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Stein's, Richmond

We finally made it to Stein’s, a beer garden which offers a slice of Bavaria in Richmond, in south west London.

There is good Klarheit with the unorthodox rules up on the shack, in the menu, and anywhere else there’s a flat surface to pin them.  It’s still confusing for lots of punters, though: you can’t drink without eating, so you need to buy food, order the beer at one serving hatch, and then collect it at another.  This is clearly a carefully calculated business model designed to deliver the atmosphere of a particular kind of beer garden in “binge Britain”.  This is not a place you come to get very drunk.  There are even signs asking you not to shout or sing.

The food is standard beer garden stuff, but pricey for what it is (cheap rubbery Bratwurst, mostly) but, really, you are paying for a fabulous view of the Thames and the authentic German atmosphere.  The beer is probably the least convincing bit — Paulaner Helles, and not as fresh as it might be in the Englischer Garten at that.

You won’t come here if you’re a beer geek, but if you are a beer garden geek, it’s about as good as you’ll get in London.

5 replies on “Stein's, Richmond”

We were in Katzenjammer at Borough last night. It was alright, but not worth walking past the Market Porter for. Pints of Kaltenberg Helles at £3.65 a pop. The schnitzel looked mighty fine though.

I found the food at Stein’s immensely dissapointing. For a good beer range I much prefer Brouge Bistro (Basement bar just round the corner on Hill St, Richmond) A massive selection of Belgian beers on tap and by bottle and really reasonably priced hearty Belgian/British food. Nom nom nom…..

We did spot Brouge on our way to the Tube and will give it a go next time we’re down that way.

The food in most German beer gardens can be pretty junk-like: when you’ve seen a the chef tip 25 perfectly cylindrical, grey, sweating bratwurst from a plastic sack onto a griddle, your appetite diminishes…

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