Reviews The Galvanisers Union

Would just like to thank the staff that was behind the bar last night the 15th of September 2016. Me and the hubby had just been on an epic motorbike journey around Europe, clocking around 2000 miles and had just got back into the uk when our motorbike decided it was not gonna do the last 50 miles to get us home. We had to call the RAC out and we found ourselves in the Galvanisers while we waited for our bike to be towed. We were made to feel most welcome even the barman felt for our story and bought us a coke, we would have been lost if it wasn't for this pub and it's bar staff. Thank you absolute life savers.

Great pub warm and friendly staff with a great variety of drinks.

Great food that is reasonably priced, friendly staff and relaxed atmosphere

Good beer good staff and a pretty good crowd

Great local, lovely food, excellent beer and grand bunch of staff

Beautiful food, amazing staff, good cider and the comfiest couches! Love this place so much!

This place is really awesome for food lovers
The ambiance is quite well maintained
The food they provide is fabulous
#keep it up The Galvanisers Union

I couldn’t make either the opening of the Galvanisers Union nor its kitchen launch so I was ostensibly invited to come and review the food last night. So I shall talk about the food which was fine, but in my opinion isn’t the real draw of this pub.

The Antic group have slowly and stealthily been taking over London in the last few years. It would be insidiuous and creepy if they weren’t so good at turning out proper boozers you want to come to again and again. If you’ve noticed a long-neglected building suddenly getting a new lease of life, chances are it’s been taken over the by Antic crew.

Ok, so, the food... We happened to have the whole dining area to ourselves because, well, it was a Wednesday and The Galvanisers isn’t exactly in the throng of things. We didn’t mind though. The place had such a cosy character that even with only the two of us in there it didn’t feel empty.

Now, I don’t mean to denigrate the food at Galvanisers Union, I just want to set it in context. This is a pub and what they’ve got on the menu is pub food in the original sense of the word, not in the poshed up gastropub sense of the word. That doesn’t mean it isn’t somewhat refined but it’s stuff like fish and chips and pies and of course a Ploughman’s! The most expensive dish is a salt beef bun for 10 quid so the prices are excellent.

Stephen for some reason decided to be girly and order the ham and egg salad, and I had the pie which was chicken and leek. It came with mash and parsley liquor and then we also got some frickles to share, mainly because I just loved the word.

Saying ham and egg salad belies what it really was – it was ham hock croquettes with boiled egg on leaves with pickled veg such as radishes, gherkins and little cauliflowers. It looked ever so pretty set down but they seemed to have made the mistake a lot of places make with salads in making it very insubstantial. Stephen kept referring to it as a starter because it was so tiny. More leaves please! And more of those really lovely pickled veg! I know people order salad because they're trying to be healthy - but that doesn't mean they don't also want to feel full after eating it.

My pie was a lot heartier. When I first punctured the pastry I thought it was mostly a watery filling but actually there was quite a lot of chicken inside, enough for me to share with Stephen without begrudging him when he had finished his salad and was still hungry. The liquor was lovely and the pie was tasty. The mash could have been a little more indulgent but then again I’m never going to say no to more cream and/or butter!

The frickles were fabulous. They are beer battered (fried) pickles and they are done with such a good light touch that the batter didn’t overpower the taste. There seemed to be two kinds – pickled onion rings and battered slices of gherkin (my favourites) and the dip they came with was very tasty. That didn’t last as long as the pickles did!

Dessert finished me off as I had a ridiculously rich stout and chocolate mousse with cakey stuff at the bottom. I loved the chocolate pretzels and brownie it came with but think it would be even better if the mousse was sprinkled with them or even if they were dotted throughout. Stephen had the St Clements syrup sponge cake which was very sugary, sticky and delicious. Stuffed!

We then went over to the bar for a relaxing drink after. They have a fairly decent selection of beers (several ales including Meantime as well as stuff like Heineken etc) and quite a few ciders. They were happy to let me have a taste of one that was 7.5% but it had a weird bitter taste and a musky smell so instead I had a milder 4.5% one. There is a mix of sofas, cushioned chairs, or a central bank to sit at and the whole place already has that lived-in local feel that Antic accomplishes so well. It was by no means packed and because of its location it is unlikely to ever get too rammed (it is right on the A12) but it’s clearly meant to be a neighbourhood pub and that’s what it feels like.

Both Stephen and I were really enamoured with the place. I’ve been to Farr’s several times and The Old George and I feel the same way about them. The look may be somewhat manufactured but it really works. They also had board games and it was the kind of place I could imagine whiling away a few hours and actually playing them. They’ve installed a screen if you want to catch any World Cup games, though they’re also keeping the dining area footie-free and the screen will go once the World Cup is over. It’s that kind of place – the focus is on being social – they don’t want to turn you into a bunch of zombies staring at a screen.

It took us less than 10 minutes to get home on the bus so even though it’s not quite our neighbourhood, we may just adopt it as our local anyway.

Nice pub with a good selection of beers. The Sunday beef roast was good pub food, but the beef was overcooked and leathery. Mac and cheese and the other bits of the roast were lovely though. Took almost half an hour to get there even though there was more staff than customers in the evening.

A great place with very reasonably priced drinks, and good quality (very tasty) well-priced food. A nice open, welcoming atmosphere too, without pretentiousness. Best pub in the area

Been a long time since I had a burger that good. So juicy. Great value too. Nice friendly staff. Keep it up!

A very cozy small pub. I went quite few times with my colleagues. Friendly and helpful staff. Nice environment and music. You can sit both outside and inside. The corner sit of the window is highly recommended ;)

Let's face it, if you're living around the area things might not be going that great for you. I may be wrong, but I ended up living in Bow E3 because of a bitter dispute involving my landlord and his wife. Anyway, this establishment serves more-than-good pints at reasonable prices and has friendly staff too. It's a 10 from me.

Real gem of a place. Atmosphere, music and decor are so unique for the area. We'll worth a visit

Antic pub. Shabby chic but unpretentious. Valden session ale in great nick and great value at £3.50 a pint. Will be back.

Friendly staff at a quiet, friendly pub with a good choice of beers on tap. Tables are interesting and creative indoors and there's some good outdoor seating too. Didn't stay long but could picture myself killing a few hours in the relaxing atmosphere. Hope I have an excuse to return and spend a lot more time there.

Food is AMAZING 😍 I had the curry Goat

The new food is very good value and very tasty. The pub has a good vibe, with friendly staff and a fun pub quiz on a Wednesday.