26 Apr 2023
James Cameron checks out Big Smoke Brewery’s backstreet boozer…
You’re not short of pubs in the area around Old London Road, in fact when visiting the White Lion you have to be careful you don’t accidentally end up in the White Hart or White Hart Tap, or even the Lower Red Lion (our ancestors were not particularly imaginative when it came to naming pubs). So, does the White Lion have enough to make it stand out from the crowd?
The pub is in good nick, with a nice range in Easter-themed decorations. It has one of the best beer gardens in St Albans, useful if the rain ever decides to take a break, and the staff are both friendly and efficient.
It is not long since it was taken over by Surrey-based brewery Big Smoke Brew Co. and as you’d expect they dominate the beer list, with seven different brews ranging from Bitter to Cider. They also have a number of guest ales including old favourite Sussex Best by Harveys. When pubs have that many beers on tap it can be tricky to maintain them all, but having worked my way through a fair proportion of them in the name of research I can confirm that they were all delivered in a perfect state.
But we didn’t come to the pub to just drink beer, that would be an absurd idea and also a very short review, we were here to eat. The menu was reasonably varied, though with only one veggie/vegan option in each section and no side dishes. There was a definite ambition in the offerings, though possibly not quite reaching gastro-pub level.
We were able to mix and match between the starters, sharers and main courses, and I went for that classic combination of mackerel pate and nachos (not on the same plate).
The pate was intensely smoky; slightly overwhelming when you first taste it but my taste buds quickly became accustomed to it. It was good to have something slightly lighter to offset the intensity, in my case the sour cream from the nachos. I would imagine eaten on its own would require a certain fortitude to make it through.
Elsewhere on the nachos the corn chips had a nice salty barbeque flavour, though they had become very solid with the melted cheese, and it was difficult to break off more than the smallest corner.
The non-burger vegan option for the mains was a Mediterranean vegetable tart, and this was a triumph. The standout was the range of textures, it was smooth in the middle then crunchy on the top, almost like a treacle tart.
Another of our party ordered the Hake, pan-seared with a horseradish sauce. This was labelled and priced as a main though it wasn’t actually much larger than one of the nominally small plates. What there was of it was very tasty, though not fully de-boned.
Luckily this meant there was plenty of room for dessert. I was still powering through my nachos so I went for another pint for pudding, but for the others there was a vegan cheesecake and a sticky toffee pudding.
The cheesecake had all the flavour of its dairy-based brethren, though with a slightly different texture that was not unpleasant.
The sticky toffee pudding was a great big slab of sweetness, it put the portion size of the hake to shame, and had a lovely light fluffiness. Those not drinking beer had some peppermint tea, thoughtfully provided with cold water for temperature control and a couple of mints.
We visited on a Monday night but you wouldn’t know it from the lively atmosphere. There was even a knitting circle in the room next to us. 8pm was clearly party time as at this point the volume of the music pumped up, but the musical choices were all so good that we couldn’t begrudge them the fact that our conversations now had to be shouted.
So if you are lucky enough to live close to the White Lion then there are plenty of reasons to make it your local, even though there are many other potential locals locally. It’s a warm and welcoming place, with a great range of beer and some interesting food choices.
It’s also worth keeping an eye on their website as they run some really interesting events, in the past these have included mini beer festivals and German beer and food pairings, and they host regular live music.
There is something about the White Lion that envelops you like a warm hug and every time I visit I find it very hard to drag myself away at the end of the evening.
