The Driver

We were greeted with a cheery hello and the staff were very attentive but not annoyingly so! Really nice atmosphere with a proper pub feel and the food smelled delicious - I wish we'd eaten there.

After buying a Groupon voucher, i was a little concerned as to what we had in store for us at The Driver – but I needn’t have worried!

Our waitress (Marta/Martha?) was absolutely outstanding. She welcomed us warmly to the gorgeous dining room on the first floor, knew that we were on the Groupon deal and asked us for the voucher so she could see what the deal was (two courses with cocktail and coffee for £26 for the two of us – BARGAIN!), supplied us with our menus and then explained that we could have a starter OR a dessert as well as our main, it was our choice (or both if we wanted to pay the extra), that our included cocktail was a bellini but we could just have Prosecco if we liked and that we could have any of the coffees or tea.

She then told us which dishes were new on the menu, which she recommended, which had gone down well at lunchtime and was just very attentive and friendly without being OTT. It wasn’t like we were the only diners, but we certainly felt that way :)

Antelope ‘pattie’ on lentil and chorizo cassoulet with red onion jam: Yes, my main was really just a ‘burger’. I have never had antelope before, but it was extremely nice. lean and meaty with a beefish texture, very slightly gamey but very subtle. The cassoulet was fabulously flavourful, but then I am very much a chorizo fiend and think it can enhance nearly every dish :)

Braised rabbit with celeriac mash and savoy cabbage: I had a taste of my mate’s rabbit, and it was beautifully tender and delicately flavoured with a smooth, creamy sauce and crispy cabbage (which wasn’t the best looking but tasted scrummy!).

Pear and chocolate shortbread with blackcurrant sorbet: This was SO scrummy! The shortbread was crumbly and moreish and not too sweet, and the pear was tender and peary! It was slightly warm which I hadn’t been expecting, and was perfectly balanced with the slightly sharp sorbet!

Chocolate pecan brownie with champagne ice cream: This was rich and gooey without being sickly, and the champagne ice creamwas smooth and luxurious. I only had one bite as I was happy with my own dessert!

All in all, The Driver is a lovely pleace with an unusual and varied menu and absolutely fantastic service, thanks to Marta/Martha!

really interesting place – proper local pub feel on the ground floor – but we ate in a cool dinning room on the 1st floor – very reasonable pricing and loved the roof terrace – even though it was cold – it was nice to have a post dinner cigi and finish my wine together
staff were really helpful and i think you can hire the top rooms for parties – great venue. will go again

My visit to The Driver was a highly disappointing experience and I would not want to wish it on anyone. Booking an area in the downstairs bar made little difference as we had to wait for it to be cleared and then fight our way through a crowded floor of patrons only to then be surrounded on all sides by elbows, bums and bags. Ordering a drink was near on impossible with inexperienced bar staff with a poor attitude and bad customer service. The Bar food was slow to arrived and lobbed onto our table along with some napkins thrown in with a carefree attitude. This place has a long way to go before its anywhere near being a place I would frequent again.

I was suspicious about his place when we walked in on a Saturday night and it was two thirds empty at 8.30.

We’d booked and were hoping for good things because the fit out of this gastropub is really cool and having just moved to Kings Cross we wanted to check this out and handy decent local.

The reason it was so empty was because the staff are so shocking. I’ve never had worse service. Shame cos the food was actually really good. We literally had plates thrown on to the table. The waitress kicked me 3 times and didn’t apologise as she walked past. We brought her surly attitude up at the end of the meal and she had a rehearsed line about how she would learn from it. The response was too smooth that it was obvious she’d used it before.

Someone has spent a lot of money on this place but it obviously an absentee owner. A sure fire way to lose a load of money. Avoid it at all cost.

This is a real find - having grown up in the rolling countryside, the one thing I miss most now that I'm a Londoner is the spacious, warm, welcoming and comforting amosphere of a pub. Not a dirty after work boozer, or a pretentious gastro pub... a pub. Good food, good wine and good service.

Well, when I say good, I mean great. The food is delicious and the wine list/draught selection is varied and vast, and of top quality.

Sofas to relax in, three floors of dining and seating to fulfil casual dining as well as private parties and meetings. My only criticism is the lack of heat, but I guess that is only prevalent now in the midst of winter.

The Driver should be nice. It's a gorgeous building, it has expensive wallpaper, it has a roof terrace. I'm quite a fan of expensive wallpaper and roof terraces, so you would think I would like the Driver. However I've had one dreadful experience when a lady on the door was so utterly petty and rude to a friend of mine that I'm perfectly happy never to go back.

In a nutshell - A group of us had gone to the roof terrace after some lovely summer rounders in the park, my friend came to meet us later. It was early, the place was empty but they wanted to charge him £12 to come up to us on the roof. Ridiculous. Rather than cause a fuss we asked if we could go downstairs and join him for a drink in the pub rather than the 'nite club' on the roof. They said no. They still wanted my pal to pay to get in. They also insisted that it wasn't a pub, it was a restaurant. Whatever it was, it was empty. We left.

My favourite post-work local! Great little place that is never so busy that it's unbearable. The lunch menu is pretty good and it varies from week to week, so if you are like me and you work in the area you won't get bored of the menu too quickly (even though I tend to order steak everytime!)

The roof terrace is up four flights of stairs but once you get there it's totally worth it! It's a total suntrap and the comfy sofas, Buddha statues and leather bean bags make you feel a bit like you are chilling out at a classy house party rather than at a pub where you've just paid for that beer you are holding...

This is a gastro-kitchen, pub, lounge, roof terrace that's hard to miss, the exterior walls are a 'vertical garden'... so, just look for the green 'bushy' building!

Unfortunately, I can only review the ground floor on school nights, and as a pub because I didn't eat here. Hopefully, more people will review all that this establishment has to offer (see The Driver website, and you'll know what I mean!)

The ground floor is a fantastic idyllic atmosphere; dark woods, contrasts with lighter colors, and perfect lighting to set the mood for a 'loungey' drink with friends or a date. The floor plan and layout makes for an intimate feel at your table, you feel like you're in a social environment but in your own cozy little spot. They have decent beers including a nice Blue Moon import and the bar is stocked with some nice higher end whiskeys, vodkas, etc.

On the downside, on two separate occasions they had no orange slices for the Blue Moon, and at times, getting a drink at the bar can be a bit of a wait.

Again, hopefully more reviews will come up to give a more well-rounded sense of this modern, yet quaint gastro-kitchen, pub, lounge, roof terrace.

Close. Actually…close but no real ale on tap for me. Seeing them run out of one of my favourites (Tribute) while I was stood at the bar waiting to order a pint was mildly heartbreaking. This being their only ale led to a dilemma that the Clash were not unfamiliar with. In the end I had an extortionately priced bottle of Meantime’s wheat beer. It was the nicest wheat beer I have ever had….but I had actually requested a bottle of the pale ale.

I feel the need to give this place another chance somehow as I liked the dim, candlelit look of the pub (although I hate the website description of the place as a ‘boutique venue’) and had the ale been on and good this could have been a 4 star review. I only saw the ground floor mind you…I had no idea that there were various levels to explore.

Firmly in the gastropub/bar camp as opposed to 'pub', I'm always surprised at how massive The Driver is. On a sunny evening the roof terrace is gorgeous and a great spot to unwind with work colleagues after a busy day in the office.

The food here is scrummy, although it's not on the cheap side, so be prepared to spend a good £12 - £15 on a main meal. House plonk is £14.50 a bottle.

I was here for a friend's birthday, and you can reserve one of the large upper floors, complete with its own bar, for free. The downside is that you have to guarantee to spend a certain amount at that particular bar. Since me and my friends had spent a good £70 or so downstairs on food and a couple of bottles of wine, I had to put my foot down a bit to make sure that it counted towards the bar spend. I hope it did, otherwise that's really silly.

The Driver is a lovely pub, in a very strange location. Most people won't even find it - which means unless you're in 'the know' you'll be missing out on a fantastic venue which ticks all the right boxes.

Firstly, a mention has to go to the outside of the building and it's impressive green wall which covers the upper part of the building in amazing plants. Eco-friendly? Tick.

Then you've got the bar staff who'll bend over backwards or walk up 10 flights of stairs to deliver your lunch to you on the roof terrace, even though they don't normally to table service up there. Uber-friendly? Tick.

The ambience is laid back, stylish and cool. We went for a Friday lunch and sat on the roof terrace in the best sun trap in Kings Cross - far removed from the traffic below - and the only people there. Chilled out and tourist free? Tick.

Prices are reasonable - lunch menus for around £7 and mains coming in between £12 - 17. Another tick.

They've also got 3 floors of rooms available for hire for free - you just need to guarantee a minimum bar spend. Great for meetings or private parties. Tick-tock.

Finally - I can't rate a venue unless I mention the toilets as so many great places are let down by disgusting toilets. I'm happy to say, this is not one of them. Clean with well styled vintage sinks. Bonus tick.

Worth a visit if you're in the area - or need an option for a meeting that's close to the station.

Sunday Roasts @ the Driver.
I stumbled across The Driver this past Sunday, and loved it!
Apparently they have just started doing a new Sunday roast menu and I must say the food was incredible. I haven't had a rack of lamb like it in years!
It was very reasonably priced, the staff were very attentive, and fun, and the whole place has such a homely feel to it I sat drinking red wine into the lazy afternoon hours. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will be going back every Sunday!
Definitely worth a trip to kings Cross.

attended this club for a nite out with friends and was surprised at the size of the place. there are four floors with different sound systems on each, allowing different promoters to work alongside each other, which i find always make for a good nite. the whole club has been decorated to a high standard and the bars have a god range of drinks. a great terrace on the roof, evn though it was raining when i went, but it will be gfantastic in the summer. definatly worth a visit.