The Freemasons Arms

Reviews

• Hannah B.

  star star star star star_border 1 June 2026

  Well, this place seemed a bit posh.
  I think that it's probably just a bit nicer than the usual dives I end up in. Definitely the place you take your parents for a spot of lunch.
  They appear to let dogs in on the front patio as well, so that's always a good thing.
  We only stayed for one drink, but it's a nice place and staff seem friendly. Not perhaps somewhere where I would go for a ballsy session with my friends, but perhaps a quiet drink of a Sunday evening.

• Christoph N.

  star star star star star_border 24 May 2026

  If you're planning to spend your afternoon walking in Hampstead Heath, this place makes a a great pitstop for a pint or a glass of prosseco. Sun's out? Make sure you head towards the back of the house, to the huge terrace. The roast looked amazing but will have to come back and eat here to confirm.
  Service at the bar and no food outside unfortunately, but this is a cool gastro-pub, well situated.

• Graham S.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 22 May 2026

  Not impressed by the unprofessional clumsy service. STAFF aren't trained properly here,all the orders get mixed up frequently. Food is below average.

• Samuel C.

  star star star star star 8 May 2026

  This is my favorite pub in London ...
  
  although I suppose to be completely fair I would need to eat and drink in the remaining 12,350 I haven't been to.
  
  But I have been to quite a few and this is my favorite - by far.
  
  Strangely, it appears in no guides to restaurants, guides to pubs or travel guides - despite the fact that the room and the pub are both superb.
  
  There are MANY London gastropubs with excellent food. Everything we have had out of their kitchen, from roast chicken, to fishcakes, to lamb, to salads to mediterranean plates has been superb.
  
  But if you go to a place that calls itself a gastropub - there is at least a 10% chance (arguably 20 percent or higher) you will find a kitchen where everything is superb.
  
  London gastropubs are just good.
  
  So if there are 12,500 pubs in London
  
  (a number I obtained scientifically by pulling it out of my        ...
  
  make that pulling it out of thin air),
  
  if there are 12,500 pubs in London and ten percent have superlative kitchens, then that gives you 1,250 superlative pub kitchens to choose from.
  
  so you might not necessarily choose the freemasons arms as your favorite.
  
  if you are a demanding real ale drinker - that provides less reason to go to freemasons. the selection of beers on draught is small and quite commercial.
  
  i would not have made those choices for draught beers.
  
  (now the cider on the other hand, that is another story.  both the sweet and the dry cider on draught are marks you don't usually see on tap, and they are both exquisite.)
  
  So why pick the Freemasons Arms with the perfect kitchen over the other 1,250 other pubs with perfect kitchens?
  
  ****
  
  Picking a pub, to a large extent, is about falling in love with a room.
  
  The room is where you will
  
  eat your wonderful food,
  
  become inebriated to the point of charm (or stupidity),
  
  meet with all your friends,
  
  think your thoughts about how you are going to solve all of your problems  and
  
  discuss the meaning of life with your spouse,your promising spouse candidate, or the local hot piece of glandular stimulation for the night.
  
  So the room becomes the background for your life.
  
  So picking a pub is a lot like decorating your living room -
  
  only in a pub you can afford more expensive furnishings than those you can afford to put in your own house.
  
  The Freemason Arms is simply gorgeous.
  
  (and the pictures on its website don't even remotely begin to do it justice.)
  
  If you are sitting outside the neighborhood is gorgeous,
  
  the terraces and gardens are gorgeous,
  
  the rooms are well lit, gracious and attractive by day,
  
  and they turn even more magical and magnificent by night.
  
  (a lot of rooms in pubs - or anywhere else -
  look good by day - or by night but not both.
  
  Freemason Arms rooms look great in either modality.)
  
  Fantastic looks are not that easy to find in pubs.
  
  There are so many other run-of-the-mill pubs -
  
  that feel like the standard place to get a beer in a 1940 British railway station.
  
  (you know the drill - red walls, lots of wood, black chalkboards and accents, ratty but comfortable wood furniture.
  
  In the standard red and black rooms, the miners, the railwaymen or the schoolteachers could be discussing the election prospects of Stanley Baldwin or how England will do in the Test with New Zealand.)
  
  Red and black rooms are pleasant enough and merit a B+.
  
  I give a C or lower to places where the televisions are on just about everywhere.
  
  In these places you  might as well be in a sports bar on Racine, Wisconsin.
  
  Freemason Arms avoids both the 1938 railway pub look and the cheap glitzy sports bar lood -
  
  for its own special very British, pseudo-Georgian-era, white painted wood and sunlight charm.
  
  You know it the minute you walk into the place.
  
  The Freemasons Arms has that perfect - "I am in pub paradise" ambience -
  
  And it has the other mandatory ingredient, a kitchen with food that makes you want to die and go to heaven.
  
  (Save room for puds. DEFINITELY save room for puds.)
  
  Perfect food? Perfect room?
  
  Sign me up forever.

• Maria Vittoria V.

  star star star star star 7 May 2026

  I was with a friend in Hampstead for a jazz concert without any plan for dinner. When we saw The Freemasons Arms we knew that it was one of those gastropubs that we love. And we were right. Rich menu with plenty of choice of starters, mains and desserts. I enjoyed an amazing plate of gnocchi with spinach, ricotta and pumpkin with a glass of Italian Pinot Grigio. My friend went for the Ale Battered Line-Caught Cod & Chips, old style and tasty. The atmosphere is perfect, not too noisy and you feel very comfortable. I'll definitely suggest it to everyone that loves gastropubs. It's worth a visit even if you only want to drink a beer or a glass of wine before or after dinner.