Friday 21 October 2011

The Camel, Bethnal Green

Last night I made a visit to The Camel in Bethnal Green. I am so glad that I made the 15ish minute walk up from Whitechapel.



My housemate Shaun had suggested we head out for a drink and I was more than happy to oblige on an uneventful Thursday evening. Usually, as a house, we tend to head to the nearest pub which is The Urban Bar on Whitechapel High Street (if you don't recognise the name it's the pub completely covered in tiger stripes.) While this is fine for a quick pint it's not really somewhere I ever get excited about going. Shaun had suggested somewhere further afield so I felt free to suggest we head to The Camel.

Google maps in hand we headed up towards Bethnal Green. For how close we live we are an incredibly lazy bunch, especially on weekday evenings, at walking any distance at all, so this was special. Heading onto the latter stretch of Globe Road, it didn't look like there was going to be anything there. Keep going, it's really worth heading right to the end!

From the outside the pub looks small and cosy but you can already see the great wallpaper and beautiful light shades. Great copper finish orbs line the length of the ceiling and looked fantastic. A few moments hesitation trying to find a door tucked down the side and we were in. The pub was busy, but not overly so. A good mix of people and a wide range of ages immediatley put us at ease. I tend to favour pubs which don't just cater to a particular age range or audience, a pub should be a social area, not a place for cliques.

The range of beers was good, a few cask ales on and some bottles in the fridge. My eye immediately landed on a bottle of Redchurch Brewery Benthnal Pale Ale, a beer I narrowly missed trying at Mason & Taylor a couple of weeks earlier.  I've been hearing about the Redchurch Brewery for a little while now, and though I can't quite remember, I'm sure it was them tweeting that The Camel sold their beer that sent me here in the first place. The beer was great, deep maltiness with a big hit of hops. I was really impressed and will be seeking out more of their beers for a try whenever possible. After that I moved onto some Sambrook's Junction and I really enjoyed that, it was well pulled with a good head. Shaun had a Freedom Organic Lager which i managed to have a taste of, good lager!

The only problem was that I had already eaten. The selection of pie and mash looked brilliant, even including a thai curry variety. Plenty of people were eating the gigantic portions, and they smelled fantastic. The giant jugs of gravy looked to be the icing on the cake. At £8.95 a portion this is definitely an option for another evening soon, especially considering the weather at present.

We even managed to speak to strangers, a friendly pair of girls newly arrived from New Zealand. This doesn't happen very often in London so it was a pleasant surprise. My girlfriend Jane joined us around ten after a late finish in work and the evening was perfect.

I left when they kicked us out with a brilliant impression of this pub and safe in the knowledge that I will be back soon. I strongly recommend this pub, I think I may have just found my first proper local in London.

1 comment:

  1. It's a great pub and I miss it. Much better than the Florist.

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