Woodins Shades

The line for the nearby Breakfast Club was far too long, so we walked around and found this pub open. We got the Full English breakfast and a breakfast sandwich, along with some of their flavored lemonades. It took quite a while to actually get our order — luckily we were the first ones there, it seemed like even longer for the people there after us. This was my first time trying the English breakfast and I enjoyed it, even the black pudding. Not as big portions as I believe some of the other places have, but also a pretty decent price, and probably better to not be overstuffed with grease early in the morning.
The service was quite slow for it being pretty quiet, but they were otherwise friendly enough. Not a bad stop, and we were glad to find it when there weren’t really any other breakfast alternatives around.

I enjoyed my first real English beer at this Pub after arriving. I relished it while standing outside. And in doing so, I meet a waitress from the restaurant part upstairs. She gave me a good opinion of the place, so I ate here the following night.
I decided to try their fish and chips dinner. It was a huge piece of flaky, delicate fish in a nice batter. Good and crunchy on the outside and lovely on the inside. The chips weren’t the best, but she said they didn’t have their normal chips and these were the replacement. The mashy peas were good for mashed peas.
I’ll be honest. I would come here again for the feel of the place as much as the food. Both are very comforting and satisfying and the staff is very nice. I hope I’m lucky enough to visit London again in the future.

When I go to a pub to have dinner I don’t really expect my dish to impress me in a way that I would expect Gordon Ramsay’s cooking to impress me. So having ordered a vegetarian burger I didn’t expect much. When the burger was brought to me I was happy enough and with a cold beer to go with it I feel that the pub succeeded in living up to the definition I have in mind of a pub. In terms of what it served that is.
Not in terms of how it was served however. When my friend and I stepped to the bar to place an order we noticed immediately that the bar was seriously undermanned. Knowing ourselves how incredibly stressful it is to work in such a situation, we felt a bit sorry for the guys who obviously struggled to keep up with the number of waiting clients. It was however not simply too much to handle for the two, they worked really clumsily as well and could for some reason not communicate with one another (we later found out that one of the two waiters struggled to understand English, which may explain the problem). I have never seen a barman tap beer in such a weird way. While we were still waiting for our orders to be taken, we witnessed how empty pints glasses were put on top of smaller glasses so that the barman didn’t have to hold the glasses while tapping beer. This obviously unstable structure managed to collapse three times within in five minutes, resulting in three shattered glasses on the floor.
After this bizarre sight we could finally order. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on our sides, the online payment system failed to work, so after 25 minutes of waiting we were asked to get cash. While my friend ran to the closest cash point I watched how the barman prepared our pitcher of Pimm’s. I feared for the safety of his hand while he chopped up an apple in the air, and breathed with relief when he moved on to the strawberries. We thought we had seen everything, until we finally managed to pay. When I looked at the bill I saw we were charged for random items we hadn’t ordered, so I went back to check with them what was going on. In part because I could understand that the failing card machine could be blamed, but mostly because the items we were charged for are usually cheaper than the items we had ordered would be. The bartender, who couldn’t speak English, referred me to his colleague. This colleague came up with the incredible story that he just puts random names on the receipt but that the price was definitely right. I mean, I don’t mind if you prefer to call 1 pitcher of Pimm’s 3 pints of Stella Artois, and 1 pint of Stella a pint of Carlsberg, and to say it’s 40 pounds when the receipt shows an incredibly weird looking equation that adds up to 30 pounds 50. I do however mind when I’m looked at as a fool when I say this is unexpected and strange. Oh well…

I dunno why everyone is so down on this place, but then again most previous reviews are a bit dated and maybe there’s been recent improvements. I thought the service was pretty good but it was a Sunday night and maybe it’s not so much on busier nights. I was nicely surprised by their menu though, I didn’t expect so much variety for an English Pub and especially for a non-​meater like me, but they have a lot more than Fish and Chips and the couple of items I sampled were pretty good, especially the nut pie that my friend had (I had the Seabass, and another friend had the wild boar burger, which he really enjoyed).

This is a reliable spot for a beer in the square mile. While possessing of almost all of the downsides of a pub in the city, on both recent visits my companions and I have managed to find space to stand or even sit, which was a most unexpected but no unwelcome surprise!
On my first visit I enjoyed an unusual but tasty beer from Stewart Brewing called Zymic. The second visit was during their spring beer festival so there were a handful of interesting choices available.

Worst bar with rude workers I’ve been to in uk. I will never come back. Not enough seats and just rude!

I went in here with a small group of people at the end of a walking tour on a quiet weekday evening and found the apparent manager very inhospitable. I had one drink of unchilled white wine, not medium dry like I’d asked but sweet, his English wasn’t good.
The whole place is quite soulless and has got the air of just another chain pub. Not a very nice place at all, but at least in leaving this depressing pub, we were to discover the altogether more friendly and welcoming surroundings of ‘Dirty Dicks next door. Verdict give the Woodins Shades a wide birth and go to Dirty Dicks instead!

Why do pubs insist on playing kids music way too loud to adults? We had to leave, which was a pity as the Adnams Ghost Ship was in great condition.
Bar-man’s reaction on being asked to turn the music down a bit, was to turn it up. Won’t be back.

Service here is indifferent, but they have enough beer on tap and it’s a very convenient place to meet up.
It’s very traditional old London inside and gets packed at leaving the office before the train times.
They have awnings outside with heaters and sensibly wide window sills for booze restage where smokers can congregate for a sneaky fag and be pestered by local beggars and displaced Whitchapel nutters.
As others have mentioned, more a place to meet up than to stay.

Good place to meet up, Nice beer, I love the Landlord Bitter.
They just taken the TV’s out so there’s no sport anymore,
with this the music has got louder, so get close if you need to talk.

Woodin’s is a perfect place to meet friends at the beginning of an evening as it’s really close to Liverpool Street Station. It’s usually full of the city types but don’t let this put you off.
It’s a pretty big place with a couple of floors, the first floor has a couple of pool tables, and there’s plenty of traditional English pub seating. There’s a Victorian style to this old boozer with plenty of beers on offer. It’s not somewhere I’d choose to stay all night but it’s a good place to start and if you like your sport it’s a great venue to watch football or rugby with their huge screen.

Coming through hell and high water (rain), I staggered into this pub dripping water copiously onto the polished, gripless floor (I say gripless because I was scrabbling like a monkey to lift myself into one of the stalls because of my soaking shoe soles.) The music playing was soft and gentle, exactly matching my mood as I watched rain pound the streets of London. This pub is pretty damn large — from the outside it covers a large corner and has two floors — a pub on the bottom and an eating area upstairs. Maybe I overrate this pub because it was where I sought refuge but after an ice cold pint of Stella, I felt that I had found an excellent little haunt. Recommended, and just three minutes to the left outside Liverpool Street Station.

If you happen to be along Liverpool Street, meeting friends after work or waiting for a train, this traders pub is not bad for a quick drink. Surprisingly it’s not just full of city types and there’s a smart, yet informal atmosphere inside that is definitely preferable to some of the bars along here. We usually pop in as a last minute decision, often to wait for people in the group who are late meeting us before we all head off to somewhere more our style along Brick Lane.
It’s a pretty traditional pub (all dark brown wood and studded seats) so has a fair list of beers and ales and the bar staff have always been welcoming and quick to serve us. Upstairs is the eating area where I once had fairly good sausages and mash for only £5.95.
If you’re standing outside, look along the side of the wooden frames where you can find little buttons that activate the mini heaters overhead.

A decent pub in a good location that offers a wide range of beers and some pretty good food. I have stopped in a few times with friends for a quick pint or two and thought I would return to try some food. My friend and I both had one of the ‘Sausag and mash’ meals on offer and my cumberland sausage variant was pretty good for about £6ish. The beer (Timothy Taylors Landlord) was well kept and tasty.

Nachdem wir den Spitalfield Market besucht hatten, durch die bezaubernde Brick Lane geschlendert sind, stolperten wir auf der Flucht vor der Kälte in diesen wirklich netten Pub, um Fußball zu schauen (Aresenal gegen Chelsea, für die, die es interessiert). Der Pub war gut besucht und wirkte recht heimelig und gemütlich.
Man gibt sich hier Mühe, es gibt Knabbereien zum Bier, das Weinangebot ist hervorragend, die Biersorten reichlich. Eine Treppe höher ist die Dining Area, wo es die Award winnning homemade sausages gibt. Wenn ich an englische Würstchen denke, kommt mir das Wort Industrieabfall in den Kopf, aber das nur am Rande. Nicht böse gemeint.
Gegessen haben wir dort nicht, aber die Karte war umfangreich und gehörte preislich mit zu dem Vernünftigsten, was wir in London bis dato gesehen hatten. Die Gerichte lagen bei 5 9 Pfündchen. Auch die Getränke waren ausgesprochen vernünftig bepreist. Ein pint und ein großes Glas Wein für 6,30.
Wir haben und dort ausgesprochen wohl gefühlt, sind leicht mit den Londonern ins Gespräch gekommen und hatten tonnenweise gute Zeit. Nur ein kleiner Tip am Rande: Passt bitte generell in London auf eure Taschen auf, denn in den Pubs wird wohl geklaut wie die Raben. Dies erzählten uns zwei Polizisten, die mit uns am Tresen standen. Mit denselbigen haben wir uns herrlich über deutschen (!) Fußball unterhalten.
Vorsicht, sollte der Abend länger werden, hier ist Versackgefahr, denn eine Runde kann man hier flugs mal mit Kreditkarte bezahlen. Bei den Londoner Preisen keine schlechte Idee.
Würde auf jeden Fall wiederkommen. Cheerio!
Chelsea hat übrigens gewonnen.