There are new things afoot at the former The Prince on Coldharbour Lane. Shaking off the confusion of all the various guises it has had over the past few years, the pub has combined together with the neighbouring club and the famous roof terrace to come under the one name of The Prince of Wales.
And the new style seems to suit it. The terrace has a new lease of life and the black walls of the former Club House have been lightened up, but the biggest changes are downstairs in the pub. The heavy curtains have gone and everything is brightened by new white walls and the gentle flickering of the wood burning oven in the centre of the new downstairs kitchen.
This oven rightly tells you that food is central to The Prince of Wales and it makes perfect sense to discover that Arno Maasdorp, creator of the very local Saltoun Supper Club, is the new executive chef here. He has revamped the menu to create a mouthwatering selection for everyday of the week from crisp skinned roast chicken on a Sunday to Tuesday night pizza and beer for a tenner.
The menu has excellent vegetarian options and a brasserie style instead of rehashing the same gastropub dishes as everywhere else in London. There’s a plat du jour each day and enough choice that you’d need to come back several times before you’ve eaten your way through all the things you wanted to try on first reading. The pizza was very different in style to both The Agile Rabbit and Franco Manca and came out of the custom built oven beautifully cooked. I can’t wait to try the meat and vegetables they’ll be roasting in there too.
I visited on a warm sunny day and yet I could picture myself in The Prince of Wales on a crisp autumn afternoon, eating an excellent lunch and getting slowly but surely warmed up on the beer selection. Some of the previous staff remain which makes it familiar, but the vibe of the pub has changed. It’s more relaxed and friendly without any ‘too cool for school’ feel. You’d be as comfortable in here having a pint alone as with a big group of friends.
While the kitchen is the focal point up til 11pm, everything rolls away on castors then to allow the dancefloor to come to life. Everything is about entertainment here and they haven’t lost the love of music. There’ll be a DJ and dancing. Tapping into Arno’s expertise as a host, this pub is designed to feel like you’ve gone to a friend’s house for dinner, had a few drinks and stayed to dance.
They’ll also be hosting comedy, film and spoken word nights upstairs and offering themselves as a community venue for hire. All these events will start happening in the next few weeks, but dishes from the new menu start appearing from today, so come in and be the first to know what’s new!
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I visited POW yesterday evening, had a pint and was leaving when b the doorman asked me not to use the place as a public toilet again. Very strange and not very welcoming.
There is a mistake in this review. The review states that: ‘The menu has excellent vegetarian options’.
I was in there last night. Not only was there not excellent vegetarian options, there were no vegetarian options at all. The lady behind the bar was very dismissive when I asked whether there were any other options.
We took our business to the Ritzy cafe instead.
Ben, thanks for the feedback. The menus I saw had excellent vegetarian options (not just goat cheese or things bizarrely loaded with parmesan as if it’s veggie.)
You’ve given me the excuse to pop in again!
The starter of Beef carpaccio with beautiful roasted beets was in fact carpaccio of Beetroot with bits of mushroom. I thought I had got it wrong and it was meant to be beetroot carpaccio but looked at the menu when ordering dessert found it was meant to be Beef carpaccio, very disappointing. The main course and dessert were good.