Have been to the Dairy several times over my years in Stroud Green, and it has seen its ups and downs. The decor is nice, but unfortunately that is the one positive constant, complemented by many equally consistent negatives. The staff are often aloof and self-absorbed, large areas of the pub are drafty, and the toilets aren't properly disinfected, so despite being tidy they stink. The most surprisingly bad thing about this pub is the food. Despite an adventurous-looking menu and high prices, the basic dishes my wife and I have tried were much less than adequate. Last time we ate at the Dairy, we had fish n chips and a beef stew - the haddock was decently cooked and battered, but the 'tartare sauce' was little more than an insipid garlic mayo that failed to bring the dish together, not to mention the tiny, bland portion of mushy peas. We also failed to understand how it was possible that on the same plate there were both overcooked and undercooked chips! The beef was dry, fatty and chewy, with an over-reduced sauce and overly crunchy vegetables. Despite being attractive-looking, the Dairy is style over substance and our main memory of this place is a sour taste in the mouth.

Great place. been coming here for ten years. Excellent gastropub. you get what you pay for. Great staff and food, contributing to pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. Staff are gracious, accommodating and attractive. Highly recommended, though if you wnat Turkish food, go to the Sugar Lounge!

Went here for a girl's out Christmas meal and it was lovely. The food was a really high standard, catering for veggies and non-veggies really well, and being generous portion sizes.
We drank nice wine and were so full afterwards! Staff were lovely and smiley.
A very enjoyable time had by all, definitely coming again (but I don't live in the area anymore so it's difficult! :( )

There is only one word to describe the Old Dairy: Shambles…this is a perfect example of a pub being great when a quarter full but even the slightest hint of being busy sees the place descend into a cataclysmic farce of a boozer. Its got great ales and a range of lagers, good wines and the food is very good…all very typical London not-trying-too-hard-to-be-cool boozer. All the sort of stuff somebody in the owners hq can sort out but for goodness sake the organization of the place is just downright embarrassing. I’ve lived locally to the od for four years and have been a frequent visitor, and apart from a brief upturn last year the staff have always treated the customer as though its an honour to be served. For example, I’ve stood at the bar for 5 minutes while another couple was served and 5(!) staff milled around, which included 4 looking at one piece of paper. And forget about complaining, the most you can expect from is a shrug and a look that says “i couldn’t care less, there’s enough suckers out there that will be come back!”if you’ve got the time to spare go, have a decent pint in nice surroundings but only on a quiet Tuesday or Wednesday night. If you’re reading this od management your rivals are catching up, stop taking the p’ss out of your clientele.

Great food (we had a small mezze platter and some oysters), prompt & friendly service and a relaxed yet civilised atmosphere. Good stuff!

Great pub ! Love the old photos on the walls, where did you get them from Dairy ?

Good selection of ales on offer and some interesting wines on the list . I had some cod and chips which were great with a really nice beer batter, which so many places seem to get so so wrong !.

My better half had mackerel of which i am not a fan but she said it was nice so i took her word for it !.

Was very busy though when i was in on Saturday, but it was a nice vibe. I had to wait to get a table in the bar, but found out later that there was a restaurant !

Also when did poker becom legal in Pubs ? Im in anyway !

The Old Dairy is really going from strength to strength. I've been going there for years, from when it was shabby and unloved.

It's had it's fair share of knockbacks to say the least, but I really think they have totally hit the nail on the head now. A group took the pub over a few years ago & totally restored the place to its former glory - it's looked after really well.

The staff used to be far too cool for school but it seems like management have culled most of them & replaced them with genuinely happy & enthusiastic staff who really want to be there - I honestly saw one of the girls skipping around the other day!

The menu has been tweeked - nothing too pretentious - exactly what it say's on the tin - you can sit down and eat anywhere, when previously I was told I wasn't allowed to eat in the restaurant if I was having bangers and mash (about a year ago)!!!

If you don't want to watch the football you can sit in the resturant & read the paper, even if you don't want to eat.

THe Dairy's finally got it...Good food, good service, warm & cosy surroundings, unpretentious...exactly what a pub should be.

Came here in December with three friends on a Thursday night. Was impressed from the start - my partner got a call a couple of hours before we had our reservation to confirm which was a nice touch only really seen in the top end restaurants in my experience. The dining room is tucked away but the first thing you see when you walk in the main entrance is an open kitchen - which looked very shiny i must say!

The dinnig room is what you'd expect from a gastro - tables and chairs that dont match, photos of the local area - that sort of thing - not really my cup of tea but all the rage these days it seems. We were shown to our table and seated - asked if we'd like anything from the bar and within 2 minutes our drinks arrived. The manager served us all night- took our order, served our food & was very attentive (something I find quite refreshing from a pub manager actually).

I had a beautiful confit duck breast and my partner had the steak - both delicious, (although the duck was on the small side), but we were recommended to have sides with our meal so that was plenty! The girl paired the wine to our food perfectly also! We chose to have cheese to round off our meal - a little on the expensive side but I we were told they came from a very famous cheese shop (the names escapes me).

We all had a beautiful chilled glass of port each to accompany the cheese (again recommended). We didn't have to lift a finger all night, the service was superb, friendly and efficient, the lady who waited on us was charismatic; we felt so welcome and will definaetly be visiting in the new year (if the purse strings allow!)

my friend booked a table here for 8 people last sunday. i have never been here before and googled it for reviews. oh my god it sounded awful! what was i letting myself in for?! we arrived at 3 o'clock and walked through a very busy, (beautiful looking) bar with lots of people eating, drinking and watching football. we were greeted at the restaurant area by a lovely girl who showed us to our table (so far so good). we ordered a french sauvignon blanc and their standard house rioja (both were excellent), missed starters and went straight for mains. i have to say that our experience was so different to some others on this site, we didn't wait for more than 10 minutes. my beef was beautiful and pink, sat upon a small pile of tender root vegetables and was topped off by a perfect yorkshire pudding. it tasted as good as it looked (actually, better). almost forgot to mention the horseradish which was obviously freshly made, not out of a jar (zingy and light). a couple of friends had the roast chicken and were duly impressed, half a roast chicken with roast potatoes and vegetables in a light gravy!! a few of us went for desserts which i have to say weren't particularly fantastic but perfectly respectable. the service was excellent throughout, the food was top notch and to be honest was one of the best meals i've had in ages (and i go out a lot). the manager came over and chatted to us briefly, he was very charming and made us feel welcome. obviously they are a bit inconsistant here, but in my opinion they have the potential to be one of the best pubs in london!!!!!!!!

Im at the Dairy two or three times a week - its a great venue to watch the football. I was there the other day and found myself lost - they have a massive lounge in the back - where there was a music night. The chap wasnt bad either. I love how the dairy has completely diversified - this used to be a boring, dull and uncomfortable pub in a bad area. Now its a gem in the heart of Stroud Green!

It is interesting to see the manager on here apologising for what is apparently a freak occurrence, but for it to happen, which he admits, for the last 3 weeks, seems as though something more is wrong here.
I was part of a group who had booked a table for a friends birthday. We arrived at the time that out booking was for, and were told that they were unable to accomodate us. They had the table all layed out, but were no longer taking food orders.
While I can understand that "walk-in" customers can create a back-log in the kitchen, there really is no excuse for turning away a pre-booked party of 20. They should have been prepared for an order of that size at that time. No excuse.
We had been here several times previously, and the person who made the booking is a regular here. We all left bitterly disappointed, and to be honest, most won't be coming back. Apology or not.

I am the General Manager of The Old Dairy and having just read these two reviews i would like to apologise on behalf of everyone here at the pub.

Obviously there are no excuses for such terrible experiences. All I can say is that on two or three consecutive Sundays we were slammed and totally unprepared for such a deluge of customers, most of whom were ‘walk-ins’ and as such we weren't able to regulate the numbers of covers in the pub at one time. In fact we seemed to have a ‘perfect storm’ of service problems; each one on their own easily coped with, but all occurring together resulted in a complete nightmare – for staff and customers alike!

The reason we have so many customers visiting The Old Dairy is testament to the improvements we have done here of late. a victim of our own success if you like. We pride ourselves on an efficient and friendly service, excellent quality food and drinks… unfortunately our usual high standards have not been met on these two occasions. We have already identified the problems which resulted in these complaints and have introduced measures to eliminate these problems in the future.

Although I accept the validity of these comments thankfully I receive much more positive feedback from our customers than negative; the ever increasing popularity of The Old Dairy and the volume of loyal regulars we have coming through the doors is evidence of the excellent reputation the pub has.

Just to pick up on a couple of points made by the last reviewer: I do not accept that our food is 'shit' - quite simply it is not... as for the staff, they aren't 'stuck up', the opposite is true; however they may have cracked under the pressure of such an intensely and overly busy service.

Any reader who has worked in the hospitality industry will testify, that once a table has a cause for complaint then it is often the case that they will proceed to find a fault in everything! - right or wrong, this is one of those occasions I'm afraid.

i ate here recently and never going back 1 and a half hour wait for a shit roast served by stuck up staff who think they are too good to serve you!!!!!!!!!!!this is hospitality people come onwhen we complained about our under poured drinks, cold roast and the fact that we had to wait for our food we were told that WE WERE WRONG...never going back. not in a million years

Lovely venue, but bad service long waits for food, we sat down at 1400 gave up on a starter and didn't get our main till 1530 it was just warm and not very good.
We were told they struggled to cope on a Sunday so maybe try going on a different night but to be honest don't think we will go back, so many good restaurants in the area it's not worth spending over two hours on such poor food.
Such a shame because with just a little more organization and maybe a different chef it could be really really good.

I'm so glad that places like The Old Dairy are making sure some pubs keep a traditional feel as opposed to all those horrible wine bars that popped up through the '80s and '90s. I'm sure people would rather drink somewhere like The Old Dairy as it's genuinely comfortable and relaxing - everything a pub or bar should be.

There's nothing stinky or curdled about the Old Dairy, this is a very stylish place indeed. I even felt comfortable about taking my mum there and she tends to be very snobbish about such things! She loved the Old Dairy as much as I did so I guess that means I can give it 5 stars.