The Duke Of York

Walk down York Road towards the water meadows and you'll find this place doing the unglamorous work of being a real pub. It's got that lived-in feel—the kind of spot where regulars have their own mugs and the bartender knows what you're after before you order. The food's honest rather than showy: proper pub fare that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. You're sitting in a room with actual character, not some corporate approximation of cosiness, and that matters more than you'd think in a city that's had a fair bit of gentrification creep in recent years.