When you first enter The Audley Public House, the first thing you notice is the ceiling – a striking, technicolour collage by British visual artist Dame Phyllida Barlow. From there, your eyes float down to the restored 19th-century clock, then to the yellow, neon ‘FRIENDS’ sign hung behind the long mahogany bar with menus written on chalkboards, the sunlight coming from the windows behind the booths and the dark green carpet that matches the green stool cushions.
For a Mayfair pub on the same road as Balmain and within minutes from Hyde Park, The Audley Public House is oddly and refreshingly… relaxing. It’s a gathering area and chic common ground for local regulars , the after (or during)-work boozers, tourists and any wandering straggler with the same goal of feeding their appetite.
It’s pricey, but delicious, and perfectly positioned for a post-walk-in-the-park pint
The pub was built in 1888 but architecture studio Laplace gave it a modern glow-up, simultaneously complementing and contrasting its traditional, Edwardian style. Even the journey to the toilet is an artistic pursuit. A wallpaper of Santa Clauses holding very phallically suggestive Christmas trees leads you to the red and green-tiled lavatories downstairs. “Why this wallpaper?” I asked the bartender and his answer boiled down to: “It gets people talking.” He’s not wrong.
The art continues upstairs in the (somewhat expensive) Mount St. Restaurant, but on this occasion we stick to the ground floor pub.
The pub mixes traditional fare, like its crisp haddock and chips and sausage rolls with some lesser-known, but still British-to-the-core dishes like Durslade Farm lamb scrumpets, coronation crab on toast and cockle popcorn (a nice shout out to Wales). There’s also a chicken and marmite pie, the brainchild of Audley chef, Jamie Sears, and pastry chef Ravneet Gill.
London rarebit
Scotch egg
Sticky toffee pudding
I skipped those for the Scotch egg and London rarebit, and while both were incredibly good – specifically the Scotch egg, with a gooey and golden yolk – I had trouble reasoning £10 for the rarebit, which is essentially just a thin slice of white bread cut diagonally in half and topped with cheese. No onion chutney side? No, just a bottle of Worcestershire sauce. Despite the costly blow, the thin bread slice DID taste delicious, and had so much cheese that it made a small, melted golden-brown dome.
For the main, Sears’s version of the French dip – the London dip – hit the table. Thin roast beef slices were neatly piled on toasted bread, slabbed with horseradish butter and gravy so good, it could be sipped like tea on a rainy day. The sandwich looked like an easy feat (especially compared to the over-the-top meaty boys in all the late-night burger shops), but don’t be deceived. I barely made a dent in the second half.
This didn’t stop me from devouring the side order of triple-cooked chips with beef dripping béarnaise. Nor did it stop me from ordering the sticky toffee pudding: dense, dreamy and covered in thick, caramel-coloured toffee sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to cut through the richness. Yes, life is sweet.
While I personally wouldn’t leap across town for this meal, I would happily return if I’m near it. The Audley is visually posh and stunning, but down to earth in its core. It’s pricey, but delicious, and perfectly positioned for a post-walk-in-the-park pint.
41-43 Mount Street
London
W1K 2RX
November 2024
