Bree Louise, Euston, London

Great for the vast array of CAMRA beers and ciders
at incredibly good value prices for London; bad for smell of urinals pervading the lounge and the grim lighting.

An Alladin's cave of tasty, tasty beer. Go for the one on hand-pump to avoid flat-ness. Can be a struggle to get a seat, but once you're installed you won't want to move all night. Staff are nice, people in there always seem happy and pleasant and it's so close to Euston. Great place, possible my favourite pub in London!

2011 update

Going to have to knock a star off as I do now tend to avoid the gravity beers here after having a couple of poor, flat pints (as some people have also experienced in recent reviews below). The stuff on hand pump tends to be much better.The competition the area has hotted up in the last year and having the odd duff pint like this makes me much less likely to brave the masses that squeeze into the awkward layout.

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2010

Now this place is different. Barrels behind the bar with an almost constantly changing selection of ales. 11 gravity ales apparently…..I have no idea what that means though but it sounds impressive.

I enjoyed an unusual pint of St Peters Grapefruit and one of their pies (both reduced price with CAMRA membership) and was not disappointed at all. On a second visit I enjoyed several ales including a red squirrel. Sometimes they have the same ale on pump and gravity so you can compare the two.

Drawbacks? Well the layout seems a little uncomfortable. This pub just cannot be cosy…no matter how much they try. Also seemed a bit dusty/dirty towards the end of the day too, but in some ways that adds to the old fashioned feel of the place.

No idea what the name references so I'm going to make my own mind up about that (the fictional town from Tolkein).

I will be dropping by regularly to discover a new ale and to enjoy a pie! I think this pub is going to go from strength to strength under its current direction.

The beer selection is great, and I've drunk in here once or twice, but the atmosphere and decor is horrible. I'd rather drink somewhere with more limited selection and an interior that doesn't leave you embarrassed to take friends there!

A great range of ales, ciders and pies can be found at the Bree Louise.
It's not a pub you'll stumble across, unless you're aimlessly roaming back streets but it's still only a few paces from Euston Station, or if it suits, Euston Square tube.
The only downside is that it gets really busy early evening, as others have said. Maybe it's just the landlord's helpful side but I think there are a couple too may tables so even if you get a seat you can feel quite squashed.
That said I still go back as the beer and service is good and the staff and other punters are friendly. It doesn't have the transient feel that the Head of Steam/Doric Arch has.
Others have mentioned that CAMRA members get a discount, I think students and nurses do too, although you may want to check!

No matter how hard I try, I really find it hard to actively LIKE the Bree Louise.

The first thing people usually point at is the marvellous array of marvellous beer - it's like there's a permanent beer festival going on in there, with 4 or 5 beers on handpump on one side, and then another 5 or 6 on gravity dispense over the other side ("gravity" is the other name for when a beer cask is mounted on a rack, table or shelf, and then the barman opens the tap on the bottom & pours you a beer straight out - in case you were wondering).

Yes it's highly commendable to have all those beers available, but that doesn't automatically make it a good pub. I've had many pints in there, and some of them still come out tasting a little bland. Not BAD, as such: they'd more than certainly give you a replacement if that were the case.

A feature of the place is that CAMRA members get a discount (50p per pint I think), but that seems a little unfair I think: if you were going for rounds with 3 friends then their rounds would all cost £2 more for exactly the same product. Of course it makes members' eyes light up, and possibly contributes to attracting the superlative reviews we see. (disclosure: I'm a CAMRA member - it's not a jealousy thing)

If you look around and ignore the beers, what you've got is a fairly tatty & dingy saggy-ceilinged room, stuffed with tables that are the wrong size for the space they've got (and you can test this by trying to walk through from one door to the other when all the seats are full - a lot of the time you can barely open the door adjacent to the toilets get into the place, and approaching the bar with the handpumps on it usually prompts the typical apologetic do-si-do). The toilets are the most barely provided functional arrangement, periodically wafting parfum d'urine through the premises. The last 5 or 6 times my friends & I have been through there we've chosen to sit outside at the picnic tables rather than lap up the ambience inside, and this was over winter.

It's not that I can't stand the place - my point is that on balance it's a shabby-to-OK boozer, which does an excellent job of providing range & quality of real ale.

Perhaps another summary worth considering is that "If you were looking for a pint or 2 of real ale in the Euston Station area, it's the place you'd most likely head to", rather than "If you were planning to go out somewhere for a night in a pub, you couldn't go wrong with this place".

If I was going to rate it on the beer, it'd be a solid 4. As a pub, I'd say a 2. So lets agree call it an overall 3.

Wow! Fabulous selection of beers (it won an award for its beer), including some straight from casks behind the bar. For years I had thought all pubs near Euston were nasty, but this bucks the trend. It doesn't have the best decor, but if its affordable, well kept beer that you're after this is ideal. The staff were pleasant, and there were some interesting characters around who were happy to chat.

What a great pub and what fantastic pies! The Bree Louise is moments from Euston Station and is probably the finest pub in NW1. I don't often drink in this part of town (purely because i didn't think it had any decent pubs!) but i was delighted to find this place.

Quick tip - CAMRA members get a discount on bitter and pies (all food for that matter) so make sure you bring your membership card with you!

2nd Quick tip - The locals know about this place so it's gets very busy between 6-8pm during the week! Get there early or later on if you want to sit down!

Another beer heaven. Decor might be a bit the worse for wear, but if you want really good real ale, well kept and served right by friendly staff, this is the place for you. If it were located somewhere more salubrious than Euston it would be permanently packed, but as it is it gets busy at times. A great feature is that on presentation of a current CAMRA membership card you get 50p a pint off.

Great beer, a friendly landlord, good pies, and a weird balance-your-money-on-some-fruit competition to occupy you while you wait for your drink... really, what more do you want from a pub?

Ok, so it's kind of in the Euston no-man's land, but even if you're not a total real ale fanatic with scarily oversized sideburns you'll still enjoy this pub.

The last time I was there a birthday party has decided to install a karaoke machine in the coner, and no one wants that do they, but it didn't detract too much from the beer and the pies!

Required stop for those transiting from the North via Euston station. This place is a great adopted local with bags and bags of Ales, Ciders, Organic food, and Organic lager. You don't expect much in this area of London so its a treat to get a freehouse going out on a limb. There's a big 5pm rush (and quick service to go with it) as testament to a quality unassuming London boozer. But...previous reviews about lack of cosiness are spot on.

Damn straight, this is a great pub! I could be a little wasted on you if you're after a polished, slick city bar and you don't like beer (in which case I feel very sorry for you for many reasons) but this is a Beer Mecca!

It's not the most salubrious of pubs, and it could be accused of being a little rough round the edges, but I shan't hold that against it one jot! I'd much rather a pub with old carpets and nicotine yellow walls than something that shines and glimmers and gleams but has no atmosphere!

Capacity for 16 beers, most of them on gravity (last time there were only 15 on. The shame!) and 8 proper ciders means that you will be spoiled for choice. It's a decent price, even more so if you're a CAMRA member as you get a handsome discount.

Rather pleasingly, you can get your cider (or lager, if you HAVE to) in a frozen glass. I like!

They have a good food menu dominated by pies. Now, my steak and kidney wasn't the greatest steak and kidney pie I've ever had but it was still damnably good and about the size of my head. Monday to Thursday they feature a "Pie of the Week" for a fiver which is most pleasingly barginous. Unless you have a CAMRA card in which case all pies are £5 any day of the week!

Staff are as a rule charmingly inoffensive and efficient and there is a very friendly, buzzy atmosphere. You will inevitably get a smattering of Beardy Weirdys but that should offend no one (partly because of what I aspire to become maybe) and I would say that the demographic is pretty varied.

Big screens show some sporting events, sound off during civilised hours.

Very highly recommended!

Quality of gravity dispensed beer very suspect. Music can be too loud.
Too many beers on at the same time.

Five pounds for homemade pie, chips and gravy, and 50p off a pint for CAMRA members? As a card carrier myself, I say, yes please, 4! And we did quite literally eat 4 pies, between 4 of course, and they were all delicious. Who says there are no good pubs around Euston?! Well I used to, but no longer, the Bree Louise is a gem. Spent quite a while chatting to the landlord about his new 11 barrel gravity delivery system, which uses sprung counterbalances to gradually tip the barrel as it empties. Clever stuff! What it means for you is delicious bitter all the time - like a permanent beer festival! They even print the last train times in the menu!

Very well kept pub minutes from Euston Station, in the restaurant-filled area tucked just off Euston Road. Nice cosy seating booths, if you are lucky enough to bag one, and plenty of other tables both inside and out. A good range of beer. Gets exceptionally busy on Fridays, but is eerily empty at the weekends. Better than much of the corporate nonsense nearby.

Can’t believe I haven’t been to this place before. It’s a CAMRA fave and pretty plain inside but what a fab pub! Loads of ales, drawn straight from the barrels. Lovely bar staff, plenty of tables to sit at. Cold white wine (yay!) Reasonable prices and was busy on a Saturday afternoon in quiet a quiet area so obviously a fave with locals. And OMG, although I didn’t eat there, the pies served up at the table next to me looked breathtakingly good (and the people eating them looked particularly happy!) A new fave for sure.

Formerly the Jolly Gardeners, this corner pub and Free House close to Euston station has just been voted North London CAMRA’s ‘Pub of the Season’ for Spring 2008.

If that commendation sounds a little obscure, what you need to know is that the new landlord is a real-ale enthusiast, and the Bree Louise regularly features ten real ales - five on hand-pump, and five gravity-dispensed from barrels behind the bar. Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter are the regular beers and, although the choice is currently not especially interesting, Adnam’s ‘Tally Ho!’ is a welcome addition!

The interior comprises a large, carpeted single room, with plain walls and wooden furniture, with a seating area on the pavement when the weather permits.

The pub sells food at Mon-Fri: 12-15h and 17-21h, and 12-17h Saturdays and Sundays. It specialises in pies made on the premises, and although the food seems popular, I’ve not eaten here (yet).

An added bonus for CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members is that they can obtain discounts on the price of both pints and food on presentation of a valid membership card. It’s close enough to Euston (less than 5 minutes’ walk) to stop here while waiting for a train (and certainly nicer than the hideous eateries in the station). Euston Square tube is also close by.