Old Ship Inn

A Victoria sponge on the bar, flat-screen TVs on the walls, Sharp’s Doom Bar on the taps & devilled whitebait on the ‘British tapas’ menu… What kind of a pub is this? As the bar-restaurant of a 10-room hotel (owned by Urban Inns), & as the nearest watering-hole to the Hackney Empire, the slightly flashy Old Ship Inn has to be many things to many people. It puts a patriotic twist on all it does – from wine to cocktails, bar snacks to fizz – so there’s a unifying theme to what at first seems a disparate array of goods & services. The ‘Great British Sunday roast’ of Galloway beef or Herdwick lamb costs a reasonable £9.50 a head, while for the rest of the week there might be smoked salmon, grilled asparagus & egg mayonnaise, followed by English lamb rump with watercress dressing, & lemon meringue pie for afters.