British-style pub offers up authentic atmosphere

RESTAURANT REVIEW  

Ye Olde King’s Head Pub
Address: 116 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
90230

Hours: M-F 11a.m. – 10p.m.
Phone Number: (310) 451-1402
Entree Price Range: $6.00 – $11.00
Rating: 8

Original by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by Hernane
Tabay/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Thinking of British food, some people imagine something that
tastes slightly worse than airline food and slightly better than
dirt.

“Ye Olde King’s Head Pub” of Santa Monica
quickly puts such misconceptions to rest with a wide variety of
tempting English dishes. Catering to the English-loving public for
twenty five years, “Ye Olde King’s Head Pub” may
at first sound like a gimmicky theme restaurant trying to lure
customers with an ersatz old English name. In reality, however, it
delivers an authentic English atmosphere and, more importantly,
good, solid food.

Famous culinary mysteries like “toad in the hole,”
and “bubble and squeak,” fail to appear on the menu,
but anglophiles will rejoice to find classics like shepherd’s
pie and, naturally, the obligatory fish and chips.

Although wary patrons will breathe a sigh of relief, knowing
that the legendary horrors of the English diet are nowhere to be
seen, but adventurous souls longing for a real taste of the British
Isles need not despair. They still have their choice of foreign
oddities, such as the frighteningly-named steak and kidney pie.

  MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Robert
Sneddon serves up beer to a patron at the Ye Olde King’s
Head Pub in Santa Monica. This is not sissy continental cuisine,
full of snails and shellfish and puzzling cream sauces. This is
from the country of soccer, of empire, of beef; this is from the
country that won the war. This is a real taste of old Europe with
hearty, honest, man-sized dishes, full of lots and lots of
meat.

A visit to this restaurant is fun, not so much for its food, as
for its atmosphere. The King’s Head takes European quaintness
to new heights. The atmosphere recalls the pub’s namesake,
the cozy corner tavern of yester-year. Distinctly British
paraphernalia grace the walls, from the oil portrait of Sir Winston
Churchill over the fireplace to the old Beatles album covers over
the doorway. Photographs of famous personalities cover every
available inch of wall space. Stained glass windows add to the
King’s Head’s unique charm.

Being a pub, the King’s Head naturally features a full bar
for the drinking crowd, complete with dart board. Every English bar
has a dart board; it’s tradition. The bar and restaurant
portions of Ye Olde King’s Head are neatly separated so that
diners can enjoy a quiet meal while bar-hoppers can carouse all
night.

On the restaurant side, the menu includes perennial English
favorites like Shepherd’s Pie, a pot pie concoction of ground
beef and mixed vegetables topped with whipped potatoes.

Other items, while less traditional, are no less fitting. Curry,
tender beef slathered in tangy brown sauce, served with sweet mango
chutney and a buttery fried tortilla, might not have originated in
England, but it feels perfectly at home; it does contain beef,
after all.

The turkey sandwich is a massive affair, slabs of fresh turkey
wrapped in a crusty subway roll, served alongside moist coleslaw
and crunchy potato chips ““ although the British call them
crisps.

Of course, the staple of the menu is the fish and chips. The
fried, battered fish and the side of what we, unsophisticated
Americans call French fries, comes with zesty vinegar. They do not
arrive wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper, but otherwise they
are no different than their authentic London street-corner
counterparts.

Ye Olde King’s Head is not cheap, but generous portions
make the prices fairly reasonable. Diners on a budget may do well
to visit King’s Head for lunch, when the prices run around
$8.00, rather than dinner when prices rise to the $10-$11
range.

Despite the consistently flavorful entrees, some diners might
complain that Ye Olde King’s Head is too true to the legacy
of British food. Making no concessions to California health
concerns, the food is quite rich and heavy. Although it offers a
wide variety of exotic foods, there is little that could reasonably
qualify as “light.” Those with delicate constitutions
or sensitive stomachs take warning, but, for everyone else,
King’s Head Pub offers delicious, home-cooked meals with a
fun, old-world ambience.

RESTAURANT: “Ye Olde King’s Head Pub” is
located at 116 Santa Monica Blvd, (310)451-1402. Hours are
Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m, weekends 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Prices
range $6-$11.