The Spaniards Inn

At the top of a hill in Hampstead, The Spaniards Inn is somewhere in Zone 3, but it doesn’t feel like London. As soon as you walk through the door, it feels like being inside an English country pub. To be honest, it’s a little unsettling — however if you’re one of those people who live in London in a shoebox but yearn to be back in the rolling countryside with a whole house to yourself, you’ll find this a little corner of paradise.
The pub attracts a huge number of people with dogs, so the beer garden outside (made up of plenty of picnic tables) is full of the most gorgeous canines. It gets very busy, so book in advance and specifically ask to sit inside or outside depending on how much you like animals! Oh, children are also welcome if you happen to have any. There’s a relaxed family-​friendly atmosphere.
Whilst the menu is quite expensive, this is proper gastropub fare and worth it. If you were to take away the balsamic dashes, some of the food would not look out of place in a posh London restaurant. The mushrooms on toast are delicious, as is the squash gnocchi, which are both fabulous vegetarian dishes that even meat eaters will love. They do a good Sunday roast if you’re after traditional English food to accompany the traditional feel of the venue. Deserts are yummy (we can vouch for the brownie and the sticky toffee pudding), but three courses is really ambitious. I would recommending going for no more than two unless you’ve starved yourself in advance accordingly.
A pain to get to given the location, however worth travelling for. Would definitely recommend!

In the leafy green heights of Hampstead in North London you can find one of the best and oldest pubs in the UK known as Spaniards Inn. Keep on reading if you fancy a bit of history with your beer!
Originally opened around 1585 this legendary pub was built to accompany a tollhouse on the edge of the Bishop of London’s vast estate and is said to have gotten it’s name from early landlords in the form of two Spanish brothers. The tollhouse still exists due to it’s grade listed status, although obviously no longer in use, and is said to be where the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin was apprehended by Police whilst attempting to make an escape.
Historians believe The Spaniard Inn was a safehouse of Dick Turpin’s with his father believed to have been the landlord at the time as he potentially used it to watch potential coaches to rob on the road in and out of London. There are also many accounts in old records after his death of people who claim to have heard and seen his him in the early morning fog along with the clopping hoofs of his famous steed Bess. Stories that prove very popular with tourists and ghost hunters alike.
The pub itself both outside and in has been kept as traditional as possible with it’s rustic yet cosy interior and roaring open fire; perfect for those cold winter evenings or lazy weekends. In the spring and summertime with the vast open green spaces around the pub, the large beer garden is also a very popular choice with locals and a popular place to take the family for a meal in their gastro pub restaurant.
As well as one of the oldest pubs in Britain, due to it’s location at the top of Hampstead, it also lays claim to being one of the highest pubs in the UK above sea level. Although any feelings of altitude sickness can most likely be caused by one drink too many!
It would not surprise you to know with a pub as old and steeped in history as this to be able to claim some well known people as regulars such as the poet John Keats, the writer Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (of Treasure Island & Dr Jeckyl & Mr Hyde), the painters Sir Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth and John Constable as well as the poet Lord Byron himself.
So if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us so go and check out this gem of a pub! If none of that is has impressed you so far they always have alcohol!

great seafood and the waiters and waitresses are the nicest people I have ever met! There is a magical outside area complete with fairy lights and a scatter of trees to sit under on a sunny day.

Terrible food. the service is reasonable but the food is awful. Cold duck confit, and lacking flavour roast beef. Stay away.

Man, I love this place. So bloody cosy. My husband and I sat in front of the fire Saturday late afternoon, with mulled wine and a half-​pint of Aspall’s respectively, and it was just glorious. So chill. Friendly dogs, people. It wasn’t too crowded either– a far cry from the warmer months when it’s slammed.
I just dinked a star bc the menu is pretty pricey for pub fare. That being said, I got the ‘shrooms on toast and it was delicious. Smokey, creamy goodness. We also got the tof and date pud with vanilla and it was AMAZING. I think the best sticky tof pud I’ve ever had. The peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake was good as well but the pud beat it out.
Will defo return with tourist friends.

I used to drink here in the late sixties when I was in school in London. The pub was founded in 1585 and has the authentic look to which other pubs aspire. Keats and Dickens drank here after the place had already been in business for hundreds of years.
The Beer and ale selection has expanded exponentially and is excellent. I have no real memory of the pub food from years ago but now it is tasty with generous portions. I had a delicious piece of sea bass with lobster Thermidor sauce, served with kale and purple potatoes. Others in my family had fish and chips, quinoa salad and steak and leek pie. Everyone loved the food. We shared a brownie and a treacle pie for dessert. Both were served warm, with vanilla ice cream, and were great.
Service was friendly and quick even though one server may have been working the whole room on a busy rainy night.

You have to go to the bar and pay upfront — including your tip even though you haven’t even had anything yet. The food was tasty but it arrived very late — three of us got it in about ten minutes and the other two had to wait so long that the other three were finished when the food finally arrived!
I had the fish & chips — peas were great, fish was good, chips were dry and hard… not very good at all.
We ordered hot chocolate and were told «I’m not allowed to say we don’t do it… so I guess I will do it.» Two of us received it from a very grumpy waitress who didn’t want to carry it — and I can see why, as she spilled a lot of it. It was delicious, but lukewarm at best… we both had to down it while it was at a drinkable temperature.
I had the profiteroles, and received three, plus a scoop of ice cream, for £6.50. Again, tasty, but the profiteroles were encased in a hard shell of chocolate and the choux pastry was soft and tasteless, so although the overall flavour was good, they weren’t recognisably profiteroles.
They weren’t that busy, didn’t clear up quickly, food was ok but not worth the price, and I won’t be coming back here, or recommending it to anyone.

I had cycled past the Spaniards Inn a few times on my tours of London and have always been intrigued, not least by the sign that said it was established in 1585. After a long day of walking around Hampstead Heath I came here in desperate need of a good meal.
As it was early August we sat in the garden and ordered inside. I had the pork roast which despite coming with a Yorkshire pudding was great, nothing was wasted off my plate. Julia D had some vegetarian dish that she has been raving about ever since. The food is slightly expensive for pub food but it is definitely worth the extra spend. The inside has a nice cosy feel which makes me tempted to go back on a cold winters day.

I was in desperate need of some food after walking around in the Heath. We showed up around 5pm on a Sunday and got a table outside. I ordered a kale, cauliflower, and cheese tart. It was seriously amazing. I was definitely blown away. It came with roasted purple potatoes. Matt B got a pork roast he seemed pretty happy with.
The only downside was the abundance of smokers outside.
I highly recommend this historic place. Get in here!

What a gem. This ancient inn on the edge of the Heath is a must see. Keats used to come here for drinks, Dickens wrote here and this place is even mentioned in Dracula (!). Pretty pricey but hey you’re in Hampstead my friend. Look around and you’ll see people with dogs everywhere.
There is a huge backyard garden for your summer nights and a dining room that fills quite fast but the staff. Make sure to put this place on your path when you walk through the Heath!

Beautiful historic pub, decent selection of ales and other beer, and awesome scotch eggs. Bit pricey, but not so much as to put you off it. Always enjoy it, will be back again soon.
It’s too cold right now, but in the summertime the Spaniard has the best outdoor seating of any pub in the area.

The Spaniards has a very special place in my heart, my late father used to take the family for walls on the Heath followed by lunch here. The food was very simple pub grub back then, and it’s great to see they have kept up that tradition. My wife and I now go and I thought it time I write a review.
The welcome is warm and you can smell the history of the place as you walk in. A good mix of Hampstead locals and people driving in ensures a great atmosphere. Couples in their early twenties on a Sunday date to large family gatherings of several generations enjoying lunch.
The beer and ale selections are spot on for both winter and summer, and you can tell they keep clean pipes and have frequent guest ales.
As mentioned earlier, the food is spot on as was the service. We both had Scotch Eggs to start and Roast Beef for mains (rarely does that happen!). Now I come to the crux of the matter. The Scotch Eggs were something very special. The Roast Beef good. Not amazing, but you can tell they have a good supplier of quality fresh meet. Portion sizes were fine (I’m a big chap, so most people will be stuffed after a meal here!). My issue is price. £6 for a starter and £19 for the main. This is not far off Central London restaurant prices. They can, and should be doing much better if charging these prices and I’m happy to pay them, but have had roasts just as good for £12-£15. I guess you are paying for the setting and atmosphere to an extent, but feel slightly out of pocket compared to other places in Hampstead.
Other then the prices for food, can’t really fault The Spaniards, and may it last hundreds of years more. 4 stars rather then 5. I will certainly be back, but only on special occasions!

Great place to rest after a long walk around Hampstead Heath with the dog.
I came on a friend’s recommendation after we’d been walking with our dogs. Thankfully they welcome canine pals so we didn’t feel awkward about bringing 3 muddy monsters in. We did opt to sit outside so perhaps they were more understanding as a result: P
There’s a great selection of ales on tap and the food menu is pretty typical of an English pub. Portions are generous and scotch eggs are tasty. (I feel like every pub review I write, I make some mention of a scotch egg.) Sunday roast is definitely where it’s at if find yourself needing a bit of grub. Not something I’ve found to be particularly inspiring since moving to London but this definitely one satisfies and leaves no room for improvement.
I wouldn’t drive all the way out here just to eat or drink at this place but it’s certainly my first choice if I’m in the area, especially if the dog has opted to tag along.

This is basically my new favourite beer garden! Enormous, by London standards, it was brilliant to rock up mid-​afternoon and not have to fight for a table in the sun. Lovely staff, bottles of water to take back to the table and a great atmosphere — there really isn’t much bad I can say about this place.
Food was great — not sure the mac and cheese entirely fulfilled it’s promise (it really wasn’t macaroni) but the scotch egg was so well liked one of the party actually had two.
Drinks could be on the pricier side if you weren’t careful — a friend ended up with a £12 glass of wine but bottles were reasonably priced.
Overall, a place I really loved and would happily frequently return.

Well its a 16^th century coaching inn at top of Hampstead Heath right next to the old turnpike house. As you can guess theres lots of dark oak, bare timbers and flagstones. Apparently Dick Turpin was a regular. The food looks excellent and they have a reasonable range if real ales available. What was tasted was well kept. A bit of a hidden gem.

After a long walk round Hampsted Heath going to the Spaniards Inn is a great way to refuel. This pub is steeped in history as it was built in 1585 and was regularly visited by the likes of Dick Thurpin before robbing people on the Heath.
Its a bit of a pain to get to as there’s not a tube very near but it’s definitely worth the effort! It’s lovely in the summer as they have a large beer garden and cosy in the winter as they have welcoming wood fires. The pub always seems to be nicely busy and has a lot of character.
They sell a wide selection of drinks including lots of real ales with guest local ales too. The main draw for coming here is definitely the food though! It’s on the pricey side as far as pub food goes but it’s really tasty and filling. The Sunday roasts are great!

Great place to sit and enjoy what sunlight London has to offer. The patio is cozy and offers a variety of seating options. It boasts a fantastic setting for drinking, eating, and catching up with friends over a leisurely afternoon. I love the landscaping around the beer garden and they have an additional outside bar stocked with some various draft and bottled beer, which is convenient versus having to continually go inside to order.
That being said, the service here is just not very good. You have to order everything yourself and even once you order, the servers seem to have the hardest time figuring out which tables should be served what food. Also, there are a ton of smokers at the restaurant. That is not the fault of the establishment but it would be nice if part of the patio could be smoke free for those of us who are not interested in filling our lungs with toxins while trying to enjoy the fresh outdoors.

This little pub for starters is architecturally beautiful.
The Spaniards Inn has the bustle and cheer of times past .
Built in 1585 as a tollgate inn on the Finchley boundary, the Spaniards formed the entrance to the Bishop of London’s estate. Today it offers an extensive beer garden, one for the most impressive in London and a kitchen who are doing more than just serve pub food.
This pub is legendary and must be seen, smelt, talked about and eaten in.
I mean The Spaniards Inn is mentioned in many books like Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it’s a special place.
Most of all the food is awesome. GO! Order the Scotch Egg, its a must. There nuts they roast and rub are great. Didn’t like the pork scratchings, but great to have anyway.

I love this place, you feel even more drunk because of the slanted floor and smart because of the history. Oh and they allow dogs… bonus!

I hate to not give this pub more than three stars… especially since I had been wanting to come here for so long, reading all the good things about it. But unfortunately, I simply wasn’t that impressed:
A friend and I came to the Spaniard’s Inn one cold winter day and we were looking forward to warming up and getting all cozy. Well… the warming up worked quite well, especially with the warm, spiced cider that they were serving that day. But the cozy feeling that I would have expected just didn’t come up. Maybe it was because many of the tables were still clattered with the remains of the previous guests, or because the benches were a little bit too hard as my but cried out for a cushion or something similar.
Anyway, I still had a lovely time chatting with my friend, but next time I will make sure to come in the summer, as I hear the beer garden is quite nice…