Rack and Tenter

Busy every night of the week, especially in the summer. The beer garden is an especially nice spot in the afternoon, as it gets the sun. Be prepared to queue at the bar and for the toilets, but the drinks are reasonably priced.

Rack and Tenter is a casual go-​to spot for a few drinks after work around the Moorgate area. Nothing fancy, but it serves its purpose well.
Pros:
— Considering that this is in the heart of the City, the prices are friendly. A pint of beer under £4, etc.
— While the main area of the pub can get quite busy and very loud just by the sheer amount of people in the evening, the conservatory (right behind the bar) is a great well-​lit place to sit down and actually hear your friends talk. In summer, the outside seating in the back is also quite nice.
— This pub is very friendly towards reservations — I was recently in charge of reserving for a group of 30, and unlike most places nearby, Rack didn’t require a deposit. Makes the night a lot easier!
Cons:
— The food is nothing special — you can have some harmless fries etc to snack on, but otherwise I suggest having a main somewhere else.

Ahh the Rack. When no one can decide where to go after work, and you don’t want to be dealing with the bass pumping beats of Amber, we always end up at the rack. Why not? The Guinness is correctly poured and there’s plenty of standing room outside.
Most people there are either socializing with coworkers or minding their own business, so we’ve never had a good time ruined by misbehaving Tom’s.
It’s one of those places where everyone agrees that they want to go somewhere else and that we want to graduate up, yet the effort of leaving such a familiar and simple place keeps drawing us back for more.

Awesome place with great table placing. You can enjoy a nice conversation without being disturbed by some random people even the waiting staff tries not tho bother you much. So, the service was great. another nice feature is the décor when I enter, I feel like going inside some different amazing land!

I don’t bother eating here (the food is overpriced for what you get, to be brutally honest), but the beer is, unexpectedly, decently priced. For £3.80 you can get a pint of Kronenbourg. And while any non-​Londoners may just be choking on their oatcakes or whatever it is that those people consume, let me assure you that, in the City of London, anything under £4 for a pint of lager is a bargain.
The sad fact is, that’s the only reason I actually go there, although in the summertime it’s really nice being in the outdoors bit out the back where, if you time it right, position yourself correctly and you’re very very lucky, you will feel the sun on your back for a good ten minutes as the sun is actually visible between two large skyscrapers. If it is late afternoon, it’s better to sit at the front of the pub. You won’t see the sun, but if you’re lucky it will bounce off the curved windows of the 29^th floor of the huge City Point office-​block, which begins being mildly enjoyable, before becoming mildly annoying, after which it becomes mildly absent as our planet shifts some more and the next table along gets to enjoy the sun’s reflection for a few minutes. Choose a day when there are no other customers, and you can follow the sun as it reflects onto various tables, for a good thirty minutes. But of course, if the sun is out, the pub is normally packed, so you don’t really want to be moving around too much.
The toilets are an absolute disgrace (or at least the gents are). They’re always soaked with urine, and the one cubicle is so tiny you actually have to press yourself against the lavatory bowl in order to squeeze the door open to get out of it. It is about a third of the size of your average airplane toilet. The only cubicle for a pub that in the summer can hold several hundred very drunk city folk. It’s an utter shambles. The only good time is when the gents floods so much that it is actually a health hazard and the landlord unlocks the disabled toilet for our enjoyment, which is bloody huge, I mean you could fit five wheelchairs in there, it’s just not fair.
So, if you’re stuck in the City and want to pay a bargain £3.80 for a pint of Kronie, go for it. If you want to actually eat, and if you are likely to want to use the toilet after you eat, then go to the Globe instead.
I guess I’ve been a bit negative though in this review, and considering I drink there at least three times a week, that’s probably a bit mean of me. So I should add that the staff are excellent. The girls behind the bar are also very easy on the eye (is that sexist? probably is) and more important than that, they remember that I drink Kronenbourg and are already pouring it as I come through the door. They are also really fast (even when the pub is packed, you will probably be asked by at least four different girls if you have been served, while you’re being served). The landlord definitely deseves credit for some excellent recruiting here. I hope they’re paid well. They deserve it. I’d tip them, but then again they’d expect that every time. We have a good rapport. They remember what I drink, I leave them alone. It works well.
Oh, one last thing. They have plasma screens outside, so if you’re a smoker, and also a cricket fan, or there’s an important tennis or football competition going on, then the Rack is probably your best bet for miles around for enjoying some sport while outside smoking.

Imagine our surprise when we saw mice (or rats) inside this establishment. When we spoke to management about this, they said they were aware and the city was aware. I doubt very much if the city of London would allow anyone to operate a kitchen with mice in the vicinity. Needless to say, we hightailed out of there, but the fact that they admitted they were aware of a mice problem, and continue to serve food in such circumstances. Please avoid this place at all cost!

A Marstons pub near Moorgate. I think they had four Marstons beers on cask. I had a Fortyniner Premium Bitter. It was a nice beer, sweet and not complex. The pub itself is pretty spacious with plenty of seating and low ceilings. As I entered with two others the bartender was just ringing the no-​more-​drinks bell but she served us anyway. Nice young woman. From Romania. Overall I had a fine experience here. I would go back if I was in the area.

2009 update
The big bit of canvas over the outside area and the heaters in there is a really good way of using the outside space during the winter months. I’m surprised more places don’t do this.
2008
Best pub in the area, but theres really a lack of competition. Outside area is great in the summer. Can get packed inside and out!
The finger food is alright, but nothing special.
Toilets are cramped and unpleasent.

This is a nice venue sort of hidden away behind Moorgate station. It’s quite a large bar with a very decent bar menu and a wide range of drinks. The bar staff are always pleasant, and although difficult at times they do their best to figure out who’s next.
The bar boasts a massive beer garden out the back facing the sun, which tends to get mentally busy during the summer Very nice for a liquid lunch in the city but I recommend you get there as near to 12.30 as you can.
It also gets busy during the after work rush, but calms down after a couple of hours.