Blue Moon on tap. This has sort of become my new local :)

Oh I love the Alwyne… i’m still not 100% sure how you pronounce the darn name, but what I do know is that as far as intercity pubs go, this place is fantastic! For London standards its extremely spacious inside and out (beer garden for those long, sunny summer days) and the staff are extremely helpful and knowledgeable! They serve Blue Moon, one of my favorite wheat beers, as well as Sierra Nevada and some awesome Czech choices. The wine selection is pretty good too, albeit a bit expensive, but its worth it as I’d much rather pay the extra couple of quid and sit here rather than at that DIRE gang-​banger-​of-​a-​weatherspoons down the road… yeah, the one with security guards permanently fixed out side, you know the one. Quality ambiance is important to me and I’m happy to pay a bit more for it.
Food wise, I’ve been fortunate enough to try both their main menu food and their Sunday roast. The burger and the Fish and Chips are fantastic. very fresh and flavorsome and the portions are quite generous. I did try a salad once which was a little sad, but really that’s my fault for ordering a salad at an English pub. The Sunday roast is fabulous! Its an excellent hangover cure, so if you’re at the Alwyne wetting your whistle on Saturday eve — definitely consider coming back the next morning to lift your spirits and fix that hazy head.
They also do a weekly pub quiz… but watch out… it’s quite hard!

This pub has so much potential, the interior is nice, quite big, attracts a local youngish crowd, they have a massive outside area — but, it’s weird, the outside area extends towards the car park — but they never have any shade over the tables there… meaning, it looks odd, like you are sitting in a car park and not a beer garden… also, it’s no good if the sun is out, cause there is no shade… and then if it’s raining, it’s no good either…
They could do so much with this, and bring in heaps more customers just with a bit of a cover over the benches…
It’s A-​OK

We were looking for a place to have lunch on a bank holiday Monday, and this was the only place open.
We were a bit sceptical at first, looking at the menu, as it seemed to be extremely standard pub fare. Nothing innovative in terms of the dishes. But the prices were good (£8-£10 for most main courses), so we went for it.
The food took its time to arrive, despite the pub being almost half empty. But I guess it does take time to prepare good food, as the dishes were cooked to perfection!
My partner had the fish and chips, which was a huge fillet of fish in batter with what looked like flecks of seaweed in it. THe mushy peas looked good too — although it was a bit too minty and mushy for my taste.
I had the burger, and I have to honestly say that it is probably one of the best pub burgers I’ve ever had. Very juicy beef patty, and the bun was toasted just right, not too hard or burnt. It came with a purple cabbage coleslaw, which really did brighten up the plate! Chips were so-​so — if they were better, this could have easily been the best burger I’ve had in London.
Overall, good price for decent pub food! Would definitely visit again if hankering for a fish and chips or burger — but I just wished they did more adventurous food as well.
Reviewed by The London Insider

Oh, I loved this place. Spent a drizzly Sunday here on cozy couches, from the afternoon through the evening. Grabbed a Scrabble game and used the tiles to play rounds and rounds of Bananagrams. Sipped some damn good IPAs. Nibbled on hummus. Chatted through the night.
I love the warmness and coziness of this pub, and all the comfy sofas and nooks in which to sit. I could spend many lazy Sundays here.

Large, very popular and sprawling pub a few minutes’ walk from Highbury Corner and Highbury & Islington station.
The pub itself is a traditional-​looking brick-​built building, with a large conservatory. An oddity (pretension?) is that the pub sign has dropped the ‘Castle’ and replaced it with some dots — ie «The Alwyne.» Inside, there is a very large main bar area, with a spacious room off that, and an equally spacious conservatory; the décor comprises lots of unstained wood and strong designer paint colours — with a mix of traditional tables and lots of old sofas.
The overall feel is shabby-​chic, which suits the very varied mix of Islington regulars. A big feature is the huge outside garden, which can apparently accommodate around 300. The main weekly event is a very popular quiz on Tuesday nights, when you can expect every seat to be taken.
They serve a good range of real ales, and have a modern pub grub menu of burgers and more traditional main courses — all between £7 and £10, which is not half bad for Islington. They also do snacks, which include wasabi peas — just to reinforce you’re in trendy North London.
The main downer for me — and the reason for losing the fourth star — is the service. On my last visit it was incredibly busy inside and the two bar staff were unable to keep up even with the small number of people at the bar. It took us 10 minutes to get some beers, and all without the least hint of a smile or apology. I dread to think what it would be like if the garden really did have 300 customers as well…