I had a great meal here. My first night in London and this was just the perfect spot for a meal and a drink after slogging around all day because of the Tube strike. The waiter was super nice and service was quick. It also looks about as English as can be and is pretty inside. Give it a try! read more

The Porcupine - A Porcupine at The Porcupine. - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

We had the best service while taking a break from walking around London. We stopped in and went upstairs for a bite to eat. We ordered the Landlord's Platter to get a variety of items to try. We enjoyed all the items included, but of course as an American, the only thing missing was for the grilled peppers to be stuffed with cream cheese. We also ordered the Sticky Toffee Pudding to finish off our visit. Of course this was also very good. Our server, Kaysha was very friendly and attentive. If you are in the area, I would recommend The Porcupine Bar for a meal and a drink for sure!! read more

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yessss! English Fish n Chips with a cold ale. purrrfect! Celeste was our lovely hostess/waitress and made the meal more fun. Cheers! read more

The Porcupine - Deeelishush!! - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Yes, yes. Quite right! A fine English pub. Everything oyu need. Cask ales. standard menu. Scotch egg. Picalilly. Green sauce. Stop in for a pint. It's good. Fast bar service, friendly maids. read more

Stopped in for a bite to eat on a lark. Good and drink were good and plentiful. Atmosphere was lively but not too loud to hold a conversation. read more

I absolutely loved it here. Not sure if it's because I was on my second beer by the time I got there, but it was so good. Great food, great beer, great view. Will go back! read more

The Porcupine - Upstairs dining! - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

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Service was excellent! Friendly and attentive.... Food was amazing! Highly recommend this place.

Cheeky spot I suppose. Filled with hooligan and birds. Loved the shepherds pie and Guinness. Proper pint always does the soul well me dad says. Highly recommend read more

Basic pub (in a convenient location) with extra history! The dinner crowd fills the place up, so get here before the working class gets off work! Standard beef and fish dishes, with basic sides like potatoes and corn. Carnivorous men (like me) eat here. In addition to the standard ales and beets, they have a wide variety of gins. In fact; the gin selection is so huge, I temporarily switched from vodka to gin - all good. You can also order a flavored tonic to add to your drink; so I also ordered a double vodka - with a lemon tonic mixer. I was able to mix it to my taste preference; good idea! read more

The Porcupine - A little pub history! - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

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We are here 3x while we stayed across street. The waitress was awesome and so kind. The food was great!! The best pub food we Had while in London and we tried a lot. They had great fish and chips. Perfectly fried and full of taste. The toads in hole were great. Their gravy kept you going back for more. Their pies were all simply but yet packed with flavor and goodness. Awesome place. read more

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Nice place to stop after walking and eating our way through Chinatown. Beer was good, red wine was very overpriced. It was £8.50 and tastes like crap. Otherwise, service was friendly and great. read more

The Porcupine - Bar - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Stopped in for a beer with friends. 3 of the drat beers were out so ordered second choices. Beer was warm and flat, couldn't finish it. Place is expensive a the beer was terrible, how do you screw up beer? they did. read more

The food was great and Varun our server was excellent. Very attentive and great service. I had the shepherds pie and it was delicious.

This is a great, friendly little pub in the middle of "Bookstore Row," which is how I discovered it. I popped in here for a couple of pints and a rest in the middle of my bookstore crawl. During that magic hour, I discovered Spitfire Ale and a wee lovely Eastern European bartendress. I never got her name, but I remembered "Spitfire," which probably shows you where my priorities are. Good service (they'll let you try the beers) and solid happy hour specials. read more

My brother and I were in London from the U.S. and stopped by this place as a part of the complete tourist trap of the "Ale Trail". From what I remember, this place smelled like an armpit. We got our beers, got our stamp, and bounced. read more

The Porcupine - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

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Solid pub but nothing outstanding. The food was as the three stars say...A-ok but not great. We had a couple beers for lunch before heading to the Harry Potter play which is walking distance from this pub. We needed something fairly quick and were hoping for some of the amazing pub food we had been having and this was our least favorite pub on our trip. The history at this pub however is cool. Take time to read about it and if it is a convenient location for your travels it is good but I would not go out of my way. The food really is bland is what the problem probably was that it did not blow us away. I almost never add salt to my food and I found myself looking for the salt shaker. I had to Guinness pie and my fiance the Sheppard's pie. Both lacked any flavor but were edible. The pastry was also dry on both and not light and buttery. read more

I met a friend for lunch on Sunday (should have been friends the plural but my friends are rather magnificent at understating how long it will take them to arrive anywhere) and after wasting some time waiting for the late comers outside of Leicester Square station, we decided to head to the first pub in view as pub grub was very much the order of the day. We were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't too busy for lunch time so close to Christmas and we grabbed a table by the main bar rather than upstairs in the dining area. It was quite nice for people watching with Charing Cross Road as busy as ever. The menu is great for pub food and we agonised for a while over what to order. I wanted a Sunday roast but the bangers and mash was calling to me, as was the skinny share platter. And the steak and ale pie. I even briefly flirted with the idea of fish and chips because while I'm not a fish and chips fan (sorry, England) the table next to us all ordered it and it looked and smelled delicious. After my friend decided on what she wanted (the share platter, all to herself because it's Christmas), I was under pressure. I opted for the ham hock roast and was clear to the bar tender about my REAL, GENUINE, LIFE THREATENING allergy to those green vegetables that fall between O and Q in the alphabet. My friend's food arrived quite quickly, a huge place of Mac & Cheese, chicken wings and lots of tasty looking dips and snacks. Mine would be out soon so I told her to fire away. Almost 20 minutes later - when my friend had finished - my food arrived. Boo! Hiss! Rubbish. The meal itself was nice. The serving of ham was very generous and cooked perfectly. I also had a good sized Yorkshire pudding, some crispy roasties and what can only be described as a mountain of green beans. Clearly there was no contingency plans for those of us who die immediately in the presence of those horrible little green things I mentioned earlier. I wasn't impressed however to discover that when another friend arrived later and ordered a Sunday roast, hers not only arrived much quicker than mine but she was also served kale. KALE! Where was my kale? Do I not deserve kale?! After sitting for what felt like hours playing 'Heads Up' and chatting rubbish, I decided to get a pudding - sticky toffee pudding and custard, no less. It came out quickly and was a perfectly scrummy but not quite scrummy enough to make up for the long wait for my lunch and of course, the greatest scandal of my generation: Hala getting kale and me getting NONE! read more

The Porcupine - Picture of my friend Hala - who deserves kale more than I do - with her ham hock roast. - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Sometimes it's not the food that makes the experience, but the people you're with. That was the case at Porcupine with our amazing server, Anthony. I'm positive the food tasted better because of his service. But I can honestly say the food was good too! We ordered some traditional pies and it was everything we hoped for before we ventured to an evening play in the West End. And in case you think I'm making up the words about our waiter from Breton, he even wrote an adorable card for us before we left. Go for the pies, stay for the service. read more

The Porcupine - I'm positive that this note naked my food taste better! - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Aa Nicholsons outlet serving a good (rotating)selection of real ales from around the UK. Upstairs there is a restaurant that always seems to be busy with a mix of Tourists and Locals. The staff seem to enjoy working there, which is a bit of a rarity in London. All in all, well worth popping in if you're in Leicester Square! read more

The Porcupine - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Ordered a burger w/no mayo & tomato. Server did not write down my order. Was served burger WITH mayo & tomato. Replacement took forever to come, my friend had finished his meal by the time I got mine. Restaurant refused to give any discount. Rude server too. Will never come here again read more

My companion and I were incredibly hungry when we came here, but the food was just alright. I had a burger and he had fish and chips. The batter on the fish was a little soft for our taste and didn't have a crunch to it. Also, my burger was fully cooked well done even though I was never asked or anything. Finally, for the food quality we got, it seemed quite expensive. We didn't have drinks or an appetizer or dessert, and it was still around 35 euros. read more

I came here due to its location as soon as I hit London. I ordered the classic fish and chips and it was awful. The fish was bland and u can tell it was not that fresh. The batter was soggy and the oil u can tell they have used it for a long time and too greasy. The lamb Shepard pie was so unsatisfying. I wasn't sure What i was eating. I barely found any meat and the gravy was just too gooey. The steak was the same. Everything needed more seasoning. I was angry because I planned to come here for only three days and I wasted one meal here. Do not come here for food. read more

Surprisingly, a good place to duck out and away from the Charing Cross crowds. Reasonable pint prices, nice selection of lagers & ales (Peroni, London Pride, IPA, for a start....). I particularly liked the dark wood, 'olde' pub interior decor. Excellent place to meet people from out of town as it is very easy to find. read more

The Game Pie was tremendous! The fish and chips was the best so far on this trip. Great atmosphere and service. Definitely recommend!

So, why is it that the English seem to be able to come up with these magnificent names for their pubs, whereas we Australians simply stick to names like 'The Royal Hotel' or 'The Fitzroy Arms' or even simply naming them after the suburb, or the street, in which they are located. So, here I was, wondering down Charing Cross Road, visiting the numerous second-hand bookshops located there, and significantly increasing the weight of my luggage in the process, when I came across this pub. Fortunately it was still quite early which meant that I could actually walk inside, order a beer, and have a seat. This would not be the case as the day wore on (and it was Easter Saturday as well, so it appeared that people had come from all over Europe to spend the weekend here). It wasn't necessarily a bad pub (and the fact that I go a seat really did add to my appreciation of the place) but it wasn't necessarily a stand out star either. Mind you, I can't really complain about the beers on tap simply because I really can't expect them to have Coopers Pale available, though they do, without fail, always have the Stella on tap. Mind you, I seem to always get dirty looks when I order pints of Stella in England, which suggests that maybe it doesn't have the important moniker that it has here in Australia. read more

Randomly stopped in at this pub to have a drink and relax for a few minutes. It didn't take long for me to realize it resembled The Coal Hole...they have my favorite cider (Wild Berry), their menu looks familiar, the dark wood is strikingly similar...OH it's run by the same owners! The Porcupine has a much smaller bar area but I did notice there was an upstairs where they had a dining area. The bartender was super nice and the place in right next to Chinatown. It's a winner in my book! read more

This is a good spot for meeting people before a show instead of Leicester Square tube stop, since it's always a shit-show there. Bartenders are mildly friendly at best. The mulled wine is decent, although it tends to run out quick. They also have little bar bites on the menu like a snack portion of fish and chips which is a nice option if you're in a hurry. Not necessarily a great destination, but a nice place to stall before you get to yours. read more

I met here with a couple of friends before going to see Ghost Stories. They have an upstairs dining room that is quite comfortable with a noise level that makes it possible to talk to each other without yelling, so that's a plus! The food was decent to average pub fair, nothing surprising there as most pubs in London, whether chain pub or standalone, seem to offer the same decent, unremarkable food. However, when it came to paying, it turned out to be a huge problem that out of the three of us two paid cash and one with card. Somehow the single card payment seemed an issue that took a while to resolve. The staff was very good about it though, so no complaints there! read more

Stopped in for a few drinks during the wold cup finals. Definitely a chill spot located close to all of the major tourist spots if you are traveling. The food was pretty good and the staff was friendly . My only complaint would be it is pretty small and seating is very limited. But, how can you not visit a pub called the Porcupine at least once?? read more

Good service but terrible food. The fish and chips were mostly just batter and barely any fish. It was also very oily the oil was oozing from the fish. The mushed peas were definitely from a can and probably had been sitting out for a few days by the looks of them. Felt sick for the rest of the day. Wouldn't recommend. read more

Solid three stars for the fish and chips + local beers. Cozy spot. Prompt service. That's really it. I'd come again. But I wouldn't bust down doors to get here if I was only in London for a few hours. read more

This is a decent pub with a decent location. It is just by Leicester Square station. One thing that caught my attention is that it sells pie's, homemade aparently. I saw it on the menu and there was a wide range of pies. Nice friendly staff, a great place to go just after work on a friday if you want to get your weekend started. read more

Across from Hippodrome Casino. Almost time to watch The Saints play. Needed some lunch. GREAT fish & chips. Roast pork belly outstanding. read more

The Porcupine - Upstairs dining room. Cozy - Pubs Near Me - London, XGL

Not exactly an ideal pub to go to as a single person. I ordered a meat pie and it took them about 45 minutes to bring it to me. If you have nothing else better to do on a night out, you could do worse than go here. At least the food was adequate. read more

My first time here was not a very pleasant one. I am an American citizen living in London, I'm not going to carry my very expensive passport every where with me, that just wouldn't make sense. When i went to this pub, I was with a group of friends and me looking the youngest, i was asked to show ID. Not really worried about it, i pop out my California Identification, the guy behind the bar looks at it and says that he isn't allowed to accept that in a rude manner, so i tried to show him my International Student Card that shows I am a student here a long with many other forms of proof of my age and my identity and he wouldn't even take a gander. This lead to the group of us leaving all together. I had never been rejected by any of the pubs in the UK with my California License. The guy continued to explain that when he was in the United States he had to carry around his Passport everywhere with him. To me it seems as though he carries some kind of bias due to his personal experience which is not professional in my opinion. I can understand where he is coming from, but to be so rude to just say no and to not even consider any of my other proof was simple absurd. I didn't let one thing like this keep me from writing this, so last night i went back to the Porcupine because a good friend of mine wanted to try a type of beer they had on tap only to find that it wasn't ready yet and due to our previous experience from the rude bartender we simply left. Needless to say, they lost a lot of good business due to a ridiculous circumstance. I hope that those of you who are from the UK or have your passport with you at all times have a better experience than I have. read more

Another decent Nicholson's pub. Nic's always has a solid range on cask with beers from throughout the UK. They charge more than most places for a pint (c. four quid for a basic bitter or golden ale) but they also offer some beers you won't find elsewhere. And as with all Nic's pubs, the interior is a nice take on Pub Classic; the staff is relatively friendly; the beers are relatively well kept. A place to only visit out of convenience. read more

Typical British pub, but one actually visited by locals, so thumbs up there. It has your range of warm flat beers along with some familiar faces (ok ok, the "warm/flat" is 10C vs. the Stella I got at 5C, but on a relative scale...TWICE as warm.) We snagged seats here to watch the rugby, one TV screen in the corner. There wasn't really a "best place" to sit to see the TV. Lots of people standing outside, and in a well trafficked neighborhood, might be great for people watching. read more

My wife & I stayed in an apartment two doors down from this pub. Every night after spending the day roaming around London we would stop in for a drink. We didn't eat there but we really liked spending time here every night. read more

A nice little pub in the crazy bit of touristville. There was a place to sit. The drinks were cold. The bathrooms were clean. WIN!

Ended up in here after a wander around Leicester Square area (this is right next to the Underground). Went upstairs to dining area and had a nice meal with a view. Seating is a little cramped but our waitress was friendly and attentive, and the food was good. I got the honey glazed chicken with bacon with a pint of cider and it was one of the best meals I had in London. Definitely recommend if you're in the area and want a pub experience. read more