St John’s Tavern

Favourite gastro pub in north London. Good selection of draft craft beer, plus the usual on cold tap. Good wines by the glass and bottle. Food is Great. Recently enjoyed the sardine starter while other half had rabbit pâté. Main courses are v good. Have had excellent steak as well as high end fish and chips. Nice desserts and they make a mean espresso.

This place was always a top spot to bring anyone visiting north London but since they redecorated it has lost its inviting atmosphere. The publicans would have done well if they had only recalled the sagacious adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

St Johns forms one of the Trinity of special pubs in the Tufnell Park area and has one of the best bar snack selections I have come across. At night the lighting and seating makes St Johns feel very warm and cosy, especially on a winters night. The pub area is separated from the dining area although you can still eat in the pub area as long as you don’t mind the noise.
The restaurant area in St Johns is fabulous. You are surrounded by some beautiful pastel paintings that gives the high ceilings and room a feel of being in a gallery. The pub if anything is a feast on your eyes. The pub is very family friendly with couples with very young children amongst the regular visitors.
Food in restaurant can be inconsistent with respect to your visit. Unfortunately the chef forgot a key ingredient in my wife’s dish and we were surprised by an ingredient that was not mentioned on the menu. The rock oysters were a dissapointed having very little flesh. However the artichoke tart with blue cheese was delicious. My fish and chips was excellent as was my apple crumble. The spotted Dick was not to my liking due to its heavy orange taste. Saying that, this was the first time I ate it.
Service in St Johns is very good. The staff were happy to correct their mistake with the main and I complement them for this. However it would be good if there was some quality control in the kitchen so this does not happen in the future.
Meals around Tufnell Park are not a cheap eat. There are some establishments that are known for cheap eats but St Johns like other pubs of the trinity is not one of them.
I would recommend a visit to St Johns on any night. It is one of my favourite pubs having previously lived in the area.

Had recent refurb. Main bar clean and nice. Lighting needs sorting out, too bright. Lots of kids running around. Selection of ales ok and well kept.
Food is excellent in restaurant at the back is very good. Not cheap but worth the extra. Nice 50s style room with golden ceiling.

St John’s Tavern is a High Barnet-​branch favourite that, along with The Junction Tavern down the road, has both the food and pedigree to legitimately call itself a gastropub. (Not that it does, of course. Gastropubs, sort of like hipsters, have the property that the most authentic examples are the least likely to use the label on themselves, and the least genuine are most likely to loudly embrace it.)
Dinner and Sunday lunch are served in a dining hall that’s decorated with competent charcoal and pastel portraits next to photographs of the pub and surrounding area, and it has a very distinguished cracked-​and-​repainted vaulted ceiling. So if you can, try to make a reservation in the dining room. Table 17 in the corner has a good view of the punters, and there are also big brown leather booths for parties: furniture hybrids of American diner crossed with Gentlemen’s club (as in Garrick or Lansdowne, not Stringfellows.)
You can also show up and eat in the bar, but it’s very hard to get a table there during the 7pm to 9pm after-​office-​hours crush. I don’t think they take reservations for the bar area.
Whenever I have visitors they are brought, as a matter of course on their first visit to London, to St John’s Tavern. Especially so if they are from the US and have made clever comments demonstrating their prejudice against British cooking. The food is indeed robust and practical, and it definitely follows the meat plus vegetable plus additional vegetable pattern, but is also heaped with modern style and flavour (their influences are on display in a small library of cookbooks at the back of the dining room.) It couldn’t be further from a the sort of gravy soaked Dickensian chop house I’m sure most outsiders imagine les rosbifs Brits frequent. Pork chops, sausages and steak are on the menu, but so is olive tapernade, polenta and salsa verde.
Also of note: there is always a very good selection of seafood. Cornish rock oysters are a staple, as are the fish and chips — haddock or coley, rather than cod — and this was the first restaurant where I had a pea purée, which is more exciting an event than it sounds. Another classic is the mussels with chilli and chorizo, which makes a good light supper on its own if you have it with a side of the house sourdough and two pints of bitter. In both the restaurant and bar you can also get cockles, fresh anchovies, whitebait, and other snacks.
Menus are on chalkboards on the walls — an single enormous one in the dining room — and are written in a pretty chalk hand. At the back, over the kitchen, is a provenance board listing the kitchen’s suppliers and another board listing the pudding menu. You should leave room for a pudding. I would recommend the caramel cheesecake with a glass of PX sherry.
Something that went hand-​in-​hand with the ascent of gastropubs was the giant scotch egg and St John’s Tavern is a very good example if you’re in the bar. They also have delicious giant pork scratchings. Don’t be put off if your only experience of scratchings is of Mr Porky’s meat industry by-​products.
I’ve been eating and drinking here for over ten years now. Getting home used to take ten minutes on a 134 bus. Then I moved and it meant a cab ride to the other side of Hampstead Heath. For a few years I could only get here by 747, and now it’s a cab ride through two boroughs. I hope to always keep coming back to this old friend.

So fare just the best place in archway. I would highly recommend it. And above all the best fish and chips of London!

Found this pub near where we were staying in London for a few days. Good food and good drinks, but here’s the rub: way too little food for the price, and the price was very high even if thee food portions were more generous. In fact, the food was good, but not exceptional, which I would have expected for that price. For example, a small snail pizza which would fit in the palm if my hand costs £7.50, or roughly $ 15 CAD. Pretty outrageous if you ask me. That said, the cider was good and the bar and wait staff are excellent. This review is not to cast aspersions on them, as they were excellent, but to strongly advise the owners that their prices seem exorbitant. Sadly, I probably won’t visit this pub again when I’m in London next time.

And yet ANOTHER first rate London gastropub!
(boy — London has a lot of these!)
Two diners — three courses plus drinks each — and only one whole mis-​step in the lot.
The rest was pure and unadulterated heaven.
A fine run of beers and gins here — with some fine gin brands I have not seen elsewhere. Cider is run of the mill.
Starters were a borscht with horseradish — and horseradish is an inspired addition to beet soup.
I personally cook a lot of beet soups in both carnivorous and vegetarian forms — and all my life I have relied on lemon juice, sour cream or vinegar to play off the beets.
Horseradish gives the soup a whole new dimension and this borscht was excellent.
The other starter Grilled Squid with chorizo and salad was really grilled squid spacer whose function was to set off a very impressive British chorizo and the perfectrocket salad to cut the chorizo. The squid had a char and looked pretty — but once the chorizo was in my mouth nothing else mattered about anything.
Mains were better still:
A knock your socks off gnocchi served in large squares straight up — so the impressive butter and fry taste on the gnocchi could be fully tasted. Also on the plate was a wonderful red pepper ragu (sweet not hot peppers) and a different rocket salad from the appetizer. Keeping the side dishes off the gnocchi was a clutch move and these were superlative gnocchi indeed. The sides made good contrasts.
The other main — a swordfish with a complex fennel sweet potato and greens side was also a winner. Swordfish is swordfish although this was a nice piece of merchandise. The vegetable mélange was unusual and write-​to-​your-​mother worthy.‘
Desserts had one superstar and one fall through. The superstar was an apple and quince crumble. After you have combined apple with quince you will never want a plain apple pie again. The quince adds perfect tartness — it would be unbearable without the apple to balance it — and the tartness makes a brown sugar crumble seem irresistible. This dessert got inhaled.
The only miss of the night was a fig tart — that didn’t taste much of fig or much of anything else. It was accompanied by a large mass of clotted cream.
Clotted cream is Britain’s answer to
«if you are going to have your heart attack anyway —
wouldn’t a ton of sweet cream be the perfect way to do it?»
A ton of clotted cream IS the perfect way to do it —
but I would still have something tasty like raspberries underneath to play along.
The room is handsome: a large open space much like a Victorian art gallery. Dark tone, high ceilings, an open fire, and a ton of paintings and reproductions.
It ain’t the Tate Gallery but it ain’t the
«somebody burn these paintings and shoot the artist or we will all go blind» either.
There is some nice stuff on that wall.
Overall, this is another fine destination when eating and drinking are what matter.
God, this is a great eating town!

Fergus is legend among foodies the world over, a legend burnished by Anthony Bourdain’s gushing praise. Alas! this is the end of the complimentary part of my review.
The Food:
Sprats — passable. Cold, nondescript, a sign of things to come…
Rolled pigs spleen & bacon — tasted like the title, which we sure weren’t expecting. Unapologetically metallic and offal
Lamb fry — highlight of our starters. Well executed all the way
Mullet & beans — the preparation was faultless, the flavors were nothing special
Hare & Mash — tough & dry, perhaps overdone?
Pear trifle — a single layer does not a trifle make, does it? Pears devoid of flavor. Custard & cream indistinguishable
The Service:
Inattentive, insensitive and oblivious.
Will not return.

Love this place — both the casual pub/​bar area and the more formal dining room. It’s one of those rare places that satisfies both my meat eating friends who like nothing more than to eat the innards of animals and myself, a seafood eating veggo. Lots of pure veggo options available too. Hopefully the place isn’t going to be overrun following Grace Dent waxing lyrical about it in the Evening Standard:

«Gosh, why are there so many beautiful men in this place?», my friend said, when we were sitting down at the bar to drink some wine. And yes, I think she’s right: St. John’s Tavern is a bright beacon in a still-​mostly edgy Archway… here’s where the «pretty» society comes to see and be seen.
St. John’s Tavern is both a place where you can gather with your friends for a beer and a place for good dining. The pub area features a really long bar and plenty of tables of various sizes. (And even free wifi!) Adjacent to the bar is the dining hall and this room actually deserves the room hall with its high ceiling and generally large volume.
I’ve come here several times already, both for lunch and dinner, but also for a beer/​wine with friends. Their food is of high quality and the term gastro-​pub describes this place very well. (I really like the homemade bread that they serve.) The menu is written on a big chalk board above the fireplace and on the walls you can find some very interesting artwork.
I do need to say, however, that I’m always a little bit disappointed with the service here at St John’s Tavern. It’s not that the staff is unfriendly or dismissive, but I have a feeling that oftentimes they are more concerned with being hip and stylish, rather than friendly and customer-​oriented. I yet have to make a real connection with a waiter.

You kind of have to respect a place which rejects ketchup and creates their own special sauce instead!
This old fashioned gastro pub just refuses to get on the bandwagon of normal. Between its antique looking furniture and its huge wall of abstract art portraits, it’s definitely on the kooky side. However, their straightforward food, which is outlined in chalk on the blackboard, is definitely noteworthy. The menu changes seasonally and is all locally inspired. The fish was one of the better things on the menu, and I don’t even really like fish! The mutton pasty wasn’t the best but all the others things are quite delicious. Really light tasting food with creative accents. Although if you’re into jellied pigheads, then you go for it.
The place is bright and bigger than it first appears. There is a huge dining room behind the front bar area. The waiters and the pub staff are really lovely. It does get packed on weekends and at odd hours so do try and book if you aren’t looking to take any chances. My tastebuds would say that this atmospheric place is certainly one of the best places to eat in Archway!

I’m not normally in this neck of the woods but know the stretch of A1 pretty well as I have to crawl along it regularly in an attempt to get to the M1. To be honest, I didn’t think there was much worth visiting until you get to Highgate’s cute village shops and pubs overlooking small communal greens.
But St John’s Tavern IS here and it’s lovely (if you like gastropubs with menus written on blackboards with a separate restaurant located at the rear).
The sun streamed through the large windows last Sunday night as we caught up. In fact, if I came again I would probably just come to do just that, talk and drink.
The food was merely OK. My main problem was the burger was supposed to come with chips, and when it says that I expect not to be able to count the number of chips using one hand. My disappointment was evident when the plate was placed in front of me
«Can I get you anything else?», the waitress asked.
«Umm, yes, more chips» I said.
«You’ll have to go and order those at the bar» was the reply before she whizzed off.
Wow, helpful. To be fair, she returned after a minute or so as I was waiting to be served while my burger was on the table to inform me «unless you have a tab, in which case I can put another order in». This she did and it didn’t take long for a decent portion of chips to come along.
All’s well that ends well, or is it? I have a bit of a problem with places that serve pathetically small portions of what is described on the menu and my friends fish main was incredibly small — good job she’s not got an appetite like me. Why should I have to order more (and pay for it) of things that have been described as being included in the price? Get your portions right, charge more if you have to, but don’t play this annoying ‘measly sides’ game with me when, as we all know, potatoes and most veg, cost very little in comparison to the meat on your plate.
Also, if you’re reading this St John’s, consider changing the bap you place your burger in — it was not conducive to taking a great big bite being way too tough and impossible to compress to the size of my mouth.

One of the original gastro pubs, St John’s has remained a reliable neighbourhood pub serving great food and run by a great team for over 15 years. The menu always reflects seasonal changes and the addition of a bar snack menu with delicious nibbles makes it difficult to go elsewhere for a post work bevvie. The sourdough bread is baked fresh on the premises and staff are always kind enough to let me take a bit home with the decadent butter.
Only down side is the occasional stubbornness of the chefs who have refused ketchup to accompany their regular fish/​steak & chips dishes. They have relented recently and created their own homemade ketchup which is at least a compromise.

In total agreement with Nic below– this place is super cozy. A large drinking area where you can lounge around: fine beers accompanied by a plate of crackling (the real deal) or home made scotch eggs and sausage rolls.
The dining room is large, spacious and slightly kooky– with all kinds of artwork gracing one of the walls which can be seen as you enter. A mish mash of furniture adds to the rooms charm. Food here follows the rules of head to toe dining– jellied pigs head is almost always on the menu but equally you can tuck into anything from a plate of fresh fish and chips, with home made mushy peas to langoustines with mayo or partridge with kale. All local, fresh, seasonal produce. A great example of gastro pub dining at its best. If you have the room the desserts are always worth going for too!
Highly recommended and very pleased its one of my locals! Long live St Johns!

The atmosphere here is ridiculously cozy. Try the scallops and sails as well as the whole sea bass with salad… aaaaamazing. Also, get the apple tart if your feeling frisky (or happen to have three stomachs). Get there early to sit by the fire.

Very nice place, old school pub with fancy food and drink.
I’ve never had anything from their main menu (bit pricey for my wallet) but their bar snacks are something else and worth splashing out for! Supersize saltfish fritters, massive olives, spicey nuts all feature, amongst other things but what I really like about this place is the drinks. They vary by season so in winter you can have the most delicious and warming mulled cider and in the summer a bloody great bloody mary — or a sprizz which is an amazing Venetian cocktail drunk in plastic cups on the street in Padua and Venice which I have never seen in England. I was over the moon when I saw that at St John’s!

Recently refurbished (so recently, there was still scaffolding when I visited) bar not far from Archway. This place is divided into a bar area and a more food orientated area.
Personally I will give the food a miss. The foody room is very nicely decorated, with a lot of paintingsbut the food is both too posh and far too fishy for my tastes. I’ll take the bar, which serves 3 real ales and I rather like it. It is quite basic and woody. it has a nice feel to it I think.

«We don’t have ketchup — we’re a gastropub.»
After reeling from the shock of that statement made by an unassuming waiter, I gave this place another shot because HEY… it’s damn good. I also thought the waiter was joking, laughed awkwardly, and got no response after an undeniably long few seconds.
Great selection of beers and wines, with handwritten menus on chalkboards (which change daily) and an overall great vibe. I heart St. Johns.
The caesar salad was delicious, along with the gigundo bowl of mussels, mushroom risotto, and meatballs with mash. I was dared to ask for a to-​go box once and because I was drunk enough… put myself out there as THAT American. They seemed confused, but made an effort and pulled out some tubberware for me to put the rest of my meal in. Needless to say I fell more in love with this place after this incident.
There are also some eclectic art pieces puzzled together on one-​side of a wall that make for interesting pre-​dinner convo. The exterior is currently going through some renovations but don’t be alarmed, the inside is still the little charmer it was a few months ago.

From the outside it looks like a simple run of the mill pub, but enter and you’ll find one of the best gastropubs in London. There is an atmospheric bar at the front and at the back a large dining hall. The lighting (low) and seating arrangements (some sofa’s and large table’s) give the place a perfect balance between unpretentious relaxed and intimate gastronomic environment.
The foods not bad as well: grilled steak with béarnaise sauce, seasonal risottos, fish and chips regularly appear alongside more exotic and unfamiliar dishes. The menu is well thought out and originally structured, which has got me coming back for more. The wine list is equally comprehensive and impressive.
For me this is the benchmark for a gastropub, and clearly one of the best places to eat in Archway. Just watch out as it gets busy, so you may be best to book.