The Chapel

Nice beers, nice beer garden, and big fat screen on which to watch the rugby. This place gets crowded at times, but if you’re able to get there when it’s quiet, grab the really comfy sofa.

Definitely somewhere I like to go for a quiet drink or to watch sport, this is a friendly, relaxed place well worth a visit. Lots of wood and leather, but not an old man’s pub.

I am, perhaps, slightly biased. I work around the corner from the Chapel, making it an easy stroll of an evening. Even if I’d happened upon the place, though, I’d have it noted down in the Moleskine for a return visit.

The Chapel is in a tricky place: stuck between the rather nasty upper end of the Edgware Road and the sterile backstreets of Marylebone. Its Greek owner keeps it ticking along: there’s always something drinkable on the wine list if you don’t fancy the usual lager, and the food is always well put-together, if pricey for pub grub. You’re looking at the best part of £15 for a steak, but it’ll be a substantial slice of decent beef, cooked the way you’ve asked for it. I happen to get more than a tad grumpy when “very rare” is interpreted as “medium rare”, but I’ve never had less than a bleeding slab of tasty cow from these chaps.

It’s busy on Thursday and Friday evenings as it’s popular with the office crowd around there, but nice and quiet at the weekends. If you, like me, enjoy few things more than a nice quiet pub, you could do far worse than this one on a Saturday afternoon. And if you don’t mind listening to pinstripes bray then it’s a sociable enough option on a weeknight.