Pillars Brewery- East London Lager — Restaurant in London

Delicious beer and friendly staff. I am always happy to support local businesses and appreciate the costs involved to run smaller independent breweries such as Pillars. However, the 2 pints of beer I bought came to £15, which I thought was incredibly steep.

What I didn't realise, was that included in that cost was a non-refundable £1 per plastic cup. This was to purchase the cup and take home. I didn't want to buy another plastic cup that would just sit in my drawers, so told them to just keep the cups at the end and at least they could be re-used to prevent more plastic.

I didn't appreciate this 'greenwashing' facade of implying that these cups were helping the environment by being "re-usable". When in fact, the usual glassware in pubs/breweries is reusable and uses no plastic at all therefore a much more biodegradable product. Most people tend to take them home and forget to bring them back with them, resulting in purchasing more of these cups each time and not helping reduce the amount of plastic in the world.

It would have been much better to charge a £1 deposit which you could get back when returning the cups. Or, just use regular glassware. It's much more pleasant to drink...

I visited over the weekend with a friend for the Brewery tour and had a brilliant day out!

Led by the fantastic beer sommelier Rob, we learned all about the different kinds of beer while sat down enjoying them with foods he had paired with each one (including veggie options!) The tour and tasting was completely conversational with an open Q&A and absolutely no snobbery! Rob even provided recommendations and pairings based on everyone’s favourite beers.

The tour felt different than other brewery tours in that you learned about all kinds of beer beyond what they make in the brewery, as well as advice on how to pair foods with each one. Overall we tried 8 different beers, and with expert knowledge and top ups being offered all around we thought the tour was fantastic value for money.

We stayed around afterwards to enjoy our final drinks in the sunshine. Whether you’re going for the tour or to enjoy some drinks with friends, this is the perfect spot.

Highly recommend to anyone for an afternoon out, and with so much else going on around the estate you can easily make...

Good tap room, impressive brewery.

They do an interesting selection of beer and rotate what they brew fairly often. Their Untraditional lager is a solid one, but it's always worth trying each tap if you're there for a long stretch. They do a small but decent variety of small batch spirits too, and some token wines.

The staff are nice sorts, know their beer and are happy to banter a little if it's not furiously busy.

The tap room has a bar type area with stools as well as a few bench tables. It's comfy and clean, but functional rather than cosy. Seating runs out quickly most days, so be warned. Probably my biggest criticism is it tends to be a bit quiet - a good soundtrack would liven...