Kings Head

Third on our Bank Holiday Monday pub crawl was the Kings Head. It turns out I had been here before for a birthday party. They have a huge upstairs area that you can rent out and get finger food and whatnot. The finger food varied with some really delicious items (wings) to some not so delicious items.
The décor is pretty funky inside with interesting seating area in the bar area. There’s also a dining area and an outdoor seating area. I like sitting outdoors, but unfortunately there’s a lot of smoke, so it became difficult to do it.
They were advertising a Garden Menu for the day that looked delicious. There’s also a decent selection of real ales on draught, so it makes me happy. Unfortunately, they were completely out of food. It’s a bit weird, but that made it difficult for us to stay as we were getting hungry for something decent and the Kings head wasn’t going to cut it.
It’s a bit on the upscale side of pubs, but I’m okay with that. It’s a place I’d go back to if I was going to be out in Winchmore Hill.

In a word? Poncey.
This pub has been here since, well, forever. As the more upmarket of the three pubs in and around Winchmore Hill Green it attracts the more upmarket individuals in the area and it becomes a bit of a nouveaux-​riche parody on a Friday night.
Food and drinks-​wise it has a lot in common with the Salisbury Arms — good selection of drinks (more of a lager bias on the beer side of things, though), but the prices are a tad higher. Food is OK — the restaurant area is very nice as is the outdoor area, but during busy periods it takes a complete dive in quality. I once had a «tempura» prawn caesar «salad» here which comprised of four whole lettuce leaves, some frozen breaded prawns and some sad looking anchovy fillets, spattered with one or two droplets of dressing and two large chunks of not quite crispy but very definitely oily «croutons» buried under it all. It was the worst salad I have ever had and I was charged £10 for the privilege. It was an exceptionally busy Monday bank holiday though, and their food at other times is generally much better.
Do I recommend? Meh. It gets way more crowded than the Salisbury, has a much less amicable atmosphere, and can’t cope with high demand for food, so, I guess not.

Good looking pub on ‘village’ green. Decent food, beer and staff. Garden is great in the summer.