The Woodman

I love this pub! The food is nice, service is friendly, kids are welcome. They have open mic nights, live music (my favourite is the Sunday’s Bossa Nova band) and a fantastic beer garden. I’m not really much of a pub-​goer but I could spend every Sunday evening here with my friends just to enjoy the music and the atmosphere. Looking forward to make the most of the beer garden in the summer! :)

With the summer fast approaching The Woodman has one of the largest beer gardens I have ever been to ! Great pub, tasty food and lots of outdoor space for chilling in the sunshine :) I would deff recommend !

Had a lovely Sunday lunch here yesterday. Lovely, dog friendly pub with a large garden which catches the late afternoon sunshine. Located just near the tube too so an ideal stop off on your way home from work!
Scotch eggs were lovely. Deep fried battered spring onions a bit greasy, but tasty nonetheless. The roast was good. Lovely vegetables that had great flavour and were n fresh & crunchy. Good quality meat cooked as ordered. The Yorkies were flat but the flavour was there. Burger was great quality too and the chips were homemade. We had a moan about the meat being overcooked on the kid’s roast and were handled with diplomacy and tact by a very charming waitress. Always good when staff handle complaints well and return with a smile, not begrudgingly!
It’s been hugely improved recently and now looks very stylish. All in all a winner.

The Woodman is an odd pub. It is an old traditional building with a massive modern smokers area out the back. Inside has sofas by open fire, rest of the pub not cosy. Casual, but friendly bar staff, some of who speak English.
Ales: Below par for the price. Not a great selection, too chilled. NOT a real ale pub.
They do put the football on, but the best screens are out the back with the smokers. The projector screen needs replacing, kept failing during the game we watched.
Haven’t tried the food.
Beer garden looks ok for summer.

Local North London homey pub right next to the tube station. Has a nice drawing room feel to it, with a bit of eclectic sculpture about, and tries to appeal to everyone from families to groups watching the football match as it has a side room with TV for sporting events. Outdoor seating is also a big plus and there is even table service. Food was not quite Gastropub but not bad. The snack plate we got to munch on was massive with posh nibbles such as olives, cheese, smoked chicken, and a sliced terrine. The usual drinks menu though with slightly more selection. Pleasant experience all around.

Service tonight was way below par to say the least. Waited 20 minutes for drinks to arrive (would have been quicker to buy at bar) 40 mins for the starter and then over 1 hour for our meal. Not a single apology. Only to be told that the kitchen was busy. If they had informed us about the long wait to begin with, we would not have ordered here. Need to have more respect. I am a local customer, the sort you do not want to leave unhappy. I just cannot believe the complete lack of customer skills from the staff and don’t care attitude that most staff displayed tonight. One of the staff was new, fair enough, but when you are this busy, is it the right time to be training new staff. The only reason why I didn’t give this 1 star is because the food was actually not bad in the end. Not worth £15 a dish and certainly not worth waiting 1 hour for mind. Considering that I live across from this pub, you just lost a very valuable customer tonight, when it isn’t peak season and you can’t rely on passing trade I am the guy that pays your wages, don’t forget that. I can’t recommend this place, which is sad, considering that I can see it from my window.

Since the re-​opening this pub seems to have gone from decent to pretty rubbish
On the re-​launch night my friend was given a sink plug in her glass of ice with her cider and then when she asked for it to be replaced she was just gruffly handed another with no word of apology, and the so-​called wine experts didn’t really live up to their billing being able to pronounce grape varieties night be a start.
The revamped toilets are a horror show, they look totally out of keeping with what was once a nice little pub, like something straight out of a tacky Essex nightclub and have the kind of light nobody wants to see their faces in especially after a drink or 2 in the sun
The covered area to the back of the pub looks cheap and the heat-​lamps are pretty challenging to use and all the previous tables seem to have been crammed into a too-​small space making it near impossible to negotiate without tipping half your drink down somebody’s back. The now ubiquitous big screen TVs have changed the tone of the pub from a laid-​back arty place to meet friends to a chavvy sports pub, in the space of a year the clientele seems to have totally changed!
My friends and I had some pretty average, if overpriced fish and chips, and the service seems not to have improved much since the opening, and I doubt I’ll return any time soon None of the food I saw coming out looked anything like warranting the price tag and there are plenty of other nice pubs in the area The Angel, The Prince of Wales and The Wrestlers all wipe the floor with this place, in fact I’d much rather go to the local Wetherspoons than come here again Their service there is light-​years ahead of this place.
As a post-​script I have heard their noisy early morning deliveries aren’t making them too popular with local residents.

Go for the beer and you’ll be okay. The food, well, I’ve had way better. My husband and I both ordered medium burgers, which came with chips. The burger was well done, a bit too much so. And the chips? Well We each got 12. Yes. I counted. I was a bit surprised that we hadn’t gotten a bit more. Just going by my previous pub experience this place is shy on the fries.
But there is one bonus. They sell Christmas trees in their patio so you can carry one home after a pint at this local.

Not so much fading grandeur as a state of early decomposition, the building could do with a few quid spending on it (including the toilets).
However, it’s a nice place for a drink, with good beer (real ale) and a Monday evening quiz that’s quite popular.
The waiter/​waitress service is a nice bonus.

The Woodman had been a regular haunt of mine for years but recently their attention to quality seems to have slipped.
From a smokers point of view (easily converted to a summer weather point of view) this pub has arguably the best beer garden in Highgate with the new inclusion of dual outdoor widescreen TVs (so you can no longer hide from the weeks sport).
Bored on a weekday? The Woodman redeems itself slightly by creating specific nights for comedy, quizzes and musical entertainment. These are mostly good fun (although be warned, you will need a quick wit for the comedy as the room is very small and audience interaction encouraged).
When it comes down to it the Woodman is my least favorite pub in highgate because the Beer is just not nice, and that’s what I want from a pub. Should you prefer a great atmosphere, excellent beer garden and entertainment then this is the best! (weird I know).

Living in the area it is nice to have a place nearby with a huge garden. It is a good place to come for a drink in the afternoon and sit outside. Prices are very reasonable as well. I’ve tried a few of the menu items — brie and nachos which again were very good. I read reviews about the loud tv outside but I’ve been here 4 or 5 times in the evenings and weekends and the tv hasn’t been on — so maybe they just put it on for the big sports events. So don’t let this put you off.

really nice place, odd staff but cheap and really good wine, and great value food. Really reccomend the house red and sweet potato wedges… simple …boho and comfortable x

A welcome sight to anybody who has walked from one side of Hampstead Heath to the other and is in need of food and refreshment before they get on the tube home. The Woodman’s selling point is its large beer garden /​decking, which, despite being close to the road is surprisingly quiet. The screens blasting out ITV2 outside did get slightly irritating but I can imagine it’s decent for football.
Also, the prices are reasonable considering the area, and the quality of the food is good. Considering it has almost exactly the same menu as a pub nearby, it’s at least £3 cheaper per dish and you can’t really go wrong with a £10 Sunday roast of this quality — especially one that gets the pork crackling spot on.
The bar staff are friendly as well, but the one huge let down is the toilets. Dank, pokey and no hand dryer or paper towels. Still, that aside it’s a decent place to laze on a sunny afternoon.

Food was brill for a while but now lurched back to bog standard pub food. Table service in a pub also seems odd. V good location right near top exit of highgate tube.

The beer garden for this pub on the Archway Road is massivereally huge. The inside is smaller, but pretty nice too.
On my visit there were 3 real ales on pump, plus a guest (which was very nice, wish I could remember the name!) all served by someone who looked like one of the Weasley twins.
There was some music on but I personally found it a bit too loud so escaped into the garden.

Really like this pub these days. Cool décor, outdoor seating, good food and really friendly staff!

Not much about the Woodman except the food here is pretty good. My sister went had the Sunday Lunch and said it was well worth taking the trip. They offer table service here which is quite unusual for a traditional type pub like this.
I personally found that although they had four or five ales on tap, three of them were the same — Greene King (boring)!
Décor wise it is a bit dark and dingy for me, as I like the bright modern or quaint homely country style fire place kind of thing. the Woodman is neither. May try the Sunday roast sometime but won’t be back very often.

Quite a good pub, best to visit in the summer though to take advantage of the outside. Frequented by locals, some of whom are decidedly rough. Gets busy when there’s a match on.

Shame about the location (right at a busy crossroads next to Highgate Station) but this is still a decent pub.
Huge beer garden but unfortunately it is right next to the traffic.
Menu looked alright and they seem to do a Sunday roast, and the ale was OK (Courage Directors, Greene King, Bombardier).
The bar staff were a great laugh, I saw the Champions League final projected on the big screens, and some pool being played.
Good place if you happen to be passing or in the area.