The Priory Arms

Very friendly pub with a really decent craft beer range — no mucky Fosters or Stella in sight thank God! — but quite small, maybe a dozen tables. I made a beeline for Oakham Citra and stuck with it so didn’t sample anything else. I’m not ashamed though, as this particular beer is one of the finest I’ve come across in recent years, and one is never enough. Next time though, next time.
My companion ordered a burger that looked and smelt great (I was assured it tasted great too). A quick chat with the chef later on revealed that the buns are made from scratch on site and the patties are freshly minced each day. Very impressed. I have eaten here before tbf but normally snacky things to soak up the beer like chips, nachos and what not, so I think next time I’ll make sure I’ve room for an actual meal.
Clean décor that frankly could do with scruffing up a bit — sticking some old beer badges and cellar paraphernalia up on the high walls would make it cosier and give a bit more character/​history. I’ll be honest, that’s good advice for any pub — I’m a sucker for old pump clips, love them. Scruffy décor is always present in the form of the friendly old boys (only kidding, sorry gents!) who ensure a good throughput on the real ale lines, Gawd love ‘em. The rest of the clientèle is made up of good-​looking 20 – 30 year olds in couples and groups, and middle-​aged couples who seem to be reasonably regular visitors as I recognised a few faces.
Highly recommended, especially as craft beer doesn’t give me a hangover. I’m always fresh as a daisy the next morning, nice one.

Our family has been coming to this pub in various group sizes for several years. When there is a larger group of us we book the upstairs room, which we did yesterday because there were 25 of us. Our orders were emailed to the manager by Friday afternoon at his request because, he explained, they probably hadn’t even served 25 dinners the previous week in total. When I called the manager on Friday to double check he’d received my email with the orders he at that point told me the pub had changed hands and the dinners were ‘different’. When I queried this he qualified it by saying people had said they were ‘better’. I was busy and should have linked the two statements up. If they were ‘better’ why were they serving less than 25 of them? The pub was renowned for it’s roasts and always packed on a Sunday. Alarm bells should also have rang when we got up to the room and had to sort the table out ourselves because, despite having 25 lunch orders they hadn’t set out 25 place settings (???). The room was booked for 1.30 and it was getting on for 2.30 before anyone got any food. When it did start coming there were huge gaps in anyone appearing with more meals some people had finished eating theirs 20 minutes ago while people were still waiting to be served. Despite me giving them a detailed list of dinners matched to people’s names they still got it wrong but tried to insist it was our mistake! Obviously I said can you bring up my list and then I can point to the people who’ve had what so I can demonstrate to you that you’re bringing the wrong meals up. He WOULD NOT bring me my list, was really stroppy and asked how many dinners were still left, so we told him it was 7 dinners 4 lamb, 1 chicken, 1 vegetarian and 1 beef. He disappeared and came back up five minutes later with 2 beef! I just cannot understand how they could have found it so hard to get such a simple thing right. It’s not like they were busy with other customers because the pub was dead. Had we just walked in on spec I could have understood the disorganisation but they had known since Friday. With regards to the dinners when they did actually arrive the way in which they were ‘different’ to how they used to be was that they were smaller, of inferior quality and in my case, cold. I think the chef heard me say this because some of the later dinners were volcanically hot and had clearly been microwaved. Unbelievably, to add insult to injury, the guy who’d refused bring up my list to check the dinners and had got angry at us for his because HE had got the orders wrong was overheard on the stairs by my brother-​in-​law to say I’m not going up there again because if I do I’ll deck one of them. It just became this surreal experience not enough chairs for all the diners, waiting ridiculous amounts of time for food, wrong orders and them trying to blame us as the customers for the appalling hash they were making of it. When I complained to the manager I advised him to find the women who used to do the Sunday roasts and beg them on bended knee to come back, and to the new owner, if you’re reading this, I’m repeating that advise here. Those 3 lads running that pub that day just could not cope. The manager’s response to my complaint was unsurprisingly totally unacceptable. His reply to my pointing out how far downhill the roasts and service had gone was that the last owner had gone bankrupt (is it appropriate to tell people that and how is it relevant?) and that they are ‘packed’ during the week. As the owner of a pub, you need to be ‘packed’ every day of the week including Sunday, as this pub used to be. It isn’t, for the reasons I’ve explained above. Finally, in response to me pointing out how dead and empty the pub was the manager countered that people don’t go out for roasts in August (they do). It was the 8^th September.,

Surprising pub for Stockwell. Would say it’s the best food and drink pub here. A little on the pricey side, but affordable once in a while even for people on a tighter budget :)

Great non-​chain pub about 5 minutes from Stockwell station. They have comfy couches, a pretty good food menu, a huge selection of beer, board games and pub quiz on Sunday night. They also have a small outdoor area for nice weather days (or smoking). Kitchen is open pretty late (till 10pm)

Great pub, I must like it as I go there almost every Sunday. The selection of ales is very good, I always try any new ones. The Sunday lunch is very tastey, though I don’t have it every visit. I’ve uploaded a picture of the pub dog.

One of what London lacks — a really good neighbourhood boozer with bags of character. A no-​nonsense lunch menu (burgers or «tapas», although the latter would be quite alien to Madrid), a good selection of draught ales and lagers (with a vast selection of bottled beers, tending toward the Belgian), helpful staff, and so forth.

what a great little boozer in the depths of Stockwell.
nice big cosy sofa’s fabulous neon lighting and great selection of beers and ales on tap.
staff are friendly and helpful, the pub has regular pub quiz and poker nights for all.
also a winner as have a good selection of board games to be had… fact or crap anyone?
food menu looks good, yet to try but good selection of pub grub.
fancy a fag, thats 35p please!

Fantastic little pub that would be my ideal local if I lived anywhere nearby. The sort of place you come to for a pleasant drink and good conversation (or games), and if you really want, they’ll put the football on for you.
I could imagine spending a lot of time here sampling all the ales I’ve never heard of, playing poker or trivial pursuit, then getting kicked out for starting a fight over the use of proper nouns in scrabble… maybe it’s for the best that I live elsewhere.

Quite simply a great pub. Especially surprising given the location…

Great local. What it lacks in surroundings it more than makes up with its charm, friendliness, and selection of drinks. The landlord and bar staff here are really friendly, and they certainly know how to run a good pub. Food is more beefeater than gastropub, but it is well priced and tasty. Decent jukebox, tv’s, and selection of board games.

Sounds good still. I used to be a regular in the 90s when I lived on Guildford road. The thing I always liked about the priory was the friendly mix-​bus driver talks to barrister etc.
Youre so lucky to get some decent ale-there’s not much of that over here in Asia. Ill definitely be popping in for a drink when I get back to London.

Wow, what a little gem! Tucked away around the back of Stockwell station, this is a real ale lover’s paradise! And, as you all know, I am a real ale lover. There’s around 5 on tap, with the stalwart of delicious summer lightening as a great foundation on which to try such gems as ‘Deltic Diesel’ — trainspotting and ale in one!
The food is also very good, and they do a poker night every Thursday. Good stuff.

So for months now (ever since the new functionality came in I guess), Qype has been recommending this pub to me as the number 1 place I have to see in London. So I have been meaning to come here for a while, but finally got round to making the trip recently.
And I recognized it immediately! Blow me if I hadn’t been here before! I recall having quite a conversation that was both deep and gossipy with a friend outside this pubI estimate about ⁶⁄₇ years ago!
I don’t really remember what it was like then, but it is a cracking pub now. OK it is a little bit on the pricey side for somewhere not in the centre of London, but it looks great (nice furniture, lovely plants and I really liked the Christmassy lights), has a cracking selection of real ales (I enjoyed a pint of naked ladies I’m a sucker for a cool name!), the daily papers all lain out and a tasty looking menu. Add to this the tables outside and the fact it is fairly well hidden and off the main roads and you have another entry for my bulging ‘wish it was my local’ file.
So thank you qype! Time to see what my new top recommendation is. Wonder if I’ve been there before.

Ooooh this one’s a good’un.
If two Qype captains insist that a pub is good, you can bet they’re right. But ooooh they’ve outdone themselves with this one.
It’s taken me several months to get here, after failed pub quizzes, failed trains and other misadventures, I found myself in here last week catching up with a friend. This is the perfect place to have a good gossip.
The bar staff are lovely, and didn’t seem to mind that we had a five minute conversation at the bar before ordering (as i said, we were catching up!) But there’s just a great vibe about the place. The rose was good, not great, but good enough for me to have two glasses. Think it was about £4.50 for a large glass so not too shabby.
I really want to come back and try the food here, but i was in Stockwell as my favourite Spanish restaurant is here. But this pub gets my five stars for being fabulous, friendly and apparently in support of the social smoker. They let you buy single smokes behind the bar. Brilliant.

The Priory Arms is not far from were i use to work and i like to go back every 2 months. It is one of the best pubs in London, everyone is very nice and the food is top class i think. The Sunday Roast in the Priory Arms is out of this world, it’s so nice with the best beef. Just writing this makes me want to go there now. I can’t wait until time back there.

A brilliant pub. Incredible food, plenty of decent beers (Summer Lightening especially) and the best pub quiz I’ve been to.
Would be good if they served food later on a Sunday and the small front garden suffers from lack of afternoon sun but one of the best pubs in the area.