The Britannia - SMOK'D — Restaurant in London

🚇 Borough 🍺 £6.20 Pravha

The Britannia is located on the edge of the Kipling Estate in Bermondsey, Southeast London. The nearest Tube is Borough on the Northern Line.

This pub dates back to 1839 and was rebuilt mid 19th century. In 2017 there were plans to knock down the pub and replace it with a block of flats and a ground-floor replacement pub, but we all know how that ends up. The Victorian Society got involved and objected stating the demolition of The Britannia public house would deprive the area of a locally significant building. Thankfully the pub was saved.

This is a one-bar pub, traditionally decorated with a few contemporary touches. The servery is centrally located and dominates the bar area. To the left is a seating area with two Chesterfields and a wall dedicated to Banksy artworks. To the right is a dining area featuring a couple of elegant mirrors and a list showcasing the vast selection of whiskies available. The décor consists of red and wood-panelled walls, rustic furniture, and a boarded floor. To the side of the pub is a beer garden with a tropical feel.

The beer selection offers a lineup of familiar favourites and includes two cask ales. I decided on a Pravha—my pint was great, and the price point was about average. The food offering here is barbecue and smoked meats, with a choice of ribs, wings, brisket, burgers, and some veggie options as well.

I arrived at 1.30pm on an overcast Saturday lunchtime in February. The pub was fairly busy with locals here for a beer. The atmosphere was upbeat with an excellent rock soundtrack playing in the background. The service was pleasant, the team on duty were welcoming and all smiles.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in this backstreet local and would definatly recomment a visit.

Follow @britannia.smokd for updates.

📅 1st February 2025

If you want to see all my pub reviews in one place, head to @londonpubmap on...

Kenny and The Brittania catered for us at our Christmas do at the Old Schoolyard

In organising our company Christmas party at the Old Schoolyard (SE1), the Christmas Party Committee was put in touch with Kenny of Britannia - SMOK’D to sort our food for the night. He was a hero from start to finish. What a genuine gent. He advised us against naively ordering far too much food, which I will not forget in a hurry. I really enjoyed dealing with him and ordering his pub’s food to be delivered to the Old Schoolyard for our employees to dig into ALMOST AS MUCH as the chicken wings, ribs and mince pies* themselves.

The meat platters were to die for, and the veggie platters (I’m reliably informed) didn’t feel like ‘the non-meat-eaters option’ but ‘an option in itself that was enjoyed by carnivores and herbivores alike’.

*‘Don’t order mince pies,’ they said. ‘No one will eat the mince pies Dan?’ they cried. ‘You are making a wasteful decision,’ they sneered. All gone. Delicious. What mince pies. What a night.

I want to say a big thank you to King Kenny and his team of chefs for putting on such a great spread for 20-odd people and bringing it to our venue nice and warm. It was a seamless process and The Britannia have a well-established relationship with catering for events at the Old Schoolyard.

To you, Kenny, I say that I will be coming to The Britannia itself in 2023 in search of more wings and whatever else you...

As much as I wanted to enjoy the Smok'd at The Brittannia I don't feel I could.

From ordering to arrived at table it was 40 minutes for our starters to arrive, baring in mind our starters comprised of only chicken wings.

The starters were basic and were not up to par considering the price per wing/wait time for the immediate area. Especially after such a long wait time, they felt cheap and underwhelming.

The mains had obviously been cooked at the same time as our starters, the plates were scorching having been left under a hot lamp for so long and demonstrated the dryness that co-insided with the cook time of the starters.

The side dishes were tasty, although having visited Germany and sampled many Currywurst in my time, I felt the amount of curry sauce to be low to cheap. The Thrasher fries also demonstrated an overcooking on the meats time and couldn't warrant the +£5 over the normal fries.

The mains of the beef rib were tasty, but, again, dry.

All in all, I wanted to enjoy Smok'd but didn't feel I could. As stated to the waiter, I wouldn't be recommending it anytime to my friends and it quickly fell into the category of pubs with exciting but sub-par food.

Read into this what you will, but one member of our party visited KFC on the way home to try what they would describe as...