The Porterhouse, 21-22 Maiden Lane

The Porterhouse, 21-22 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NA

It’s Friday evening and I am in a pub packed full with office workers. Nothing unusual there you might think. What if I was to say I was standing in a fake Victorian cellar complete with faux plastic riveted beams? Slightly tacky perhaps? Well, more bizarre actually as I am standing on the first floor with a view out to a backstreet from the nearby window. The architect who dreamed up this concept clearly had a screw or plastic rivet loose. Getting here had been a mission. Firstly there were the two bouncers standing like sentries in the heated patio at the front of the pub. Then there were the crowds. The crowds. It was as if every other pub in Covent Garden had been closed and the only available drinking den available was this place. The final challenge in this Krypton Factor style mission to grab a pint was the labyrinthine layout with its mezzanines and split levels above split levels, weird giant clocks and massive bits of copper piping. The prize for all this hard work was a coveted patch of floor space outside the ladies loos to drink and chat in. The drinking, it has to be said, is good here. The pub serves its own excellent range of Irish beers including Plain Porter, Porterhouse Red and the rather scary sounding Brainblasta which at 7% will leave you with a smoking void where your brain used to be the next day. If you can ignore the super fake décor and the heaving crowds this is a decent pub.

Reviewed by Paul Melton, Dec 2008

Telephone: 020 7379 7917

Nearby pubs: Nell Gwynne, 1-2 Bull Inn Court (off Strand) (50 metres), The Cove, 1 The Piazza, Covent Garden (150 metres), The Punch and Judy, 40 The Market, The Piazza (150 metres), The Maple Leaf, 41 Maiden Lane (30 metres), The Coal Hole, 91-92 The Strand (110 metres), The Essex Serpent, 6 King St (140 metres)

Nearest station: Covent Garden, Zone 1 (260 metres)