Why I love: The Royal Albert

I love pubs. But I particularly like The Royal Albert pub in New Cross, South East London. The Royal Albert reverted back to its original name after its former incarnation as The Paradise Bar closed down. Having used the bar when it was in its 'hey day' I often wondered if the word 'Lost' was mistakenly missed from between the words Paradise and Bar.



I started drinking in the new and improved The Royal Albert (sometimes referred to as the RA or The 'Bert by my mate and I) regularly when our usual local in Greenwich was sold and the new owners decided that Royal Hill needed an hideously expensive wine bar instead, The new owners also decided that their new swanky enterprise should be void of atmosphere and in turn empty of customers thus ultimately also making it a non money making enterprise.

We customers scattered far and wide. Well not that far or wide to be honest. For starters The Royal Albert is closer to where I live in Deptford. But the pub also offers a vibrant atmosphere, fine wines, great ales and lagers. They also offer very tasty food.

The food has been excellent since I have been using The Royal Albert regularly. Now considering it has had a few kitchen staff changes over the past 3 or 4 years it has kept up a remarkable degree of consistency. I have never once had the need to complain about the food or service there and neither has anyone else that I have know. Mind you, I did find the gravy a bit thin on a Sunday roast I had recently, but that would seem a tad harsh to pull them up on that. All the food is prepared in an open kitchen and as far as I know most of the food is sourced from local grocers, butchers and fishmongers.




The menu changes on a fairly regular basis and the food on it is always reasonably priced. Not to mention there are always very nice vegetarian options as well. I believe there is always at least one item on the menu that caters for vegans specifically, however, I am sure they will alter one of the vegetarian dishes for vegans accordingly whenever they can.



The Royal Albert does great food but unlike most modern food conscious pubs I have been to, it isn't secretly (or not very secretly in some cases) trying to be a restaurant. It is a pub first and foremost but has a nice area which you can eat especially if you have a party of 4 or more.



For real ale drinkers they have a selection of guest ales as well as the old standards. The staff are usually very clued up as to what is what so they obviously take their real ale seriously. I don't drink real ale myself but my partner does, and having gone into another Deptford pub not far from the RA recently and asked what ales they did, the bar staffer at first pointed to the lagers, then after some coaxing from us offered some Newcastle Brown. So even I appreciate that ale drinkers like to have confidence in the bar person knowing their onions, to coin a phrase. The staff in the RA certainly know theirs. Being a lager drinker I mostly drink Amstel in the Albert but they recently got in a lager I hadn't heard of before called Camden, which I have to say is pretty good. Always willing to give us a new drinking experience.



The staff are always welcoming and friendly. Happy to pass the time and chat if required and appropriate, and they never appear to be scared of some hard graft. I suspect this is because the manager Richard happens to be very good at his job as are the senior staff. There is also none of that aloofness I have experienced in other busy pubs that are mostly staffed by young people. I think it is this pleasant attitude that adds to the warm atmosphere that is aways present in the pub. There is always (ok, mostly) great music playing, in fact they have even let me plug in my own iPod into their system. Like many successful pubs Thursday - Sunday are always busy and on Monday evenings they have a quiz night which always seems to be well attended.

They show live premiership football games on the tv but the sport they show in there isn't particularly intrusive. They often have the volume at a level that doesn't drown out everything else. And being quite a large pub you can get away from the tv area if you so wish.



So there you have it. A successful pub that serves great food and drink, retains its *pubness, shows football, doesn't marginalise those that don't like football, has wonderful staff and music. What more can you ask for.

*Yes I appreciate this word doesn't exist as I only just invented it.