The Hat and Tun

Disappointing crap ciabatta in a really lovely pub.
Badly put together, not what it said on the menu and short on all the good ingredients.
A shame because the pub is cool.
Wonderful big oak bar holding all the drink. A couple of stuffed animals. Lots of wood, lots of atmosphere.
I ordered some chips too which came well after I’d quaffed the sarnie. The chips were rubbish. Standard pub fare, coated in that horrible stuff. Could have come from Wetherspoons.
My two lunchmates had fish pie and declared it excellent though. So maybe I just chose a wrong un.
But I wouldn’t say the food is cheap so the standard of my food wasn’t up to par.
I must say however that this is a great pub to go and have a drink.
Really nice feel to it. A place where you can hunker down for a good few.
Lively, airy and comfy.
If they could sort the food out…

The Hat and Tun was a really pleasant surprise. A warm, ‘proper old boozer’ that does the basics right. A range of different drinks — wine, cocktails, lager, ale — and well-​kept ale to Cask Marque standard. Sure, there are only three different ales, but I’d take a smaller range of beer that is well-​kept over a larger range of poorly kept ale anytime.
Clearly it’s a pub that’s open to new ideas too, because when we were there they were hosting a soft-​shelled crab pop-​up producing tasting crab-​filled buns — yum. I noticed they also host pub quizzes.
Somewhere I’ll be returning to when next in the area.

In that strange couple of days between Christmas and New Year, my friend and I found ourselves in a strange position: In Farringdon, hungry, and thinking it was Sunday when it was probably Thursday.
Which meant that bugger all was open.
After a long walk, we found ourselves in the Hat and Tun, and I was impressed. Friendly staff (and table service, even for drinks) kicked us off with an excellent start to our lunch. They had a good selection of beers on tap (although I was on the orange juice and lemonade) and the pub food menu was different. They’re sneaking up to doing decent pub grub, but it’s wholesome rather than gastropubby.
Instead of going all out and having pie and mash, I went for a ‘huntsman’s lunch’. Basically everything you’d get with a ploughmans, but with cheese instead of ham (I imagine a ‘freelance writer’s lunch’ would have cheese AND ham, I might invent one). The slab of bread it came with was HUGE and I was super impressed with their pickle choices, all very tasty. Not bad at £8.
The scotch egg wasn’t really worth the £3 (and it kinda tasted like it was out of a packet), and I find it strange that everything comes with crisps not chips. But their sandwiches are bigger than my head.
I’d come back here. It’s an easily forgotten about pub (what with the Gunmakers being down the road), but I really like it, and I reckon I’ll find myself here again soon.

There are a few things about the Hat and Tun that I found confusing, firstly the strange array of fierce looking taxidermy on the wall, secondly the fact that they didn’t serve chips, not even with their burgers?! I mean come on Hat and Tun who in their right mind wants burger and crisps!!! It’s like saying «hey come on, who wants a game of bat and bowl» The answer is no one, because even though it sounds like a familiar concept it is fundamentally WRONG!!! The last bit of confusion stemmed from the pie I ordered… The steak and ale pie arrived swiftly, much to my giddy anticipation, but the anticipation faded into slight disappointment when I discovered that this was a sham of a pie. Yes, you heard, it was a fraudulent pie. What do I mean by a fraudulent pie I hear you cry, well I shall explain… my definitition of a pie is this «a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that completely contains a filling» and it’s herein lies the problem, I stuck my knife eagerly into the edge of the crust only to discover that the pie was made of ceramic, not pastry! Essentially it was the top of a pie covering a bowl of meat! Chewy meat at that… Where are my pie edges and base!
Pie debacle aside it seemed like a nice enough boozer, probs slighly on the pricey side, but where isn’t these days.
I might pop in for the monday quiz, and if I do return i’ll be sure to update you.

A lovely place to grab a drink on the way back to Islington from the city owned by the same people that own The White Swan — possibly my favourite place to eat, fullstop. This is perfect for a few drinks and some nibbles in a wonderfully cozy environment early evening. Great wine selection.

Yay! Here is a pub that is obviously trying to make it work and are getting it right. We headed to the Hat and Tun on a Monday evening to try out their new quiz night. (Quiz starts at 7.30pm)
It’s not the biggest pub in the world but it is well equipped with lots of tables and chairs and lots of bar stools. It meant that the venue could comfortably hold around 8 teams for the quiz night. The people who didn’t manage to grab a table were happily accommodated at the bar. They also have a real fireplace (bonus!).
The bar staff are very friendly. There is table service for food and drinks (I’m not sure if this was just a quiz night thing.) The barmaid came round several times to ask if we needed any more drinks. The food was your typical pub food but with a posher take. I had the chicken and vegetable pie which was quite tasty and came with a very big pile of mash. It’s a little more expensive than your usual pub grub but there is a deal for a pie and a pint which makes it worthwhile.
The quiz itself is the best quiz that we’ve tried so far. The host is friendly and quite gregarious (tick!). The questions are challenging but not too challenging (tick!). The questions fall into the general knowledge category which meant that it wasn’t totally inaccessible for us Aussies (tick!).
It was really well organised as well. I signed up to a Facebook and the event manager for the pub emailed me to ask if I wanted to reserve a table. She also emailed me on the day to confirm numbers. It meant that the pub was able to organise themselves for expected numbers and no one was disappointed.
When we left the pub the owners farewelled us and asked us if we’d be back. It was a resounding Yes from this quiz team. Well done, Hat and Tun.

I scooted over to the Hat and Tun’s opening party (
) last week. It’s a dapper lil pub that I intend to return to soon. A nice addition to Clerkenwell’s pub scene too (as if we needed another quality pub in these here parts (
) — not that I’m complaining!). I think what I liked most was the real honest to goodness working fireplace. Next dreary day (um well that’s actually today), I’m there. I’m off to the pub! See ya.