Assembly House

used to come here every week for the pub quiz, but the vibe has recently changed. I’m sad to say we won’t be returning.
For a relaxed local pub vibe (with incredible Thai menu) try the pineapple round the corner. The Southampton Arms is incredible for craft beer, and Aces and Eights is big for the alternative spirit.

It’s always packed on a week night, which is usually a good sign, but does mean finding a seat is hard. If you’re cool with standing or make a reservation, it’s probably best. Drink wise, lots of choice of beer and pretty reasonable. I regret not visiting more often when I used to live in Kentish Town. It’s definitely my go to stop when I’m in the area and it’s located conveniently opposite the station!

It’s hard to give this place a rating — atmosphere great, good selection of beer. But the wings are hands-​down the worst things I have ever tasted. If you gathered 10 people and asked them to try to make the worst chicken wings known to man, the Assembly wings would win by a mile. The rest of the food passing by the table looked and smelled fine, but the wings must be the kitchen’s idea of a bad joke.

This is a nice, spacious pub. The drinks aren’t insanely expensive and the food is ok. «So why only 2 stars?» you wonder. The staff are the worst «I’ve-got-somewhere-better-to-be, why-​are-​you-​even-​in-​here» people that I’ve come across in a while. And this was when the pub only had about 10 people in it, so there’s really no excuse. They started clearing up at about 10:30, and putting chairs on to the tables at 10:50. I understand wanting to go home at the end of your shift, but it was so unbelievably rude. They must have saved themselves a maximum of 5 minutes. I’ve never felt so unwelcome and I definitely won’t be back.

Just updating my review as they have since changed the menu in here, very much fo the worse. The portions are noticeably more meagre, the quality of the ingredients used has dropped drastically. Big shame as this was previously a real gem.

The Assembly House looks better from the outside than it feels from the inside. Lovely looking Victoriana pub with etched glass, but inside a bit noisy and not cosy.
Beer: Good selection, but not well looked after, a bit flat. Not a real ale pub.
Young and trendies like this place.

I am sorry to say this place has changed for the worse. The menu, which once boasted simple delicious meals at great prices (huge homemade burgers, amazing sizzling fajita platters to name just two sub-£10 offerings) has now been overhauled. In its place we find the disappointingly generic gastro pub menu you find at the likes of All Bar One/​Slug and Lettuce. Overpriced, over thought, and certainly nothing special. This came as a great disappointment to me, as I was starting to become something of a regular burger muncher at this place. A new chef perhaps? Anyway, aside from the food, this place is still a decent watering hole, but I for one won’t be eating here anytime soon.

Our go-​to in Kentish Town. It’s close to where we live, we can get a seat about 50% of the time, and the service is great. Nothing special about it, really.
The malbec is good, the Guinness is poured properly, it’s right by Kentish Town tube station. Works for me!

This is a review through the lens of a beer nerd:
An OK spot up in Kentish Town. They have eight handpumps going and there were a few interesting options (and ticks) on my visit. The venue is large and airy, and on my Monday evening visit the place was rammed with a rather young crowd. Prices are average (~£3.50 for a pint of cask ale). The bar staff were surprisingly friendly and efficient. Not a pub to seek out, but it is a nice stop if you’re on your way to the HMV Forum for a show or something.

I
had a few drinks here last night and I‘m not impressed. This place
lacks atmosphere. Even after the third beer I still had some feeling
I‘m in the wrong place. The food was in good quantity and variety but
wasn‘t that tasty as I expected. The beer selection is good, they
have some good imorted beers. Still I prefer The Oxford pub nearby.

Really nice for a ‘station pub’ it’s just a shame they don’t have an outdoor seating area. Strictly a winter pub.

I liked this pub a lot it’s very, very big with a beautiful ceiling window (or whatever that is called) in the back, which provides plenty of daylight. The menu is also great and there are a lot of dishes as well as ales/​beers to choose from.

I was quite impressed with this pub when I went last night. Bar area was good, and overall the pub had a pleasant, comfortable atmosphere (and it was quite clean by pub standards in my opinion)

Drinking team, assemble!
This classy and comfortable pub, peering out from behind huge scaffolding for most of 2011, has only just re-​opened after renovations. I am happy to say that the project has been a complete success. It’s plenty big and there are heaps of tables, couches and nooks to perch upon. 2 ample bars provide plenty of service and there’s a really good selection of interesting lagers (Buudvar, Kirin, Estrella, Blue Moon) as well as real ales and old faves. Prices are about average for KT. The food is classic pub style with nice twists — the selection is huge, prices are great (only the steaks will cost you more than a tenner) and the quality is top notch. See photo of my deeeelicious gammon steak.
Perhaps because it’s new the place does feel a tad soulless. Much effort appears to have gone into slightly cliched pub-​décor touches like stressed wood, carefully mis-​matched chairs and tattered books on shelves. That they’ve tried a bit too hard is easy to forgive when stretching out with an icy cold pint under the huge skylight out the back. Get in and check it out.

Not impressed by this large and fairly grand looking pub near Kentish Town. Its prominent location means it attracts a lot of trade and it looks quite good, inside and out, but it lacks atmosphere somehow.
Wasn’t overly impressed by my bland half of Greene King IPA either.

This pub is around the corner from work, yet we don’t actually frequent it. It’s a really big, clean pub, going for a shabby chic look with old wooden tables and mismatched chairs. I’ve never seen it super busy considering how huge it is inside.
I agree with Molly, the prices are a little high considering the non-​descript atmosphere of the pub but… when desperate for a drink (and it being the only pub within blocks of the tube) I suppose they can do that.

Not the greatest pub I’ve been to, that’s for sure. But it’s convenient to the Kentish Town tube station and around the corner from the HMV Forum, so a perfect spot to grab a few drinks before a gig there.
We also had some food, and it was… okay. They definitely give you plenty of food, but the chips were shoestring and definitely right out of the freezer and into the fryer. The chicken burger wasn’t half bad though. Prices are a little on the crazy side, considering the quality and setting. It gets very crowded as well — a combination of the end of the workday and the coming gig at the Forum across the street.
You don’t have many options of pubs around here, but Assembly House does the trick when you have some spare time.

The Assembly House is placed near Kentish Town tube station. It is a pretty big pub, without outside seating though. They serve food and have many different tap beers, more than usual. There is a tables area, along with a nice room at the back with a glass ceiling. This room includes shelves with books in case you fancy some reading.

The main draw of this old-​fashioned bar is that it’s near the tube station, meaning those that have endured the Northern Line can reward themselves with a quick pint whilst those about to do so can slam a sneaky shot and prepare themselves for the nightmare journey ahead.
The pub is quite large with some good features. It can get busy, though the clientele isn’t that great. It does serve a wide range of traditional ales and can show football matches which is either a good or bad thing, depending on how you feel about the game.
A minor quibble is that they actually allow minors into the bar which is awful. All bars should ban them in my opinion so check before you take your seat.
An okay pub, then, with reasonable prices and good location.

The Assembly House — it’s really near the tube which is never ever a good thing for a pub.
Having said that it’s got massively high ceilings and has some really nice original features throughout it such as the lovely woodwork and old style mirrors behind the bar and some of the décor is well worth a look. The flip side of this being the toilets would appear to be original as well.
It’s a bit of a funny mix though — it catches the Church crowd falling out of the Forum on Sunday afternoons (or bands on other evenings), it can be packed out for football games even though it usually only has one small screen and one medium sized plasma showing the games (its one of few Kentish Town pubs that show games) and then it can change character completely and be a very relaxed destination on a clear afternoon with the sun streaming through the windows.
It’s ok on the price front for both food and booze and both are fine as is the service and the range of drinks. Most of the time the drinkers are chatty and easy to get along with if you are outside having a smoke. But they usually are there just for that evening — it doesn’t feel much of a locals place.
The shame is — it could be so much more if it was somewhere else? It just feels like such a transitory pub with things changing all the time — whether that’s the type of pub it feels like (post gig, footy, chill out Sunday) or the punters or the staff.