When it comes to beer, London is full of little gems with beers from all around the world. Mason & Taylor is of these with 12 different beers and real ales on tap in addition to many more bottled beers from Britain, North America and Belgium. There’s an extended menu for wine lovers as well but for me it was all about beer last night.
They have five different groups of bottled beers in their beer menu as Pale, Amber-Brown and Red, Black, Oddities and Fruit. This list is seasonal and is updated every two to three months. So the beers we have tried are from the March-April menu. I started off with a Belgian Trappist beer, Orval (£5), which is produced in a monastery in Belgium and served in a 33ml bottle with 6.2% alcohol. If you look at the label on its bottle you’ll see a fish with a ring in its mouth. You may wonder why; does this beer go well with fish? Well, maybe, but that’s not why. According to the legend, Matilda of Tuscany, an Italian noblewoman, was visiting the monastery of Orval when she lost her wedding ring in a spring. Of course she was very upset and she prayed to God to find her ring. Her prayers were accepted and a trout appeared on the surface of the spring with Mathilda’s ring in its mouth! Miracle! Next time make sure you ask for this specific beer and use this story to impress someone special. You’re welcome.
The other beers I have tried was La Trappe Quadrupel (£7) from Netherlands, sweet and fruity with 10% alcohol, yes! Then there was the Belgian amber ale Kwak in its fancy test tube glass with a wooden stand (£5) with 8.9% alcohol.
For the hop lovers I recommend the Southville Hop (£5) from Bristol with 6.5% alcohol, which was a bit too bitter for my taste. If you can’t be bothered to choose from many tastes and flavours the local Camden Hells Lager (£3.90) on draught is always safe and easy to drink.
In case you may want to put something in your stomach other than beer I would describe Mason & Taylor’s style as tapas-like British cuisine from scotch eggs to English rabbit with gherkin, which by the way is not really rabbit but Welsh rarebit (warm melted cheese on toast). I loved the goat’s cheese and the chutneys in our cheese platter! Yes, I took the liberty of drinking beer with cheese and I don’t regret that.
The staff is very friendly and helpful but I think they may use a few more people for service especially on Fridays and weekends because we felt a little ignored at our corner table by the window, which was a long way to the bar. There’s also a basement bar, which is open until 1 am and 2 am on Fridays and weekends and you can hire it for private parties.
There are too many beers to choose from in Mason & Taylor and a human liver can handle up to a certain limit (unfortunately) so you should either go as a big group and learn how to share with each other or go for the taster menu which offers you 3 or 6 different beers in 1/3 pint glasses served in their custom made trays. A very classy way to get drunk!
