Say St John’s Wood to most people and they might think of either Lord’s Cricket Ground or the Abbey Road zebra crossing popularised by the Beatles and now a notorious local traffic bottleneck. Walk roughly ten minutes north west from the station and you reach a quiet and leafy residential street that speaks of prosperity. Nestled on one side – blink and you might almost miss it – is the Clifton. When the area really did comprise just wooded land, the Clifton was a hunting lodge, with a history dating to 1846. King Edward VII apparently frequented its rooms in the past. Fast forward to today and the venue has been updated to a classic pub, which has operated in its current iteration since 2018.
The pub has a lovely front patio, hidden from the road by a hedge (albeit low enough to allow visitors to look out and admire the nearby stucco-fronted buildings) as well as a cool conservatory at its rear. When my comrade and I visited on a recent weekday lunchtime, every table was occupied, and service was perhaps correspondingly somewhat slower than we might have hoped for. Sure, a minor irritation, but the Clifton is the sort of venue where it would be easy to while away an afternoon or longer. Time almost feels as if it has slowed down here; given how quiet the street was, you could almost kid yourself that you’re not in London, maybe rather somewhere in the countryside or even back in time (perhaps at a Victorian hunting lodge).
The approach to food and drink though is decidedly modern: locally sourced and seasonal wherever possible. There’s a range of craft ales and a brief menu of around half a dozen each of starters and mains as well as a handful of changing daily specials. We started with two generous snacking portions of whitebait and cheese straws, well presented and tasty too. Our mains also delivered and perhaps provided a better indication of the kitchen’s capabilities. I opted for one of the day’s specials; pan-fried hake accompanied by a piquant wild garlic salad and topped with a Sauce Vierge (cherry tomatoes, capers, lemon, oil and basil). My comrade chose the celeriac steak, served with tomatoes, mushrooms and walnuts. Both were executed competently even if not superlatively. You are, of course, paying elevated posh London prices for the experience, but it’s broadly worth it. The Clifton is certainly a better bet than most locally.