The Blackfriar

Walk through those ornate bronze doors on Queen Victoria Street and you're stepping into a time machine—all gleaming tiles, stained glass and bas-relief panels of monks that feel genuinely theatrical rather than tacky. It's the kind of place that makes you understand why Londoners get sentimental about their pubs. The Blackfriar pulls off that tricky thing of being both a serious drinker's pub and somewhere you'd actually want to bring your mate for a proper lunch. The food is reassuringly unpretentious—pies, fish and chips, that sort of thing—and the beer list takes itself seriously without being insufferable about it.