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Critic rating
Reader rating
Quality is the watchword: the Porterhouse in Maiden Lane
Very often we like to bring you a choice little hideaway, an undiscovered gem with a few enchanting flaws. But we also have to concede that, if a place is really popular, chances are they're doing something right.
Porterhouse is a Brewing Co. in Dublin who have opened their own select chain of pubs. There aren't many in the chain - quality is the watchword rather than quantity.
The Porterhouse in Maiden Lane is a huge boozer and expensively decorated in brewery copper and antique doodads and yet is designed full of cosy nooks for you and your chums to hide away in.
The house beers are brewed in Dublin to their own recipes - 3 stouts (including a miraculous oyster stout), real ales and lagers. Responsible pub reviewers would, of course, never suggest that you try a pint of each one in one night. But they're all good (ahem).
One lift entrance and toilets offer some disabled access. Live music, decent food, a patio (where those who want to be seen can be), and the location in the heart of London's theatre and eating district mean this pub is very busy. But they've done their research, they know what the "craic" is - it's another word for a niche.
FOOD REVIEW
Hearty Irish-style staples. Both the burger and the corned beef were pretty good, and reasonably priced, too.
FOOD RATING: 2 FOOD VALUE: 2
NEAREST STATION: Covent Garden station
FEATURES
Disabled facilities
ATM
Real ales and continental beers
Function room available
Live music
Outdoor seating
Sky TV (small screens)
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Tony Mcmahon
Bet your a real barrel of laughs on a night out, and I thought I was miserable.
- David, London
When I worked up in that there London, we'd struggle to choose a place for an after work office drink. The guys wanted a pub style place, the girls a bar style place.
The Porterhouse fitted the bill perfectly and everyone was happy.
- Anthony, Esher, Surrey
The ugliness of this patio mirrors the overall seediness of present-day Covent Garden. And the Strand, at the bottom of the hill, could do with a good face-lift, too: just look at the b uildings above ground floor level.
Local cafes, too, used to be cosy affairs . Now hard-seated closets for quick trade. Rule's, London's oldest, happily remains one of the exeptions on Maiden Lane.
I like a bit of comfort with my tipple!
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk.
This is like my idea of hell. A vast boozer with wet floors full of suits getting plastered and you being constantly jostled. Know the kind of place? A mix of meat market and depressing post-work office party. Anybody with a speck of sensitivity will rapidly lose the will to live. Boorish, loud and souless. I walk past it and shudder.
- Tony Mcmahon, London, UK
