The Olde English

If the only criteria were food, this place would earn 5 stars. The fish and chips were awesome. The service, however, was terrible and we won’t be back. If you want to experience the ambiance of a 1700s inn, drive north to Saratoga Springs to the Old Bryan Inn where you’ll feel welcome and appreciated.

Easily the worst restaurant in the Capital Region. Decent beer selection though! Still, I’ve been here twice with different friends, and either the food, the service, or both were horrible each time. On my 1^st visit, after waiting over an hour (the restaurant WAS extremely busy), a waitress delivered our burgers to the wrong table, and as the patrons at that table had already dived in, we had to wait another 20 minutes to get ours. We weren’t sure if it was the fault of the food, or the fact that we had less than 10 minutes to devour it, but neither of us was at all impressed with our burgers.
Still, I decided to give them another chance, and returned with another friend for lunch… correctly assuming the joint wouldn’t be quite so busy. And, in fact, only four other tables were occupied. Still, to my amazement, the waitress brought somebodies else’s food to our table and quickly walked away. Also, the freshly brewed coffee she brought me was the bitterest I’ve ever encountered. Finally, though our food arrived in good time, my friend found her Shepard’s Pie to be «meh», while I found my burger overcooked and shockingly salty.
I like giving a place «3 strikes», however (one of my favorite diners, is one that I hated the 1^st two times around), so I likely will return. If so, it will be for beer and finger food only, however.

My favorite bar in Albany! Great staff, awesome cider, and delicious burgers.
Love this place.

This place was GREAT! I chose it because of the small menu, I knew what they cooked had to be good. Showed up around 7pm on Sunday and there was a few people at the bar, and one table being used in the dining room. Perfect. I loved the feel of this place from the beginning. The outside looks like a old house, payphone booth out front, patio in the back. Inside was cozy and dimly lit, which I love. We ordered the Beef Wellington bites as an appetizer, which came with horseradish sauce. Really good! A little too much dough for my liking, but the BF didn’t seem to mind haha. For dinner he ordered the Shepards pie. Great portion, well made, he loved it! I ordered the Sunday roast. 2 roasted quail with roasted root vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing. Everything was so good! Quail, which I’ve never had was super tasty, a little salty, not sure if that’s the meat or their preparation. The root vegetables we’re delish, there was beets in it, yum! Mashed potatoes were normal, and the stuffing… was interesting. I didn’t care much for it, maybe it was an English version? Either way, no biggie, there was plenty of food. BF got a beer, I water. All in all, $ 50 for everything and we will definitely be going back for more!

Gor blimey! Zena, Goddess of Fire was feeling a wee bit smothered by the fire (in the fireplace, if you’re blinkered) and darkness and shoulder to shoulder feel of this little downtown Albany pub. But at least everyone was friendly.
On a cold December night Cookie and I squeezed by the busy bar area inside the entryway and settled into a high top in the downstairs dining room. She ordered wine (a California Cab Sav, $ 8) from a selection of three reds, which was pretty bloody awful, and I took on a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale ($ 6) from a pretty standard list of both bottled beers and draughts. There’s a nice selection of scotches if you are out on a bender.
The menu is barely British by design, with a tad of Colcannon and a twee of meat pies, fish and chips, and sticky toffee pudding, but otherwise it’s pretty standard tavern fare. Cookie tried the Ploughman’s Toastie ($ 11), a sandwich stonkered with a hunk of thick, chewy ham, cheddar, tomatoes and onions and chutney on toasted white — really really greasy inside and out and it didn’t quite settle. I tried their Steak, Ale and Cheddar Soup ($ 7), and added a baguette (an extra fee, I think, but it wasn’t on the bill): this was a dose of salts with tender meat and cheese — just what I expected: a rich combination of kitchen leftovers in a bowl. Not great.
I did like the neighborhood feel of the place and I respect their BBP (British Business Plan) but cheerio, mates, I’m not in a big hurry to return, at least for the food — just not my cup of tea.
Zena, Goddess of Fire

Ok so here is how it goes, croquettes average, had huge pieces of potatoes, not mashed and the ham was cold, yes cold inside.
Shepherds pie below average to say the least.
Now the icing on the Cake as the Chocolate Stout cake, dry as hell. The only that that the chef had no say in was the best, the Whiskey.
Service slow and miserable.

Another after work dinner and what a great true pub! Good selection of craft beers but was thirsty and had a great brown ale. The fish and chips was authentic English, fresh cod with a crisp batter, and perfectly cut chips for the light drizzle of malt vinegar. The ginger cake was good with the whipped cream.
Service was pub service, catch her when you can, as they all seemed to be carrying full beer mugs whenever they came by or empty mugs rushing past our table. Very comfortable place to hang out.
Parking is either on street or in a rocky run down lot for 5 bucks.

Mixed feelings. I hadn’t been here in a few years because they used to be cash only, and let’s face it, it’s the 21^st century… So it was easy to write it off when it came time to decide on places to eat or grabs drinks. Fortunately, sometime in the last 2 (or 3?) yrs they’ve decided to join the 21^st century, Welcome.
I’m glad they now take cards so we can frequent it more often. They’ve definitely stepped up their game over the past few years and I’m glad to see that. We came on a Saturday afternoon and unfortunately, their back patio didn’t open until 5 so we sat inside. The indoor exudes its namesake so no surprises there, but if you come a a sunny day you probably won’t want to sacrifice the sunlight to sit indoors so save it for the winter months.
The food was overall good but my dish was just ok. I opted for the kale salad with chicken thigh on top. How can you go wrong with chicken thigh right? Well this one was just wrong. It was chewy and had a weird oily (?) taste to it. The rest of the salad was pretty good. The rest of my party ordered some of their signature dishes including the fish and chips and shepard’s pie and they were very pleased. These items definitely seem like the way to go!

I’ve never had a bad time here. Great food, great service and a great atmosphere! Wish the bar was a bit bigger!

The fish and chips were some of the best I have had anywhere. Fresh, hot, crisp with great flavor. Service first class. This is a small intimate pub with great food. Lunch mate had the soup special and said it was fab.

What a great brunch place/​pub! We arrived just in time for a late lunch and sat it the back where there is a beautiful garden area with shade and plenty of seating. Ok so it’s right off the freeway off ramp, but doesn’t that just add to the hipster vibe? The atmosphere was casual without being obnoxiously hipster. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a little hipster but in a good way.
We couldn’t help but order the kale salad that was served with a lemon pecorino dressing. May be the best kale salad I’ve had in the Capital Region and let me tell you I’ve had my fair share!
My husband got the breakfast burger. Boy was it amazing! Juicy, savory, and huge. Pretty much everything you want in a burger.
I ordered the fish and chips. It came out hot. The fries were unique and the cod was incredible.
I really want to come back for brunch for some of the savory items on the menu. Would also be a great place to hang out at night in the garden area out back while the weather is still nice enough to enjoy it!

The staff is amazing! The atmosphere is fun! The dinner menu is short, but we were happy with what we got. The fish & chips were exactly as expected although it was a huge portion. The wings weren’t your typical American, but were excellent! Our British friend was happy with her choices. Overall, we’re excited to come for brunch and order the fry-​up!

We loved the atmosphere in the beautiful old building. We shared the pickle plate, the beef Wellington bites, the colcannon croquettes and the mulligatawny soup. All was really delicious. We took chocolate Guinness cake to go, as we were full but couldn’t pass it up, and it was wonderful: so chocolatey! All this plus an incredibly friendly and accommodating staff. Cannot wait to go back!

Inside and outside have a great feel. The garden seating in the back feels secluded and is a wonderful place to have a beer on a nice day. Inside, the environment is classic brit pub. The food was great and service friendly, albeit a little slow. Pub burger was excellent. Fish and chips was average — cod that wasn’t as juicy as I’ve had at other places. Would love to bring friends on a cool summer evening.

Tuesday night. Not overly busy but back patio closed. Service outside virtually non existant. Service at the bar not much better. Wow this place has gone downhill from being one my go to bars to I won’t be returning anytime soon. Really heartbreaking to me.

Mmmm… cider… mmmm steak fries… mmmmm whats that cheesy soup that keeps walking by me?!
What I love about Olde English is that when you walk in there you feel like you are in another world… you really feel like you could be in the english countryside at a mom and pop run 200 year old pub. The cool thing is this place really is a million years old. I hear its one of the oldest places in the city of Albany so that feeling we are feeling is completely authentic.
The beer is great and they offer samples if you can’t make up your mind. My fav is the Strong Bow Cider and Wee Heavy. The food is great even though English food gets a bad rap this food is good.
There are two times of year when you should come here… when it’s blustery cold out and you just need to get out of the cold for a hot cup of steak cheddar ale soup and a cold beer. And when its nice out so you can sit on their AMAZING patio. So I guess what Im saying is this is a year ’round kind of place. Oh yeah and your birthday. come on your birthday too for a super large tea cup filled with beer/​cider.

We came here around 10pm on a Friday evening during the summer and found the place comfortably full on the first floor. The old-​school English pub lives up to its name with a patio out front that has a UK phone booth, old-​style wooden finishes, tables and chairs inside and I believe they even have a back-​yard garden.
Getting to the food, we ordered the pub style wings to start that were a good combo of tangy and spicy and the shoestring fries that were a bit on the garlic-​y side for me. For our mains, we tried the pub burger cooked to perfection (medium rare) the southwestern special burger that was also cooked to perfection (medium rare) and the fish n chips that were ok. I would recommend ordering the pub fries as they were a bit lighter on the garlic if you appreciate less of that in your life haha.
The slower than normal service was very friendly overall, so no complaints here with the wait staff. After ordering a beer each, the total with tax and tip came out to about $ 30/​person which I would say was fair.
Buon appetito.

Came here for Brunch with a group of my friends on Sunday
Pros:
Extensive vegetarian menu with a variety of different and unique brunch options
Coffee was great
Breakfast burger was good
Wait staff were extremely friendly and accommodating of our large group
Cons:
Service was a little slow (but I guess it’s understandable given the large size of our group) however, the place was pretty empty so I didn’t understand the reason for the delay.
We were served water in plastic cups and only one person got a real glass which is ridiculous given that this is a sit down restaurant.
Chai tea french toast was good, but a little dry
Home fries were under salted and slightly overcooked
Black bean and sweet potato burrito was mediocre
Eggs Benedict was also mediocre
Overall, the brunch was nothing special and did not want to make me come back again. I do like this bar in the evenings though, so this review is nothing against that experience.

We waited 40 minutes without being acknowledged by anyone before I finally flagged someone down and asked for some menus.
We ordered a few beers, the steak, ale, and cheddar soup, and some wings.
Wings were OK. Soup was AWFUL. There was no steak except for one small fatty piece. And there was a serious lack of cheese flavor. Plus it wasn’t hot. It was like luke-​warm cream soup from a can. We didn’t even finish half of it. The beer cheese soup at the Madison Pourhouse… Now that is some good stuff!

Wonderful spot. great beer selection… great food. warm fireplace upstairs… would definitely return for a visit next time I’m in Albany.