The Red Lion Leytonstone

Good pub, but the service needs attention (food)

great pub just what this area needs very famliy friendly by day and also great at night the food is fantastic and the service is great all the staff are lovely and a good crowd in there in the evening
love the decor or lack of it shabby not false real shabby if u no what i mean best pub in the area
quite a mixed age group in there very nice

Blimey, the food in the Red Lion is so good. Just had lunch with a friend in my new local and every single component of my vegetarian Sunday roast had it's own special flavour and presentation. So interesting identifying the different herbs, mainly sage in the walnut and squash roast I believe although the chef apparently varies these and ,even more interesting (lol) alcohol additions; orange and port in the braised red cabbage for example. The apple pie contained rum and the creme Anglaise, was to die for. Well done Lennart, you're a real professional.

Good value and for meat eaters three or four roast joints from which to choose.

I must mention the staff team who I have met on other occasions. It makes for a special experience when everyone seems to like each other and this seems to permeate throughout. So nice to be served by happy young people who treat all their customers with friendliness and attentive service.

Thank you Mark, Lennart and the gang

I really don't know how Antic have done this but they've taken one of the worst pubs in the world and turned it into a place full of quirky charm and cracking atmosphere. As a frequenter of Leytonstone's pubs for some time now, I'd almost resigned myself to seeing out my days in the North Star (good little local) whilst letting the young 'uns, OAPs et alia get on with the serious business of getting wrecked in the likes of the local Wetherspoon's and O'Neill's. And I can only applaud Antic's demographic research – who are these people in the Red Lion and where have they been all this time?

As for eating out, apart from some good Indians and a relatively recent decent Turkish place, we've tended to head for Wanstead in search of something a bit more varied.

We'd already been won over by the Red Lion way before the kitchen even opened – bar staff are friendly and on the case and there always seems to be plenty of them (hooray!). We've now eaten there 3 times and haven't been disappointed in any of the dishes. It's not trying to turn out anything other than good pub food, sometimes a bit more adventurous (I had an open venison pie with chocolate and chilli sauce recently – mmmm, darkly satisying) but mainly unpretentious and hearty stuff (pork chop with lentils is just what you need as the nights try to get a bit colder).

You can get the old favourites (a perfectly decent burger for example) or steak and chips (which I haven't tried yet but it takes even a devoted glutton like me a while to work my way through the menu – give me a break!). It's also nice to see a half-pint of prawns with chilli aioli as a starter, great if you don't want to stuff yourself too much before the main event, the peeling of them adding to the fun . On a bizarre side note, The Boy was just pulling the heads off and then happily eating the prawns with their shells still on. Each to his own, I guess – he does open bottles with his teeth as well. What sort of monster have I raised?!

Service has been very good each time we've visited, with just a couple of minor gripes such as accompanying potatoes not arriving and taking the scenic route once chased up (this only happened once, I must add). Price-wise it's cracking value for money. I ate food of a similar quality at Bumpkin in Westfield recently and paid a few quid more for each course for the privilege. I won't be going back there but i will be heading back to the Red Lion.

Leytonstone has been crying out for something like this for so long and I only hope that they do well. Overall the food was good, fantastic steak, but some small things – e.g over cooked new potatoes.

I do look forward to going again.