The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

• Nearby Tube stops: Green Park / Marble Arch / Bond Street

Drinks

Directors �2.43/pint, also Theakstons Best, Courage Best, and an IPA (I'm fairly certain it was the Greene King one) which ran out during the evening.

Food

Food served 11am--9:30pm Monday--Saturday and noon--9pm Sunday, although be warned that the restaurant takes priority over bar food; the night we were there they stopped serving food in the bar for about an hour due to heavy demand in the restaurant.

There's a good range of main courses on the menu -- three fish dishes, two meat dishes, a pie of the day, and three vegetarian dishes. Specific ones I noted were Salmon & Broccoli Fishcakes served with salad and hollandaise sauce (�7.75, a little disappointing, not very plausible sauce), Sausages & Mash with Red Onion Gravy (�6.25, very good mash, Leon said good gravy too), Penne with Mushroom Sauce served with garlic ciabatta (�6.95, Andrew said it was good) and Red Pepper, Courgette and Mushroom Lasagne (�6.95). They also do sandwiches priced between �3.75 and �5.25. [All prices as of June 2002]

Service and Ambience

No background music, which is a plus. There was plenty of ambient noise from people talking, anyway. Although there were people smoking, it didn't feel smoky, possibly because there was a lot of coming and going and door-opening, and the pub is quite spacious and has a reasonably high ceiling.

There were a lot of people in black tie the night we were there (a Thursday evening), and most of the others were in suits; a lady I was chatting to said that the mix of people that night wasn't unusual. We were a table full of scruffy geeks, but we didn't feel particularly out of place; the other people in the pub seemed to be concentrating much more on themselves than on whether everyone else was dressed "appropriately".

The service was pretty friendly, and generally competent. They made a mistake with our food order, but it got rectified.

Layout

There are two bar areas (according to pubs.com; I didn't explore too widely) one more for dining and the other your standard pub bar. We were in the bar bit, in one of the U-shaped sofaed alcoves lining the wall opposite the bar. It felt nice and cosy there despite the large number of people in the room. There are also standard rectangular tables between the alcoves and the bar, and another room off to the side of the bar with more seating. The decor is in good condition, and pretty ornate, with a decorated ceiling and a couple of chandeliers.

Disabled Access and Other Facilities

The ladies' (not sure about the men's) is on the same level as the main bar, and was clean if a little cramped (though not unusually so for Central London).

There is a function room available for hire, at no cost if the bar take is over �350. It's in the basement, but there are toilets on the same level. None of the handpulled beers are available on the function room bar, unfortunately, though people would be welcome to order them upstairs and take them down. Proper food isn't served in the function room, either; the only food option is a buffet of things like sausage rolls, chicken drumsticks, onion rings, samosas, etc, for �4.25--�6.50 per head.

There isn't a beer garden, but there are three or four benches outside on the pavement.

Other Reviews

• pubs.com review
• e-street.com brief review and photo
• Aidan's London Pub Crawls -- Mayfair mentions the Audley about halfway down the page
• Harbottle's pub guide review of the Audley has photos of the nice decor