Commercial Tavern

I first cam across this bar a few years ago when a dear Polish friend and I had to escape torrential rain one autumn evening. We entered the bar from the side, ordered a real ale and then turned around to see the full extent of the weird and wonderful decorations, and then to find each table laid out with a small cabbage placed in the middle with lite candles and candle holders spiked into them! She still refers to it as the cool cabbage bar, though (without its vegetables now) it has become even more popular over the last year or two, and the upstairs room for cocktails and wine with the window seats and small bench tables around the front complement the architecture of the beautiful round Victorian corner building with its big sash windows lit by low arty 'chandeliers' opening it out for traffic to see that is coming up from Spitalfields, as if to say welcome to Shoreditch! It's best you like your shabby chic artiness accompanied by Bowie songs and simlar music from eras of the merry bar owner's youth, and you're OK with a place to hang out over a drink (with no food of any kind) that closes uncompromisingly at 11 as if it was in the 80s, helpfully reminding you that it's school night!

Errr I’m torn. One half of me really loves this pub and the other dislikes the Disney back catalogue…I should like this pub more than I do, but I don’t think the sound of music soundtrack, Disney soundtrack or chipmunks albums are good accompaniments to my pint, especially when they are played so loudly that shrill elfin vocals prevent me from speaking to anyone….frustration nation.

However, that doesn’t really keep me away. I tend to pop my head in if I’m in the area… if you catch the bar staff on a good play list it is one of my fave pubs in London. Amazing decor, great atmosphere, very cool surrounds. I would definitely recommend this pub, and if the music isn’t to your taste you can always go to Ten Bells up the road.

Great pub in the heart of the Shoreditch area.

The tunes in here are great – you might here something new and indie or you might here something really off the wall. The decor here is great as well – a bit of quirkiness in design.

The staff here are very attentive and quick.

Great place for meeting up with a few friends but can be a bit too much when a large group walks in. Not full of city types, more the artsy, fun type.

They have a few tables outside for the few sunny days we get.

Rudest bar in Shoreditch, actually this place and the sour staff are contributing to the consensus that Shoreditch is now toooooo cooool. We got thrown out for asking for wine glasses for the wine we purchased!!! Not only that but we had to quickly drink a bottle of champagne while the v strange and slightly overly refreshed manager stood glaring at us. Staff treat you like they are doing you a massive favor by serving you and admonished us because we asked for wine glasses instead of coca cola tumblers they gave us......actually go here if you want to sample East Londons finest swarm of leisure pirates masquerading as bar staff with a nunu rave, vintage, 2nd hand sour flavor with faces like they have been licking cats p**s off a nettle and attitudes to match.

One of my favourite pubs to start in whether during the day or at night, great music, great beers and generally a great crowd always in there. Nicely decorated and is a bit of a classic boozer in my eyes.

One of my absolute favorite bar/pubs. Decorations are unbeatable and keep you entertained for hours. Staff is always friendly, drink selection is great (Old Rosy's cider on tap!), and siting outside in the summer is the best! Only complaints are that the music can be really loud and drinks are a slightly pricey.

It was a shame that the lighting was so low in here last night as I would have been happy to pass the evening gawping at the splendid, intricately crafted decor. This pub manages to cater for the last decade's influx of hipsters while retaining a fair chunk of its traditional East End feel, there's generally a mix of age groups present and the bar service is dead, dead friendly. I am also completely down with the concept of a tiled bar from which you can rest your elbows as you peruse their broad selection of reasonably priced beverages.

One area, based on my experience here yesterday sat by the downstairs pool table, is to let all you ladies know that the toilets are located right at the back of the room behind aforementioned pool table. There seemed to be flocks of young women wandering around lost and in a daze, or maybe that's just the affect my shimmering good looks have on the ladeez.....

I really love the weird fairy tale/ Marie Antionette/ romantical decor in here, it's super pretty. I could sit and look at the walls and light fittings all day.

Apart from that this perpetually busy pub is lovely to have a good catch up with friends in. People usually congregate on the pavement outside so the upstairs is usually pretty empty to settle down in.

Last but least pretty much every time I've been here they've been playing Disney tunes, which unless i was hallucinating each time, is a win.

Great pub for a weeknight gettogether. Upstairs is really great, especially a table by the window. Really interesting decor, love the multiple lightshades in the main bar and the jigsaw fireplace surround upstairs.

Prices fairly similar to other gentrified East End pubs - but they serve Old Rosie cider which is definitely value for alcohol!

What a lovely place for an old friend’s reunion, he’d been travelling across Europe freelance writing and selected this prime Shoreditch spot as the meeting place to convene, share anecdotes about Moldovan cuisine and examine bizarre 500 billion notes in foreign currencies. I was rather amused when I had to order a Black Sheep and Rosey Nosey from the bar, otherwise known as a complex, rich tasting beer with plenty of roast malt character and generous hop flavour.

One of my favourite places to have a tipple, play some pool and dump heavy bags after window shopping at the nearby All Saints.

Love the bicycles (or is it modern art disappearing up it’s own orifice but double ironically with a splash of Hoxton cooler-than-thou Nathan Barley-esque-ness?) behind the bar, the porn table upstairs and the various little DIY artlet installations, nice subdued atmosphere with friendly staff and better than average selection of booze. A little oasis of pseudo-strangeness. Can never get a seat though, which proves that it really is as cool as it is (?)

Hoorah for this gorgeous tavern of loveliness. So what if it’s full of Hoxditch types with their ironic sunglasses and 'just-pooped-in-my-skinny-jeans’ look - trendoids are people too y’know.

Nestled between the nightlife of Shoreditch’s slightly predictable Curtain Road and the delicous but probably filthy garlicness of Brick Lane, this place is a great little haunt.

I like drinking buckets of ale here and sucking at pool. Wayhay.

Great pub halfway between Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The decor really makes it stand out. Blue “sky-effect” walls, glitsy chandeliers and funky sofas inside, plenty of space to stand on the street if you’re a smoker. Painfully trendy patrons though.

What a nifty joint. There were tons of people spilled out onto the pavement, but inside was not crowded. I can’t recall the music so it can’t have been very offensive nor very loud as we spent most of the time outside. What makes this place really nifty is the beautiful decorations, painted walls and little details. Outside it’s also overgrown with dear little creepers. The lady’s lavs were clean and modern even if you had to scally around the single pool table to reach them.

I’d really recommend this place if you’re in the area.

I really like this place. From the outside, it just looks like your garden variety trendy-ish after work pub. Well, in a sense it is.
But it’s just a little cooler really. I think it’s mainly the decor.
It’s just fantastic. They’ve got all this sort of strange wallpaper - like what you’d find in kid’s bedrooms in the 1980’s and lots of kitsch ornaments on the walls made out of household objects. Just a bit different really. It tends to get crowded on Thurs, Fri and Sat evenings, but there’s a couple of floors to filter out the crowd. Cosy corners to sit.
Although, to get to the bog, you have to brave passing the somewhat danegrous happenings of the pool table. They serve beer too.

Oh dear! I’m so shocked by the last review that I felt compelled to write my own! I love this pub. It looks like something in Alice in Wonderland. It’s like a little cave of childishness and that’s fun. The wallpaper has aeroplanes on it.

It has a perfect little seating area outside and in summer there’s a great vibe about the place. You’ll find yourself chatting to some really nice and pretty cool people.

I’ve only ever been here for the early part of the evening and I’m inclined to agree that it might not be as fun if it’s too packed.

But I do love it here. It’s my favourite pub in Shoreditch and I’m happy whenever I come here. The staff can be a bit grumpy, but I get so excited by the decor and pretty things in here that I’m usually paying too much attention to that to notice.

God damn awful, the manager has little woman syndrome is on a complete power trip, the bar staff are the most unfriendly i’ve experienced in London. Do not waste your time and especially your money in here

Shoreditch has many bars and pubs and a penchant for night time interiors which seem to work throughout the day as well. Commercial Tavern is a case in point and has an imposing Victorian facade close to the Shoreditch traffic lights in Commercial Street. The outsdie has traces of purple and lilac and as one walks in its -er - dark.

Of course, thats the point, with candles, chandeliers and swirly lighting paraphernalia creating a shadowy Edie Sedgwick meets Sweeney Todd atmosphere. Helena would feel most at home. There’s some real ales on the board too; Speckledy Hen was my choice of beverage, served in a ‘southerners’ pint mug with a handle. Less common nowadays in the era of designer lagers from the bottle.

Despite the outside’s aspect, the interior can feel a little cramped, but I suppose thats part of the image. People are here as a staging post before moving on to another venue for the next part of the evening.

There’s more room to settle upstairs, but I guess you have to decide whether to stick or twist.

In our case, we were heading for Brick Lane and stumbled from night-time back into early evening light.

This is a really funky little place. The decor is what makes it - old fashioned wallpaper and funny collections of plates, light shades, chandeliers etc. There are two levels, with lots of cosy corners to huddle up in, plus a few tables outside for a warm evening. Great location as well, right near Brick Lane. Well worth a look.

What caught my attention here was the decor. It's quite ecclectic. Definitely a convenient place to hang out for a couple of drinks post work. But be wary of the bartenders. The women behind the bar aren't definitely the best bartenders I've seen and some of them are surprisingly quite rude. But if you're with friends, having a good time, don't pay too much attention to that!