Dove Free House, The

Bar

24-26 Broadway Market, Hackney
London, England
United Kingdom

+44 (0) 7275 7617 | map
belgianbars.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.16
Reviews:
2
Ratings:
3
pDev:
1.68%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
 
Rated: 4.25 by CraftDanny

Jul 10, 2014
Photo of BlackHaddock
Reviewed by BlackHaddock from England

4.08/5  rDev -1.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
A cold, snow covered London greeted me as I drew the curtains in my brothers flat late on this February Sunday morning in 2012: had we really drank that much last night?

Anyway the plan had always been to walk through the park and visit The Dove for a lunchtime session: the four of us set off and half an hour later or so we entered the place. The bar has a good selection of Belgian beers on tap as well as hand pulls for cask UK ales: I had a Bruges Zot Blonde and a Delirium from the taps and later a pint of Brookman’s Winter Ale from Tring Brewery on cask. All were in fine order.

The actual pub is on two levels, we dropped down into the back room and managed to find a table, which we shared with a couple of young ladies: the place was very full with more piling in by the minute. Once seated I had a good look through the beer menu and because I am a regular visitor to Belgium I found nothing to excite me, but don’t let that put you off coming here, they might have your favourite beer in the menu.

Looking around and taking in the scenes I notice wood everywhere, under foot as well as the furniture and fittings. The whole inside is nicely done and feels homely, even down where we were, right at the back.

Service was good, swift and polite, even though the place was busy. This is a popular eating place as well as a Belgian Beer Bar: we choose not to eat, my brother informing us the prices didn’t match the quality or quantity given.
Feb 29, 2012
Photo of surfadelic23
Reviewed by surfadelic23 from Florida

4.14/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
This was the first place we hit on our London Pub Crawl. It occupies a cool corner area and there is a nice outdoor market here on the weekends. This place also apparently has wonderful food although after our huge English breakfast, we weren't quite ready for that. In addition to having a pretty good selection of cask ales and a few ciders I believe, this place also has a HUGE Belgian selection that I didn't even start to play with as I was holding to my goal of only trying unique English ales which I'd nerver heard of before. I had one cask ale (can't remember the name) but it was nice and fresh and hit the spot. My sister tried a cider which she enjoyed and let me sample. This was really tasty, like no other cider I had before, and my Dad had a really nice fruit beer that was quite nice as well. This place also has an eclectic atmosphere too and was the first place I'd ever heard referred to as a gastro-pub (damn what a great word!). If you hit here on a Saturday, by all means check out the market outside. All sorts of places with nice cheese, meat, and candy selections, plus a store that sold live and jellied eels! What more could a guy want?
Feb 15, 2006
Dove Free House, The in London, GB2, United Kingdom
Place rating: 4.16 out of 5 with 3 ratings