Red Lion

I was heading out of town (well, vaguely) to meet a couple of friends for a drink and a bite to eat. They live west and I live in Hammersmith so we settled for halfway and decided on Osterley tube station – it was in the middle and also sounded fairly nice.

I’d been to Osterley before but never for a drink so I thought “I know, I’ll have a look on Qype and see what the best pub nearby is!”. Thankfully, although there were a couple of pubs in the area, this one had a couple of good reviews so I suggested it to my friends and we headed there – they’d both driven in and it was only a short drive from the tube.

From the outside it looked great, a really big pub that just wanted you to come inside – bright and colourful but not sore on the eyes. On the inside it was a very British pub – not in the way that it had foxhunting on the telly and photos of fighter pilots on the walls, but that it had union flag cushions and great big sofas.

We went to order drinks and were a bit dismayed to find how expensive they were – pint of diet coke for £3??? but they did have a nice selection of ales and ciders which I would have loved to have tried if I hadn’t had a massive hankering for the diet coke. We also ordered food and the lovely lady who cooks the meals came out to explain what they had as apparently it had been a busy lunchtime. I went for a sausage sandwich doorstop with chips and salad. It was massive. And I mean massive. The plate was nearly as big as the table, and I couldn’t see the plate through the sandwich, huge pile of crispy golden fries and a big salad with pickled onions and a lovely vinaigrette. It was big and delicious, though could have maybe used an extra sausage to just get the edge over the thick-cut soft white bread.

I couldn’t finish it all but I was very happy with everything here, apart from the prices – the meal was big, but it still came to £8.50 for just a sausage sarnie and some chips… And with it being a CAMRA local pub of the year I should probably go back sometime to try the ale, and hopefully that will be a bit cheaper!

This is a really good pub with 2 (you could almost say 3) rooms. This means that despite the 3 screens they have you can actually avoid the pigskin if you could not care less.

They serve 8 real ales and 2 ciders so if you can't find something you like to drink then there is probably something wrong with you :) The staff are friendly too...to dogs as well as punters.

Location off the main streets is really good. There is definitely something about this pub!

Known locally for a good selection of real ales and for excellent live music nights.

A characterful and spacious Edwardian country style pub inside with separate fluorescent-lit normal pub bar for those who don’t want to hear the live music. Neat beer garden at the back with paved pathway.

Nice grills menu most afternoons and early evenings.