please empty your brain below

You make it sound less hateful than did its promo video, led by that tvat in the reversed baseball cap who heads up the brand. But I’ll stick to the Royal Oak in Borough. Nice thing is, this place should attract exactly all the people you don’t want to bump into anywhere else.
Obviously there has been lots of things written about brewdog, but I remember tasting thier cask beer (before they moved to keg only, which really blew them up) in the early 2000's and it was a revelation. It's easy to forget how bad beer was in those days. Say what you like about them, but they have bought decent beer to the masses.
Did they sell Becks?
Lots to dislike about this company but they remain one of the few places where an ex-drinker can get a decent pint of 0.5% draught beer. I'd much prefer to be drinking in the Royal Oak too.
I’m mourning the Time Out Streetfood Market which was supposed to open in this space.

I’ve visited the one in Brooklyn, New York City, mainly as I was curious to see what a London-based magazine had managed to create in NYC, and I was exceedingly impressed. I had the best (and also cheapest) food there from my entire NYC trip (not to mention the views).

It feels like an injustice that none of these wonderful Time Out Markets are actually in London.
Good to see so many Royal Oak regulars here - I'll be keeping an eye out for you!
I have lunched in both Natural Kitchen and Carluccio's up on the balcony which are now closed. I was hoping the Sidings might offer an alternative but from your review I don't think I will bother. Over to the Wellington across the road which still has beer and lunch at a sensible price.
Lovely beers and lower prices too at the Waterloo Tap, also under a railway on the main pedestrian route from Waterloo Station to the RFH.
It seems then that the Falcon at Clapham Junction no longer holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the longest bar in the UK.

dg writes: True, but nothing to do with Brewdog.
I started looking up shipping containers, the first three letters indicate ownership and the fourth is the type, then a six number identifier followed by a check digit, so the U just means freight container, the light green one on the bottom is ex-Container Providers International (CPIU 779796 3), the dark green one on top is ex-GESeaCo (HJMU 214325 6).
Ah, the Royal Oak. My workplace from 1980-4 was just opposite, at no 21 Tabard Street. It was a fairly nondescript corner pub then -- no Harvey's available in those days -- but we used to go in for the odd pint at lunchtime, or to fortify ourselves for evening meetings.
I thought it was widely known that the Diamond Geezer Geezers meet monthly at the Royal Oak in Borough to discuss all things London. We look forward to seeing more of you at 7.30pm on the 5th Thursday of the month!
Brewdog are hardly the pioneers in bringing good beer to the masses, there have been loads of good breweries which have sprung up in the last 40 years, especially since the duty changes brought in by Gordon Brown. That new Brewdog pub looks like a very bad bit of timing, a massive premium bar opening during a cost of living crisis.

The Royal Oak is indeed a nice pub, though the food menu used to be better.
The longest bar in Britain is absolutely in the Wetherpoons in the town you grew up in or went to university. Well, that's what one of the regulars there said.
I've been to a Brewdog beer tasting evening which, although plainly a marketing ploy, was convivial - even quite fun - but confirmed that their overpriced beers are not to my taste. The Waterloo gimmicks seem more akin to a themed play park.

Carl - I gave up attending the Diamond Geezer Geezers monthly meetings at the Royal Oak because there were too few Diamond Geezer Gals.
Obviously there's a slide.
Obviously there's a bowling alley, not to mention a co-working space, a set of ping pong tables ......

Obviously the modern world is completely passing me by!!
Brewdog Waterloo has an offer of 50% off food until Sept 4th..so worth a visit before then!
Wandered past at 8am this morning - the street entrance is equally hidden from view
Brewdog were quite early in the trend to bring decent *lager* (and other carbonated beers) to the masses. There has always been decent beer in Britain, but if you didn't like cask ale then the choices were extremely limited. Meantime were bought out by Big Beer nearly a decade ago now, so Brewdog are one of the few pioneers left standing. I hate their culture, and I'm none too fond of their pubs, but I'm willing to give them some credence here.
I was on the edge of my seat waiting for your thoughts on the beer (and cider) and they never came! I know your not a food and drink reviewer (really I do), but just a few words on the beer?
Looked suitably wet.
Brewdog do seem to have taken a similar path to so many other similar companies.
Genuinely innovative and much loved small company over-expands leading to over-exposure and a huge backlash, justified or otherwise.
“The Sidings” is an appropriate title given it’s where unsuccessful people and things are said to be shunted into.
Another vote for the Royal Oak and the Waterloo Tap too.
(Even though I live on the Isle of Wight)
Your readers might be interested in this six part podcast on Brewdog and their business practices. (I think my summary would be 'probably not much worse than any megacorporation but somewhat at odds with the image they try to project')
Nice to see the Royal Oak rightly getting some praise, although if Brewdog is your thing, you'd be better off at the Waterloo Tap, where you can still get a decent pint (probably cask) for less than a fiver.
I think you are right
The comments here made me think that Brewdog must have been around a lot longer than I'd realised. I'd have said 10 years at most, and only 5 years since they became mainstream. I'm not massively out. Started in 2007, first bar in 2009, but had reached 78 bars in just 9 years. So they've grown rapidly.

Personally I don't like their beer and don't know anyone who goes to them, but where I live I'm also surrounded by lots of decent independent pubs so I see them as just another set of chain pubs.
Imagine if MyLondon ripped off this blogpost and wrote a really poor 'news story' feigning outrage at the prices.

Oh, they have :(










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