Mr Fogg's Market Tavern, Covent Garden, WC2

Visited 29/07/26. Visited previously as the Crusting Pipe, then a Davy's venue, on 10/01/22. No cask. Keg offering of Guinness, Camden Hells and Pale, Modelo, Stella, Midway Session IPA from Goose Island and Aspall. Lower-level Covent Garden Piazza venue with some seating out the front on typical patio style furniture. Inside it is original stone flagstones with the bar counter along the right-hand wall just inside the entrance. Plenty of ledge and tall table seating around the bar counter plus some snugs at the rear. Indeed, there are a lot of individual tables in closed off areas around most of the venue and lots of space with just ledges with tall stools on the way to other areas, some of which reverted to bare boarded. I quite liked the simplicity of the tall tables along the frontage served by comfy tall, backed stools between the entrances. What is essentially an arch based venue with ambient lighting was probably not shown off to its best on a mid-summer blazing hot and light evening. Indeed, the venue felt more Davy's still than Mr Fogg's. No screens and a 70/80's pop soundtrack playing.

An expensive wine bar offering semi-fine dining, overpriced wine and extremely overpriced bottled ales. The food was very good indeed, the location is excellent and free entertainment from buskers in the basement completes the scene. I had a bottle of Saint Craft English Lager – I'm not normally a lager drinker, but it was very refreshing and a change is always a good thing. I would bring people here for lunch, but I wouldn't make an evening of it or include it in a crawl.