The Green Man Pub, Fitzrovia, London

This place is OK but is often crowded. There is an upstairs area but it is always booked so there is no where to get away from the press of people.

In the spring and summer there is the chance to sit or more likely stand outside.

This place is best known for its cider selection though and it is why it is always busy.

It sells very nice beer (Sierra Nevada on tap, plus London Pride from the cask). This is a good thing. It also sells a wide variety of cider, if you like the stuff, which (after a nasty experience when I was younger) I don’t.

Being in a fairly quiet area, there’s plenty of space in the summer to move out on the street and enjoy yourself. This is good too; and it’s a nice place to sit out and people watch.

There’s a certain character to the place, with amusing and enjoyable comments pasted on the wall and on the bar.

However, the bar staff are glacially slow to serve - generally, at busy times, there’s only one person on, with someone else faffing about polishing glasses. The service is less than appalling. And if you order a pie for lunch (as I did once), don’t be surprised if it takes 45 minutes to appear - even when there are only seven people in the pub.

The music appears to be a Nathan Barleyesque character on “the decks” during the evening. The music’s anything but “Well Jackson”, and frankly just serves to annoy.

And sadly, the clientele (mostly BBC and meeja-types) are the kinds of people that you really want to punch. Loud, unpleasant, annoying. Except when my team’s in, in which case we’re lovely.

So the plan is: yes, go there. But give the money to someone else, and make them waste hours of their lives queueing at the bar; and try to avoid most of the clientele and their meeja ways.

Oh what a hidden GEM, in the midst of the West End, a small but lively pub just by Oxford Circus. We accidentally came across this place after a long day at work and have been addicted since.

Great Cider bar, varying from strong 8.4% to the usual apple and pear ciders which are great..

I would suggest going early as it can get quite packed.. lots of BBC employees - great drinks at great prices!!

Yeah it’s pretty cool here. Came for a few beers after work on Friday and it was PACKED! Really really full. But there’s a reason for that, it’s got a fun friendly vibe that was spilling out onto the streets by the time we got there.

They have some great ciders, and a dj which is a strange mix - very old man pub but with a modern edge I guess.

Staff are flakey though. We ordered a round and then five minutes later our barman was serving someone else! He’d totally forgotten about us! Strange! But it’s packed in here so they have a lot of orders to get through. Not overly pricey though.

The pubs in this area are very hit and miss. This one is a hit.

This particular Green Man Pub used to be really drab and dreary outfit but it has undergone considerable refurbishment, relaunched and is all the better for it.
Its main point of interest is now -its devotion to cider - there are eight types of cider listed on their board above the bar, excluding another five bottled options.
Chimes is considered to be London’s top spot for cider addicts but I think the way this pub is coming up it may well take over the number one spot. Being in the London University are I think we can safely assume that it will be frequented by a younger and more contemporary crowd. The entertainment side is far more extensive because there are broader CD choices and free music papers which are usually seen in the East End bars rather than the West End.
With fairly solid pub grub to soak up the (over) 7% strength of the ciders on offer, AT LEAST T6HE Green Man is a pub trying to do something different and - so far at least - succeeding.