The Old Brewery, England by Bureaucrat

I had high hopes for The Old Brewery at Greenwich. Colleagues told me that TOB was a microbrewery, with a gastropub and located next to the Naval Museum with a gift shop (I'm a gift shop junkie). With those credentials, I just had to try it.


So for a post-Xmas lunch, the Lawyer and I decided to go for a good meal followed by a mosey around the gift shop.


Initial reaction was slightly disappointing. It just seemed like an average family friendly pub. Split into two dining areas, the dining area is decorated with glass bottles and a history of beer on the walls.


For entrees, we shared the half dozen oysters. These were medium sized and fresh, and were served with shallot vinagairette, tabasco and a beer-based dressing. I tried one with the beer dressing, which I didn't feel like it added much to the oyster. I ate the rest with a squeeze of lemon juice.


For mains, I ordered the mutton burger. This was quite bland and just scraping average. The mutton was meant to be seasoned with harissa, but I could hardly taste any zingyness. However, when the Lawyer tried a bit, he said it was strong with the earthy heat of the harissa. The bun was grilled, but it couldn't hide the fact that it was stale. The chips were refried (I'm not impressed), while the salad had a rather dodgy looking squirt of dressing.


The Lawyer ordered a pint of prawns. For UK standards, these were pretty good sized prawns. While the Lawyer demolised the prawns, as with the burger, I felt the prawns were a bit boring in presentation and flavour.

Overall
Going by the advertising, it seems TOB gets more 'gastro' and less 'pub' in the evening. I'm still intrigued enough to possibly try TOB for dinner, but I wouldn't make the effort to go back for lunch.

Address
The Old Brewery
Old Royal Naval College
Greenwich SE10 9LW
Telephone: 0203 327 1280