Amazing food... friendly staff and lovely atmosphere... and the best Sunday dinner in London without question!
We ate Sunday lunch there and it was amazing food. Best nosh I’ve had in ages. (I had the lamb rump). Super friendly staff
Good classical pub food even if it's not on top, and a bit expensive. The place is really nice with a special atmospher. In the end a good place to go in the neighbourhood
Great atmosphere, friendly staff and excellent food: Sunday roasts are very good as well as the Trio of Lamb - which was very tender - and the Cheese Burger (nice hamburger). The restaurant is at the back of the bar which gives more confort and quietness. The pub area is big, I recommend it to go and watch a soccer match on their big screen.
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Lovely atmospheric pub, very cosy at night. Food was not as good as I expected though. We shared starters of baked Camembert, hummus and pittas which were nice. For main I ate a aubergine parmigiana, which was nice, though it lacked any kind of presentation and did not look very appetising to begin with. The only presentation on mine was two very soggy and almost brown basil leaves, while friend, who ordered the same dish, found hers was covered in about several very fresh basil leaves. Perhaps they gave up with mine. It was good but very filling after a few bites, so maybe it should have been paired with something lighter? The sides of salad and buttered greens were very tasty. The dessert was a little bit of a disappointment, peanut butter praline which was actually quite butter, served with ice cream and a very stale bland biscotti. Everyone else at my table had sticky toffee puddings which were absolutely enormous, no one managed to finish them. The service was very accommodating and friendly I found, though a couple of others I was with did say that they had been snapped at by a few rude members of staff. I was expecting a bit more for the amount we paid, but maybe I will try again another time and try ordering something different.
Lovely ambience, gastro food, good (but not great) ales and wines, music with some soul. Overpriced by a pound or two per item, but a good find and thoroughly pleasant place to while away an evening.
Mostly good. They have had a few different chefs/changes in the last 2 years, so the food has been a little inconsistent. But it is back on track now and I really like it as a local gastro pub.
The Sunday Roast is incredible but make sure to miss breakfast because it's a hearty meal to say the least. Complete with all the trimmings - roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, cabbage, carrots and gravy, it's a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
The Spartacan Pub Review
+4
Food, easily tipping the £15 a head mark, is spanking good and the ales are diverse and refreshed as often as you can visit. It's a beautiful place, too, with a handsome long bar, street-side dining room, and rich shades of dark oak under sun-bringing clerestory windows. At weekends there'll be trendy young families and football punters drinking side-by-side; a great place to chew and chug.
The Old Diary is as charming on the outside as it is on the in. There is a consistently nice gastro pub atmosphere and is a great place to go for a relaxed drink. I've never eaten there myself, but the food always looks and smells great and I'm definitely keeping it in mind if someone else is paying the bill!
AllZomorrow'sParties
+4
I'm not the only one who's been scarred by the familiar gastopub experience. You try the place out based on the word-of-mouth generated by a shonky London audience who believe that anywhere serving chips with skins on must be a 'good place'. They strap on whatever new clothes the emperor is wearing this month, probably Kitsune limited edition Converse or something similar, and drink white wine with their roast while Arsenal play sophisticated football on the LED screens in the background. But underneath it all you're eating a marketing man's desperate (and successful) attempt to turn the old English street-corner boozer into a hangout for the more economically appealing customer, the one who responds to trends, who is smartphone savvy and who pays whatever mark-up his/her sense of brand equity justifies.
So to the Old Dairy on the Stroud Green side of Finsbury Park, and so to a triumph of both style and substance in moderate but pleasingly sufficient measure.
To look at, it's what you'd expect. A big open and airy room with wooden finishings and subdued, dark hues of the English pub archetype. The restaurant section toward the back is complemented by a lighter and less formally set up dining room toward the front of the pub, on the north west corner of Stroud Green Road.
And the menu doesn't promise cheapness (£12-19 for a main in the dining room). But the options don't suggest cheapness either - there's genuine choice on offer here. On one occasion I've had a beautifully cooked squid with lentils in sweet chilli; I didn't think there was much subtlety in the delivery of something like that, but the lentils were crunchy and the squid was firm. I've also tried the Brazilian stew which was hearty to say the very least. I took family, and feedback on the longhorn rib steak was especially enthusiastic and the Dairy Sundae won plenty of fans.
The roasts are textbook, just lovely joints of meat with root veg you can't get enough of.
And as you'd expect, there's a series of beers on tap which present precisely the variety a pub should offer depending on what food you've plumped for.
If you just fancy a pint, this and the Stapleton Tavern across the road are lovely cosy places with a character that is entirely their own and probably a notch upmarket from the force of nature that is the Faltering Fullback just down the road.
The last thing to say is that Finsbury Park, with its cluster of independent Caribbean, Mediterranean, Italian, southern and eastern Asian restaurant-takeaways, probably caters better for the thriftier consumer. Other than Season, there aren't many higher-priced options for dining out as a treat. So for the Old Dairy genuinely to deliver what a gastropub should deliver - big plates with technical accomplishment in a younger, hipper environment - is a remarkably welcome thing.
A super building, the Old Dairy has been amazingly re-modelled and now sells beer instead of milk, the ultimate upgrade! Great service and conversation with staff. This is a volumenous pub with loads of different bits to discover. Wonderful conservatory roof over part. A truly great place. Plenty of keg offerings for the thirsty and 4 great cask ales for them that do. I enjoyed my pint.
The venue looks amazing since re-opening
Food was good, and the staff behind the bar were friendly and helpful. Nice selection of beers/ales too
Great place to watch footy/sports
Will definitely be returning
Had an excellent Sunday roast here. Food was great, ambiance was nice, and the service was good. Recommend
I had driven past over a number of years, but it had always been closed. I was looking for a place to meet a friend for drinks near Finsbury Park, so I asked for some friends for recommendations, and The Old Diary came up. I'm happy that we went. Definitely would go back for drinks. Not sure I would eat there as my friends said avoid the food!
I really like this place. Closed for a long time after COVID I finally had the chance to visit again. I like the spacious atmosphere. It's doggo friendly and there's a great selection of beers. Three of my favourite IPA on tap.
I had the pie and chips with Mushy peas and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a proper pie not meat in a dish with a pastry lid!
I had the prawns for starter.
Friend had the macaroni cheese her favourite thing that her mum makes and she said it was almost to her mums standard she gave it 8/10. We were a group of five and we all thoroughly enjoyed our lunch.
Nick was on the bar and our waiter and he was great.
We will be definitely be back 😊
Best pint I have had in London in a long time with delicious sharing plates. Many people wrongly think that British ale should be served warm but that can make it smell and taste awful. Its why its often not liked alongside poor standards of cellaring. I complemented the friendly bar staff and was told their ale is cooled and the pipes regularly cleaned. Their attention shows. Always been a pleasant pub but can now highly recommend for beer (ale).
Definitely recommended lovely staff great pub good beer👍 👌 😀
We visited for a meal on Saturday evening. The pub looks very nicely decorated with new furnishings. A nice variety on the menu. The staff looked well presented in their smart shirts/uniforms and were very efficient. Our meal was really tasty as was dessert. We look forward to returning.
So great to pop into the dairy on a bank holiday and find the kitchen still open. Even better to be told that there are gluten free options. I have had a great burger served by brilliant bar staff. A great day finished off with wonderful banter and lovely food and drink. Thanks. Keep it up guys. Brilliant to have you back!
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