Argyl Pub / Leather Lane

Who are they?

The Argyll is a pub located at the end of Leather Lane and round the corner from the Holborn Circus roundabout and makes for a good if impromptu meeting point for people looking to meet in London. As I had organised to meet a few chums before heading home for Christmas, we stumbled into the Argyll as a backup venue for lunch and happen to see that they had a burger on offer. Well, it would be rude not to, right?

Thoughts

The Argyll is a cosy pub, with some very tight seating arrangements. I suspect this is a holdover from being built in an age gone by, but nevertheless afforded us a nice corner to settle into. The menu doesn't hold any great surprises in terms of food on offer, with the burger now a regular sight on any pub menu.

The burger itself comes as a standard beef burger together with a portion of thick cut chips, together with a relish. In reality, this is presented well, with the chips and relish being put together in matching pots to accompany the burger, with all parts served on a wooden platter that doubles as a plate as much as it does a chopping board.

On first inspection, the burger patty shows some tell-tale signs of being moulded and frozen prior to being cooked, with the squared-off edges a dead give-away that this is a catering grade burger. Despite these less than stellar origins, it actually tastes of something fairly meaty and it needs to - with the lack of accompaniments inside the soft bun it has nowhere to hide amongst other flavours. Speaking of accompaniments, the chips are a perfect match for the burger, being that they are also of the catering grade, machine-cut variety but are at least well cooked without being crunchy and are plentiful to eat with the sweet tomato relish sauce.

Quite simply, I don't begrudge the Argyll for putting this in front of me given the sub-£10 price tag and the fact that I don't go to a pub for the food - I go for the company and a drink, both of which were provided perfectly in this instance.

Conclusion

You get what you pay for and nothing more, but at least the Argyll is not trying to be anything more than they are: a pub where food is definitely an optional extra.

Score

5/10

Where can I find them?
http://www.theargylelondon.co.uk/
A five minute walk from Chancery Lane tube station (Central Line).