2006 Review

Deliciously hidden (the tiny alley is marked by a little pub sign between jewellers' shops), this charming pub dates back to 1546.  A gruffly cheerful and efficient Scottish bar-man with a fierce military haircut now runs it on properly old-fashioned lines.  The draught line-up is quality (Brains Bread of Heaven improving the more familiar Deuchars IPA, Adnams Bitter and Broadside, plus Carling, Carlsberg and Guinness if you must) and wood panels, exposed beams and gas-powered hearth fire make for a toasty little lounge bar.  Off to one side there's a snug ('Ye closet') sized for half a dozen close friends without fears for their knees and you can nip outside to a second small bar.  Up a tricky staircase past the ladies', the Bishop's Room has the least character and the most room.  Gents have an outside facility, off a concrete courtyard with big barrels, to stand at in summer.  The bar menu runs to toasties, pork pies and even 60p Scotch eggs.  Comfortable as a steamed pudding.  Function room. No piped music or jukebox, tables outdoors (10 barrels, pavement).


2008 Review

This oldie (established 1546) is only accessible through a narrow passage – incongruously described as 25m long. Still, the Mitre needs no yard conversion or ‘ye olde’ embellishment to prove its worth. Walk into its venerable, cramped three-room space, see what’s on as the guest ale (Orkney Dark Island on our visit) then settle down amid the portraits of Henry VIII and sundry beruffed luminaries. The taps of Adnams Bitter and Broadside, Deuchars and Guinness will be easier to pick out than the extended history in small type lining the hatch of the bar counter. The handful of wines – Chilean San Rafael merlot, La Serre cabernet sauvignon – are well priced at under £15. There are stand-up tables in the courtyard too.
 

2009 Review

Consistently voted one of the best pubs in London by self-proclaimed experts on internet forums - and you'd have to say they've got this one spot on. Its secluded location requires you to slink down an alleyway just off Hatton Garden, and as you do so you're transported to a parallel pub universe where the clientele are disconcertingly friendly and the staff (clad in pristine black and white uniforms) briskly efficient. A Monday-to-Friday joint, it opens for just one weekend a year to coincide with the British Beer Festival. Ales are certainly the speciality - Deuchars and Adnams are regulars, with frequently changing guest beers beside them - but the proprietors don't turn their noses up at wine (a mistake many real ale pubs make). Snacks - pork pies, scotch eggs, sausage rolls - go down a treat, and the whole pub is suffused with the agreeable aroma of cheese on toast, rounds of which are regularly brought out from behind the bar. With two small ground-floor rooms, another less characterful room upstairs, and 'Ye Nook' tacked on the side, it's a pint-sized pub that's earned its top-notch reputation.