The Half Moon isn’t half bad, especially for a Wetherspoons pub located just up the road from a sprawling university campus. For cheap drinks - whether you’re a student or not - take a half chance on this pub.

The Venue
The Half Moon is conveniently located on Mile End Road – although it’s at the Stepney Green end so if you get off at Mile End tube station be prepared for a hike. Its proximity to Queen Mary University of London and cheap local cinema The Genesis means it’s often full of students milking the low priced local amenities.

That said, this surprisingly nice Wetherspoons pub manages to avoid coming across as a downtrodden student hive. Instead, you could almost forget you’re in the cheapest pub in the area if it wasn’t for the laminated colourful menus boasting ultra-cheap deals synonymous with this chain. It helps that the building it’s situated within is actually very beautiful. Based in the former home of the Half Moon Theatre, the sprawling building is tucked neatly behind a pair of black gates, leading back past a large courtyard complete with outdoor benches with parasols, popular in the summer. Past here are the large glass doors that lead inward to the airy pub. Alternatively, you can enter via a second large entrance further along the street with more heavy gating and large double doors. Either way, the red brick building is one of the more attractive features of this rather bleak road.

Inside, there is a huge bar packed full of the beers that Wetherspoons are so famed for. There’s plenty of seating in the form of worn wooden tables and chairs and comfortable booths but there’s not a great deal to recommend the interior decor. It’s pleasant enough with an in-your-face red theme, complete with rather unattractive red carpeting. Still, when filled with people you barely notice anyway.

The Atmosphere
This is a thriving pub on the competitive Mile End Road. Pulling in students and locals from Stepney Green, Whitechapel and Mile End, its great positioning and strong presence ensures the punters keep coming. Their clever – and blatant – advertisements for the painfully cheap deals inside go down very well and at it’s rarely not busy. However, for a student-focussed pub it’s actually not bad if you’re on the other side of 25. The staff are friendly and talkative and the buzzing atmosphere inside is enjoyable. Although the chav element can be spied at all times, as you’d expect, the deluge of students actually has a pleasant watering down effect that means you don’t feel intimidated by the huge swathe of Burberry. Definitely one of the better Wetherspoons in London.

The Food
You’re never going to get gourmet grub in a Wetherspoons pub and the Half Moon is no different. However, what you do get is the cheapest pub food in London that is infinitely better than beans on toast - so hugely popular with students. As Wetherspoons has stepped up their assault on the High Street, this branch has adopted the new £2.99 meal deals on jacket potatoes with tuna, cottage pie with chips and peas, sausages with baked beans and chips, tomato pasta, and ham with egg and chips. OK, so not exactly haute cuisine but it fills a hole.

Even if you don’t fancy any of those dishes, the rest of the menu won’t exactly break the bank, and offers on cheap breakfasts and morning coffees ensures this pub is filled with hungry punters throughout the day.

The Drink
As well as slashing prices on food, the Half Moon is embracing Wetherspoons’ new drink prices, including Greene King IPA for 99p a pint, a bottle of San Miguel for 99p, a bottle of Blossom Hill Rose for £4.99, a single measure of Sailor Jerry rum and mixer for £1.29, and a bottle of Jacques cider for £3.99. These prices are so ridiculously low that they were headlined in the national press when they were first announced. However, none of the drinks here are overpriced and they do a great job of introducing cheap guest ale (for an average £1.89 a pint) every month within their huge choice of real ale. So much so, this chain is actually well respected by CAMRA.

The only thing you’re advised to steer well clear of are the cocktails. Made with a selection of toxic syrups so bright it’s best you don’t look directly at them, it may look like a good collection of the classics, but they’re a poor imitation. With the spirit and mixer prices being so low, you shouldn’t need to concern yourself with cocktails.

The Last Word
If you’re used to high end pubs and bars but can no longer afford them then the Half Moon is a great choice for your first foray into the world of cheap food and drink. If you’re a student then it’s a step up from what you’re probably used to. A fine example of Wetherspoons getting it right.

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