Abbey Tavern

This is a great pub with three floors, offering plenty of space to relax and enjoy. It’s the perfect place for hangouts or sports nights with friends. The atmosphere is lively, and their music selection is also great with the vibes. I really like this pub and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a fun spot to unwind!

A grand pub, the Abbey Tavern in Kentish Town is a vibrant street corner pub with a little bit of attitude, all good. Not one for the 'real ale' drinkers but a good place to visit. Jolly and off the wall may be a good description methinks. A most enjoyable pint was had, thank you.

This is a real gem. The jerk chicken here was some of the best I’ve ever had in London and the prices are very good. The homemade coleslaw too was fantastic. Hats off to this pub for the service and for reasonable prices that reflect the cost of living crisis in this city. It was so nice to pay out for something that didn’t break the bank but that was incredibly tasty and of great quality. I’ll definitely be going back and taking another friend next time. Super speedy - and we’re told at the weekend it’s cooked on an open grill too. Lots of outdoor space.

Be aware a bouncer will yell at you until you go inside at quarter to eleven on a Saturday (main appeal of the pub is beer garden). Another bouncer will refuse to let you bring your drink into the smoking area. You'll queue 30 mins for a warm wine and leave this review in the meanwhile.

Lovely pub with a great ambiance. Eric behind the bar made sure we had all the drinks we needed

On food, the burgers are amazing. Probably one of the best I've had in london for flavour. Nice atmosphere, and huge garden. Good selection of non-alcoholic drinks too.

Might be alright weekdays but over the weekend in a sunny day we waited 20min for a Spritz although we were right by the bar as our bartender didn’t really look like he wanted to serve us as he kept going toward the middle although we were clearly there before,4straws for a couple seems wasteful..and i found a fabric fluff ball in my drink…Still nice roof garden,expensive spritz tho…19£ for 2 outside of the happy hour

Decent little boozer. We most recently came on a Saturday afternoon and it was really quiet. The other time was midweek before a gig at Kentish Town and was heaving, particularly out the back in the beer garden. Not a soul in the upstairs terrace which was fine by us. Although it was booked out for the evening, would be good for an event or live sport. I've been here twice and both times they've been out of their XPA which is a shame.

Oh dear, a rare three star rating. Ok so nice inside, smallish for the area but we'll laid out and furniture and decor is quite clever. Drinks pricy, £3.40 for a half of craft beer, which was quite good. Bar staff were a bit dippy, maybe they'd be better off in a Hoxton boozer, not to good in keeping up with who queued first at bar which was a bit annoying as not very busy at the time. Menu looks ok bit pricey as well but it is Kentish Town. Would I come back, maybe. If slightly lower prices and bar staff a bit more attentive and less interested in mincing around.

I am a hardcore rocker trapped in a sporty, ravers, love to shake my booty body. There is a goth rock guitar legend waiting to burst out of me I tell you. I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to The Abbey Tavern. The darkened surroundings of this well designed shotgun bar are lit up by red spotlights and a long line of lampshades giving off a warm orangey glow. Atmosphere is cultivated by the deep rock tunes that seemed to resonate with a decidedly hip and cool crowd I have never until now witnessed in Kentish Town. With cheap drinks on offer behind the well stocked bar, free wifi and a guitar enhanced track list played at the perfect volume, the Abbey Tavern has the potential of becoming a regular haunt of mine. Oh I didn't mention the garden and West Indian inspired food menu did I? I only caught wind of these tit bits of information as I left. I stopped briefly to grab a takeaway menu and salivated all the way home. Plantains, goat curry and the fabled jerk are just a few things that may make The Abbey Tavern my new-found best friend. Great bar, great tunes, great crowd and seemingly great food.

Soooo close to 5 stars! The atmosphere is chill, the garden and upper terrace are absolutely perfect with great comfort food and craft beers. The only complaint I have that they don't have the option to run a tab, which means you have to close out every single round. Very annoying after a couple of rounds. With everything else on point, it's hard to penalize them too much for a failing like this, but hoping they add this ability at some point.

This place is great. Super friendly basic pub, simple but full bar, with really lovely staff. They have basic cocktails on the go, but they're mostly a beer, cider (bottled and big range on tap) and spirits kind of joint, ignoring fancy things. It's long and kind of thin, with a beer garden out of the back, with a rather lovely terrace higher up. I ended up here for dancing, to great pop punk tunes and 90s nostalgia, a big group of us together drinking and having a great time. Some hawaiian lays appears from somewhere, I don't know where. I've not tried the food, but the menu looked like standard safe pub grub.

Wanna know how much I love the Abbey Tavern? I was recently there for a show (Ahab, I love you. Marry Me. All of you.) and in between songs I managed to slide up to the bar. Noticing that they did have a few interesting cocktails on offer, I quickly switched from a beer mood to a spirits spirit, so I asked for a whiskey sour, to which the bartender replied: "Hmm? A whiskey what?" That's funny... it's not loud in here... maybe it's that Americaness in my voice. so I tried again: "No worries, just a WHISK-EEE-SOW-AH, please." "What's a whiskey sour?" the bartender replied, completely straight faced. I gathered myself, did another check to make sure they do, in fact, offer cocktails, and rattled of the ingredients. I even broke down sweet 'n' sour, just in case. But as soon as I saw the spoonful of sugar drop into the glass and the lemon being cut up, I had to stop this eager bartender as the whiskey might have just jumped out in rebellion upon first drip. "Actually, I'll just have a whiskey ginger beer, thanks. So sorry for the trouble." This also caused confusion. But you know what, I was so in love with The Abbey Tavern by this point that it didn't even phase me. The staff is hilarious, kind, chatty and good spirited and the bar is the type we all wished we lived near. Whiskey-sour-ineptness just became their 'awwww, cute' factor, as something annoying always does with those you love. Maybe I should have asked for a whisky sour instead... (arg... those blasted Scots triumph again!)

A funky bar and pub with a great patio, cool music nights, and nice food. They have good, interesting burgers with a wide variety of toppings--the Kentish burger with horseradish sent shivers right up my spine, it was so, uh, horseradish-y (but the beets were a bit weird). Chips are so-so. Bartenders have always been nice and chatty with me. I've been here when they have open mic night during the week and you get a really interesting mix of contenders from outstanding vocal artists plugging indie singles to odd, eccentric locals singing self-penned romantic ballads that make you want to laugh (but that would be mean). The DJ nights are also a lot of fun, though people won't start dancing until well into their third or fourth beer past 11:30. And did I mention the cool roof patio?

The Abbey Tavern is one of my all-time favourite pubs in all of London. A cool, funky vibe, wonderful ambience, great service, and really killer food all combine to make some sort of shimmering, invincible robo-pub where everything rocks. The garden in back is my very favourite things about The Abbey. They've got a wonderful, large street-level area with big wooden picnic tables and umbrellas, and some gigantic trees also provide some lovely, cool shady bits as well. Heat lamps are plentiful, and the shared tables make it easy to meet some new friends if everyone's had a few pints. There's also a lovely roof garden as well, with shade, sunshine, and a bit of a tropical vibe going on. A warm, lazy evening out in back with a pint and a group of friends is a seriously wonderful way to spend a night. The food is great, especially for those of us who prefer our chips nice and crunchy. The Abbey Chicken Sandwich is my particular favourite, though I've heard that the Jerk Burger is also especially nice. They also have posh-pub fare as well, such as salmon fillets, pumpkin soup, grilled halloumi, and mussels. I've never gotten more adventurous here beverage-wise than a pint of cider or a glass of white wine, but they do both of those just fine. The service is friendly and efficient, and they do a great £10 plate-and-pint deal which the bar staff helpfully remind their customers of in order to help save them a few quid. Catchup and mayo can be a bit hard to come by at times, but I've never really had a less-than-pleasant experience with the service. While my husband was out of the house all day yesterday, I took myself out for a little treat. I went to Owl Bookshop just up Kentish Town Road and bought myself a wonderful new book, then meandered down to The Abbey to grab a table under a tree and read over a delicious lunch. The combination of my really exciting new book, my crispy-crunchy chips, icy-cold pint of cider, and having a few moments to myself to sit under a tree made for a deeply satisfying and decadent afternoon. A+, Abbey! You rock my heart and my soul.

I seem to get trouble when I write reviews on here... they show up on my Facebook and I get told off... I like it. The Abbey Tavern. Must have been past the place millions of times, on my way to cash converters or the job centre... I never noticed it until one lovely summer evening my friend said to come down to Kentish Town... "KENTISH TOWN" I always seem to echo someone when I have a certain displeasure about somewhere... YES I am a Post Code snob, even though I was first chasing the ladies in E17 (don't go there)... where was I... oh Kentish Town, lovely place, NOW, but it always had a very bad rep, kids from school would say they were from Kentish to seem "well-hard" and even the biggest of fellows would take a chill pill... or sniff tippex, I'm not sure. Nowadays due to the expansion of Camden, Kentish is getting a more positive name for itself... I really liked it. the reason I was there was a secret but I got free food, and boy do I know how to abuse a friendship, in the nicest possible way. The was an acoustic night on in there and that was pretty sweet, quaint little technical problems that are just adorable. The quality of mostly everything was good and the staff very relaxed and not stressed about numbers or had to be concerned with the local dregs. I was and still am confused about the garden.. as lovely as it is, something within me tells me that I shouldn't go to the upstairs bit and chat to whoever's there, so next time I will venture up there, as for the rest of the garden, spot on.. enough tables, chairs, standing space, a little canopy, lights twinkly enough... the bogs are a maze, but all part of the fun. It is what you would call a "Tardis" bar, very unassuming on the outside, awesome on the inside... The only thing is for me, getting home is actually a mission. what would be a 15-30 minute walk is not possible because of Hampstead Heath, the hill around it, no more busses, and a sleepy cab controller, which means a walk to Camden to get two buses... but that's not the Abbey's fault. Anyway... Enjoy!

Inside and out, this bar is my go-to when anyone comes a-knockin on my Camden town door! Far enough away from the bloody tourists, it offers some amazing food, like burgers, jerk chicken and other caribbean-ish food. I brought co-workers here one friday night and now it's officially become our 'work pub' as everyone always suggests we come here, even if it's further a walk than the other nearby pubs. The staff are really good about reserving areas if you call ahead, and there's no charge for doing it. The garden is quite swanky, with its mismatched chairs and low-hanging foliage everywhere...very shabby chic. There's also an upper bar, decorated in hawaiian themes, that I haven't been to but shall endeavour to go and write back! It's usually a fight for seats from about 6 pm on, so get there early or put your fightin' gloves on! It's totally worth it!

Oh Abbey! You're like a mirage in the desert... the desert of Kentish Town... I always think there's going to be more going on up here since there's an HMV venue closeby and you're on the outskirts of booming Camden Town, but the bars seem to be a bit sparse. Luckily, I found exactly what I want out of a pub here. They do pretty massive burgers and have a great relaxed but trendy vibe. I haven't made it out back yet because it was quite chilly when we were up there, but I do want to see this garden I keep hearing about!

I really enjoyed the time I spent at The Abbey and will go back again. The staff were friendly and efficient. The roof terrace is a lovely spot to chill and enjoy some food and a cider on a summer's day. As a Canadian, I jumped at the chance to enjoy a poutine (chips, cheese and gravy). I regretted it immediately. I am not picky about cheese and gravy on chips in anyway, so I was shocked that I found this version very hard to eat. It was way too salty and the gravy was way too thick that it became this overly thick and goopy version of a poutine, that no one in our party actually enjoyed eating. I really regret not getting the pulled pork. However when the poutine is on the menu in London, a Canadian girl will always jump at the chance for a taste of home. Another bonus was the live music on Tuesday night. I don't alway enjoy the live music in pubs, however I really liked what I heard at the Abbey. I will be coming back again to try the pulled pork. I hope it lives up to the expectations from watching other people in our party wolf down the pulled pork sandwiches. They looked huge, so I would say it seems to be good value for the money. I will report back if I am disappointed the next time I visit.

I'm having a great night out I'm really enjoying myself this is is the second last pub on tonight's pub crawl & I think this place has had the best tasting beer all night there selection is very good & the food is really nice.

Good place The Abbey - just round the corner from me as well, so probably as close to a local as I have. It's a decent sized bar and has a garden out back with heaters - fortunately for the 11 months of the year that England is too cold to sit outside. They play a decent mix of music and also have plenty of live bands on as well. It is a bit on the loud side from time to time for a quiet chat with someone, but most of the time it works well. Good place for a Sunday with the papers as well - it's pretty chilled out and feels spacious. The food is tasty too - nice mix they have on the menu now as they have brought in some great Caribbean dishes. Oh and finally it's got late night opening which always makes for a good pub.

The Abbey is what I would call a good pub on Kentish Town High street. The drinks and food are good and there is often live music should that be what you are loking for. There is also a large outside space and raised balcony area. There are heaters too and even a small room next to this balcony area to pop into if it starts raining. Overall I would say this is one of the better pubs in Kentish Town.

A clean, yummy place. The live music too loud but free. Probably the best burger I have had in London. The bun is a home made sesame seeded with just the right amount of white fluff space. The meat has been hand rubbed by virgins from Babylon. If you know what I'm saying.

Personally I think it is a great space! Lots of room, love the decoration. The thing that made me walk as much as I did, was that this pub is dog friendly. It makes it a place to come back. The prices are acceptable and the personnel is really nice. I just don't give 5 stars because they should have table service, which they don't, and for the amount of people working there, it would easy, and their payment scheme: if you order food and beverages, the food can be paid in the end, and the drinks must me paid right away. Other than that is a great place to hangout, with lots of nice and beautiful people.

My girlfriend and I just moved here from Australia and are fortunate enough to have the Abbey as our local. The selection of beers and ciders on tap is great (you can actually get a cold well carbonated ale which is pretty rare), not to mention the huge of range of bottled beers. We have never been disappointed with the food. The decor is very cool and the music is great!

The Abbey (124 Kentish Town Road) is actually really pleasant. I say 'actually' because nobody I know goes there regularly, although, on the rare occasions when we do, we will inevitably comment on its red-lit, wooden-floored, rather elegant long bar and interior. Its winning card is a very shady secret garden, with hidden treehouse and private heaters. They need to sort the food out though. It's not terrible, but you'd never actually go there to eat scran is always a default option. But there are other pleasures: live music nights and other arts-based events, and a chilled-ish KT crowd.

Yay! I'm a fan, as my star rating suggests. This funky pub is enjoyable at all hours. Serves good pub grub so you can pop in for lunch or boogy till the early hours in the evening. The staff are friendly, the atmosphere is alive and the beer garden is large enough to fit plenty but intimate enough to feel like you're chilling outside in the garden at a house party. A great pub all round.

A really nice pub, one of the best I've been to in Camden. Was here for the Camden Crawl and it accommodated lived music well too. I shall be going back!

I came to this pub some time ago to watch a friend play on an open mic night. I remember it as a nice place, but perhaps short on decent options to drink. That had definitely changed recently with Redemption Trinity and Adnams Lighthouse now available. My friends were strongly against the refurb the place has had which surprised me as I didn't notice too much difference from my first visit. It is obviously a cleaner looking, shinier place today.

Always have a good time in this pub, normally has good live or DJ music, great beer garden. Food is decent and has a slightly more interesting selection than most. You can sit in here for hours.

Solid pub, food, beer and vibe. The menu is phenomenal and so is the Sunday roast. Service is very casual and friendly.

I absolutely love this little pub. I play gigs here many Tuesday and Sunday nights, and it is always really buzzy, warm, and atmospheric. The lightings really cosy, with a big bar, and lots of big wooden tables. The food is great, with a new improved big menu with lots of Jamaican dishes, but pub food too. It is fairly cheap as well. The thing I love about this pub is the massive outside area. There are tables and chairs on two levels, with fairy lights, so this is great for the smokers! They have live music on the newly build stage, and now there is new management, the sound system has been replaced and sounds wicked. Definitely come here if you want some warm pub food, and a pleasant night drinking, chatting and watching some live acoustic music.

A charming establishment, with a healthy selection of wines to complement the excellent gastro-pub fare. Cosy and relaxed, the setting is great for the ace Soundbites acoustic sessions. Staff could a bit friendlier at times but no matter this is a great place to kick back for an intimate drink with friends

The Abbey Tavern has probably one of the best beer gardens in Camden Town and Kentish Town area. It has been refurbished recently and it has a very nice interior with tables and long sofas; food is good and there are weekly gigs, as well. Outside they have a large garden with tall trees, a lot of heaters and even a lovely upstairs area.

Excellent venue, great atmosphere, friendly staff, fabulous music

Nice pub, but the jerk chicken is amazing, the jerk will not disappoint. Also it's super cheap for the amount of food and quality you get. Highly recommended.

Have been here quite a few times for friend's birthday's, farewells, you name it! Weekends are busy but relaxed, the rooftop terrace is really cool for a chat and to hang out, as well as the beer garden out the back. Inside can get crammed when the beer garden closes (sometimes a bit early in the night, noise restrictions as there are residents living next to the place I think), but when the inside gets super busy it makes for good fun as often everyone will just start dancing! Beer selection on tap is standard, music is pretty awesome though. Highly recommend!

A lovely pub; great selection of beers and decent food. I've heard a lot about the poutine but apparently they don't have it on Sundays so I missed out on it when I visited. To be honest the pub is a delight and deserves a much higher rating but unfortunately it's one of those pubs that have decided to put pictures of 'vintage' naked ladies all over the walls of the loo, as though that's a particularly clever thing to do in 2015. If they could grow up a little, this'd be a pub I'd recommend to everyone.

I've been looking for the best Sunday roast in North/Central London for a while, and it looks like I've found it. This place has such a lovely relaxed vibe, in the winter there is a lovely warm atmosphere, and in summer, there are different levels in the huge terraced back garden to chill in. There are lots of nice ciders (important to me!) and best of all is the food. I've eaten here several times and it's always delicious. Don't forget to save room for the incredible deserts.

Opted for Farmer Tom's Kitchen at The Abbey Tavern for a Sunday roast. I was really looking forward to it, having heard great things. Hugely disappointing. We had a horrible little pub table on a stage with uncomfortable seats (despite booking two weeks in advance). This would have been instantly forgotten had the food been as good as I expected it to be. But alas... the portions were tiny - we were both still hungry after cleaning our plates. Bland, uninteresting veg, and not enough. Two small potatoes. And overly fatty meat. The pork was better than the lamb. I suspect that if you're a larger group and can order a cut for 4-6 people you would have a better experience. But I'll never know because I won't be going back.

Kentish Town lacks any decent eating establishments, The Abbey Tavern is no exception. Don't be fooled because it is always busy, or the fact the chef's try to make the food sophisticated. Recently, but never again, I had a roast dinner and it left me wishing I had cooked myself or taken the trouble to venture elsewhere. The service was ok, if you like the multi-tasking staff role of the barman/waiter/toilet cleaner who looked like he hadn't washed his hands or face from the previous night before bringing me my food. Sadly, the food was just over priced rubbish, which wasted my time and energy using my jaw. If you charge ten pounds for a roast then you should deliver a roast worthy of ten pounds. The beef portion was gerbal size and aside from being ridiculously small, it had lots of irrelevant and unecessary flavoring to disguise the fact that it would otherwise taste like poor quality cheap meat not worthy of good money or possibly human consumption. I believe restaurants or food outlets should be legally obligated to inform customers of the source and quality of produce on the menu or packaging. Had this been the case at The Abbey, without doubt I would invited my neighbours dog to come along for lunch. At least then I could have felt like there was something satisfying or worthwhile about eating here. Adding insult to injury, If the main feature of the roast was not disappointing enough, I was also given a ration of three (overcooked) roast potatoes and a wee bit of veg, that's it? Oh, and a runner bean. Bizarely, the gravy tasted tangy and fruity due to the layers of totamto puree substance presumably meant to be a sauce flavour, for a second I thought it was summer and that I was somewhere in the Mediterranean, I was certainly not enjoying a simple dish that can only be enjoyed traditionally. Since when should beef or roast dinner taste like that and more to the point, what type of moron would use a tomato puree/pepper/onion sauce concoction on a sunday roast? The member of staff on the day subsequently offered me some horse raddish, at this point i'd rather have had horse tranquelisers and the thought of mixing horse raddish with a tomatoe/pepper/onion based mish-mash was enough to make me want to puke. However, Gizmo (my neighbours dog) may have enjoyed it. Full marks to the chef's for trying to be different, but watch Master Chef and learn about your trade if you want to do bistro or fine dining, its all about the flavours and seasoning. If ever there was a case for how not to do a roast dinner, unquestionably this is it. Fortunately, they have a bar selling alcohol so it makes it easier to forget. All in all, if you have a hang over, if you can't be bothered to cook or if you are easily pleased - evidently some local residents are - then I guess its alright. At least the venue is a place to hang out and let alcahol make up for your losses. Try getting sloshed before you eat, hopefully you will not remember anything. Anyhow, having recently moved to the area, I now know where not to impress, where to take my neighbours dog, where to take a cheap date. Aunt Bessie would turn in her grave.

Beer garden here is amazing, as are the fit boys who work behind the bar. The food is always great especially the fish finger sandwich. Best local pub EVER!