The Faltering Fullback

Best pub in North London for me. I go here a lot after Arsenal games. But then I go here regularly during the summer as it has the BEST outdoor terrace out back which you wouldn’t expect. Also from 6pm is an awesome thai hole in wall for food. Such good pad thai.
Great for football and rugby screenings, good vibe as lots of students go there too. It’s a great mix all round. Love it.

Best pub in London ! Amazing beer green in roof. So secluded and big sun trap. Will be back to try Thai food. Good selection of fruity ciders

A great pub, with reasonably priced drink and an amazing outdoor space. Many levelled, wooden benches, plants and flowers galore and lots of private seating so you never feel overlooked. This is such a fab location for a pint after work in the sun or to relax all day on a Sunday. They also have a Thai restaurant and the food smells good! Great for sports fans, they also do a weekly pub quiz.
No reservations available. Hidden away on a back road near Finsbury Park it is quite a trek from central but if you are in the area a definite recommend.

Great pub, with 4 distinct areas comprising the Irish bar at the front with a slightly less rowdy thoroughfare on the way to a more studenty area replete with widescreen TVs for sport and park benches where can you eat Thai food although I wouldn’t subsitute a meal at a restaurant for this fayre. The jewel in the crown is the 4 tiered beer garden which fills up pretty quickly with any hint of sunshine. Great atmosphere if a little packed sometimes. Good mix of people, from the local old gent to your student loan-​maxing student right through to the Shoreditch Samurai types. The exterior is beautiful, it should be noted.

Has to be one of my favourite pubs in the area. Really nice bunch running the place. Always busy as they are heavy linked to sport, showing games and also as a social meet up after local rugby tournaments. Amazing tiered garden that again gets full very quickly. They also have a Thai Kitchen set up that serves some good tasty curries to help you wash down your drinks. (Visit — 27/​05/​2014)

Awesome pub, incredibly atmosphere, whether going for a casual pint, the football, the rugby or a late night with friends! There are so many different areas all with different ambiance that it can seem like a different pub every night. Pints are cheap for london too!
It also does AWESOME thai food. I personally recommend the Basil Chilli stir fry — aamaaazing.

The reviews speak for themselves — everybody loves this place, and for good reason too!
Now I’ve only been here to hang out in their lovely beer garden (one that looks like fairies or ewoks live there), and to have a tipple or two (okay, that’s a lie, more like 6+…), but this place is pretty fabulous. I haven’t had food there, but lots of my friends have raved about their Thai food and how good it is — it’s also great value!

This place used to be my local and I miss it so much! Definitely better in summer — has to be the best beer garden in North London, although when the sun’s out you’ll struggle getting a table. Inside is a bit dingy and drab, but just adds to the character of the place. Don’t go expecting an amazing wine list or unbeatable food (the Thai menu is ok, nothing special), but the atmosphere more than makes up for it, especially if you get a spot in the garden.

Aw man… After reading the reviews of the garden, I feel like I missed a trick here!
We popped in on the hunt for Thai for lunch. Alas, the Thai food isn’t served until 6:30 on a Saturday, so we decided to nurse a couple of pints whilst we pondered where we would go for lunch.
We sat inside the pub (by the bar), hence not seeing the garden. I really liked the quirky décor of different bits and bobs hanging from the ceiling and cuttings and clippings on the wall, but it definitely had a sports pub vibe.
They had a couple of craft ales on tap and it didn’t seem too expensive price-​wise. I believe a couple of pints was shy of £9 (which is crazy for Birmingham prices, but seems about average for London). I can’t really say a lot more, as we only had a fleeting visit — but consider this review a placeholder for a much more detailed summary of the gardens and the food when we next get back!

Lovely pub for the summer due to the really cool levelled gardens and seating. The inside is a bit grubby and it can get quite rammed in the summer but worth a visit

Great local! Fantastic outside area and decent ptice drinks.

The two stars are just for the interior layout of a warren of rooms and the backyard «gardens.» The treehouse structure is pretty cool with the holly and vines and wood planks and seating. But smokers ruin everything as usual :/​The minute you step outside the pub’s back door to go to the treehouse, you enter a fug of smoke. And then there are smokers among the rafters of the structure, so it’s basically like walking in a fag. Just great :/​
So not the fault of the owners but I won’t return. I actually like breathing.

I love going here in the summer and sitting in the gorgeous gardens outside. You’ll feel like you’re hidden away in a secret garden, which is conveniently a little sun trap.
The inside of the pub isn’t great, it’s a very Arsenal pub which gets very busy, but the gardens remain lovely and tranquil.
Even in the autumnal days, it’s lovely as there are heaters to sit under.
Drinks are the usual kind of price for London pubs. They serve delicious Thai food which is very authentic. I haven’t had such a tasty Pad Thai for a while.

I blame an early childhood obsession with ewoks as to why I love this pub so much. For summer months you really can’t beat a treehouse beer garden. Even if, after a few, the stairs do start to feel a bit perilous.
The inside is a bit less glam but just as good an atmosphere and I have even ventured here in the winter months and it’s been a good cozy find.
With a solid selection of wines and ciders, this is a happy-​making pub for me. If it wasn’t for the Hunger Games style fights you have to engage in for a table in the summer this place would be pretty much perfect.

I’d probably have given this pub a better star rating if we sat in the nice outside area that is reminiscent of where the Ewoks live, or if we could find a space in the cosier front part of the pub. But instead we had the short end of the straw and were stuck in the bit I have attractively christened «the dingy dark hall section».
The bit with the noisy loudness and hard to hear conversations. The bit with sticky tables and dirty glasses. The bit that kinda reminds you of those massive soulless Covent Garden pubs that you try to avoid but end up going to with work mates. The bit with distracting TV news blaring in your face which brings up horrific images of the conflict in Gaza, even when you were deliberately not mentioning that situation with your company. If you end up in that bit, I think you might be better off going to a different pub.

I lived in Finsbury Park for about ten years, and until 2009 I had a flat pretty much across the road from the Fullback. This was a truly great thing because the Fullback was one of the best pubs in the area, making it super easy for lazy old me to persuade all and sundry to come to my neck of the woods for a drink. And at the end of the night, after a coupla beers and a delicious Thai, I could take a hop, skip and a jump into bed.
I’ve since moved though and don’t go there quite so often. But a few of us went for a quick drink there yesterday and I gotta say, for me, it ain’t what it used to be. Why? Can’t quite put my finger on it… I love the upstairs outdoor seating area, but there was no way we were ever going to find ourselves a seat up there. There was space in the downstairs outside bit, but it’s pretty enclosed and so super smoky. The inside feels a bit sticky. 30% of the women’s toilets were out of order, so I had to wait an age to spend a penny. And I’ve been told before by the staff that the veggie Thai curry contains fish sauce and they won’t make it entirely vegetarian especially for you (though this may have changed since.)
Maybe I’m just older and soberer than I used to be. Or maybe it’s because it’s not my local anymore. Or maybe it’s just not as good as it used to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great pub, but I’m not utterly in love, not like I used to be. Perhaps one day the Fullback might win me back. Until then… meh.

On the rare chance when I’m in Finsbury Park, this is the pub I head to. The decking out back is awesome, especially on a sunny day. It’s a unique and imaginative use of space. I wish more pubs had this foresight!

Was it the Garden of Eden where the serpent gave humans temptation? Where the humans were placed in the middle of a desert? This place is a labyrinth (but without Bowie) of beautiful interesting pub located on the very edges of the occasionally insalubrious and non central Finsbury Park.
From outside you know the Faltering Fullback is special. The place is covered in plants and flowers and on a little residential side street. The main bar is a good old fashioned pub with beautiful brass fittings, great ales and small tables to sit at.
Attached is a huge medieval banqueting hall of a room with large tables and rugby shirts on the walls, yes this is a sports pub cum viking base. It’s upstairs is where the place really shines, where you are presented with several levels of mind boggling sumptuous beer garden.
By garden I don’t just mean an outside space, the wizards here have made a multilevel labyrinthine forest for your enjoyment with quirky little details such as japanese books and pin badges sneaking around. The atmosphere is relaxed with the smell of thai food wafting into your nostrils.
All in all a lovely way to spend a sunny friday evening of enchanted temptation.

I’m struggling between 3 and 4 stars. Thing is — inside it is a usual pub and nothing special (apart from sporting events — they have the perfect layout to watch them and TVs all around to fit different angles)
But the outside area is just another level! (Literally — they have at least 3 levels of the outdoor seating) Oh goodness how nice it is on a sunny Satuday afternoon! It’s wooden, it has open areas and areas that are under the roof and shaded (so you won’t get sunburnt of course!) with the heaters for winter.
All other things — are pretty standard for a nice, local public house :)

The Faltering Fullback is like an enchanted pub… with the most stunning, labyrinth-​like outside area I’ve ever seen! Seriously, you could get lost by just walking up and down the stairs… at every corner you see locals hanging out and just enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. There are flowers everywhere, which lends it another mystical atmosphere. Having said this, the outside was the unique-​selling point for me.
The inside is typical for a traditional (Irish) pub… you can feel the ghosts of many years of patrons having gone in and out. And these are true locals and not hipsters! In fact, I was there on a Monday night and when we were leaving I could hear the pub quiz going on, with people shouting loud and lively.
Like so many other London pubs, the Faltering Fullback offers Thai food on their menu — I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around this seemingly common symbiosis, but why not…
Really loved it here… great vibes!