The Elephant and Castle in St Albans

Updated Dec 2025. Superb pub. Amazing service. Food is unreal. Saturday evening staff were stars. Must visit pub!

Bearing in mind to book ahead of time, on the two occasions I have eaten here the food was very good. There was a generous selection of ales at bar. There is just about enough parking for a busy day. Watch your head if you are tall, though, as these old buildings were built when people were smaller!

Fab country pub with decent food and very attentive staff

Great little pub. Friendly staff, nice food 😊

The food is amazing, the staff so friendly. Can not recommend enough.

Beautiful old pub with a varied menu and lovely staff. Dog friendly which is always a bonus for me. A couple of menu items are always sold out when I've visited, but that's the price you pay for good pub food. Never had a bad meal and the staff are always attentive and helpful. The well in the bar is spooky but really cool. The garden is nice and big, fenced in too so safe for the dogs, with a tipi for shelter.

The food was great and the bar staff were very helpful. We sat in the garden ordered food, and it was all in all a great meal even tho they got the drinks order wrong mistakes happen. I didn't like the food staff added a service charge of 10% tho. I'm happy to tip for good service and would have given more as a cash tip if it was just expected and added on without even being told.

We had Sunday roast lunch in the pub garden. Service in the garden was friendly and enthusiastic. It is a dog-friendly place but there was some grouse shooting in a nearby field which frightened the dog. The inside is cosy and probably lovely in the winter with a roaring log fire. Only the food let this place down. Tough meat and soggy veg.

The Sunday roast was very basic and poorly cooked. Will quite happily come for the very nice garden and play area for the children however to food isn’t great

Nice pub with large garden, adequate parking, and good beer selection. Quite quaint, with low ceilings and cosy atmosphere.

Olde world pub with large seating area outside. Good selection of beers.

A hidden gem. Tasty food, great service and fair prices. All in a brilliant relaxed setting.

beautifully picturesque and historic pub with a lovely beer garden - friendly and enthusiastic staff, good selection of wines and great food - highly recommended

Had an enjoyable dinner sat in the beer garden. Good house brewed beer to accompany it

Lovely old pub surrounded by trees with large garden, ideal for summer chilling in peace and quiet. Table service outside too. Recommended.

Wanted to go on Wednesday 22:13, opening times show open till 22:00. Turned out kitchen closed at 21:00. That should be listed in the about tab or in opening hours.

Lovely pub and a great garden. Good choice of beers and a pretty good Guinness. Service is good. The food isn't good, though. You can pay the same prices at other pubs locally and get much higher quality. On multiple occasions now the food has disappointed.

Took the kids for Sunday lunch. All enjoyed the roast so thumbs up. The service was excellent. Young, enthusiastic staff eager to please. Couldn't have asked for better. If you haven't been before, I would advise booking a week or two ahead. It's a busy pub in the summer. You can eat inside or out. They have a couple of quirky but huge tepees, which is where we chose to eat. Big garden, lots of outside seating, but the car park gets rammed so an early arrival might be a good idea. Well worth the journey.

Very nice country pub , friendly staff and good food . Would recommend.

Ive been here many times over 40 years and always loved the pun garden in the summer. Just popped in for a lunch and was blown away by how good it was. The perfect fish and chips and they even gave me extra tartare sauce that I asked for and all homemade. Working in hospitality and restaurants I really understand good food and appreciate great service so thought I’d leave a well deserved review. Will come back next week with mum and dad. Well done guys 👏👏

Notoriously bad service, particularly in the garden. Food is good, but they've recently changed the menu and it seemed more pub focused, versus some of the fresher, healthier options previously offered that were a nice edition to a pint after a ride.

We booked the tipee for a birthday celebration of 15 people. The staff were very accommodating and made us feel really welcome. The tipee is a lovely area and we had it to ourselves. The staff looked after us all evening and the food was good and reasonably priced. Would really recommend.

Great old pub in woodland area. Large garden. Real Farr beer.

Beautiful place with lovely garden. Dogs friendly 😁 Good food and nice stuff 😊. Hightly recomended!

Authentic country pub, lavatories need cleaning and repairs, alot of chairs in the pub in poor condition but overall a lovely experience

Visited on a Wednesday evening. Large outside seating area. We were inside. Friendly,attentive staff and great variety on menu. Sourdough was delicious with oil n balsamic. All had burger, which wasn't to all our tastes but chips n onion rings very good. Not pudding as main meal was plenty. Will visit again.

Lovely location. Such a shame about how this is so badly run. Service is very poor. Feels like no one in charge and in need of a decent manager. Owners seem to have employed inexperienced staff to fend for themselves. Didn’t seem to cope with what looked like a not particularly a busy Saturday evening. Lots of food off the menu. Orders for drinks and food were late, brought at different times or just completely ignored. Staff not prioritising, clearing tables when not busy and not focusing on guests waiting. Wrong cutlery brought to table, no condiments and napkins etc offered. Very rarely don’t leave service charge but when I asked to remove this from the bill, one girl seemed to be more interested in checking on how her nails looked than asking why I didn’t want to leave a tip. Would go for drinks but would avoid going for an evening meal in future. In their defence we had a round of drinks on the house in the end and one member of staff did apologise. Overall, felt like we were in an episode of Fawlty Towers. Have been here often for drinks and food and it seems to be a downward spiral in terms of service and dining experience.

Sunday menu is limited compared to the normal week menu, but good food.

Good food, excellent beer and friendly service. What more could you want. Good value too.

The chef here makes some amazing food I've had. Service excellent. Reasonably priced and great atmosphere. 5 stars all the way. Thanks Michael.

Brilliant country pub. Garden is large and the climbing frame is awesome for kids. Lovely Farr Brew beers.

Adequate car park. Good service. Meals very good. Menu could had a larger range of main meals available.

Had a very enjoyable Sunday lunch with the family.

Old fashioned pub with great food. Had sautéed liver with bacon bits etc. Really good!

This quint little pub sits off the beaten track, and its outdoor canopies are decorated inside with ivy and fairy lights. The staff were very welcoming and polite throughout. We were a table of five, and the food was mostly very good. However, my chicken burger was raw inside. The staff were very apologetic and instantly gave me a replacement and took the meal off the bill. It would not stop me from returning, everybody makes mistakes sometimes. So let's hope it was just a one off.

Terrible Sunday roast. Obviously cooked some hours earlier & reheated. Roast potatoes were dried out, Yorkshire pudding luke warm & soggy, vegetables colourless sludge. Politely asked our disappointment to be passed onto the chef/manager but young staff did nothing by way of recompense. Would not recommend.

Much improved over its already fantastic offering

I would suggest the focus should be less on quantity and more on quality at least in the case of the rump steak which I ordered. The six of us had to wait an unreasonably long time for our food, and the temperature in the teepee where we had to have our lunch ran from being very cold to excessively hot at which time the customers had to endure the smell of what appeared to be paraffin from the heater.

Just had a lovely meal and the pub is beautiful. We're not from this area heard about this pub through word of mouth. Would just like to say the staff were very friendly and very professional

Lovely old pub seemingly miles from anywhere. Very friendly staff, nothing too much trouble and delicious pub food served hot. Plenty of parking and wheelchair access. Would recommend.

Lovely food. Excellent service and attendance by the management.

Had a great Sunday roast here today, I had a lovely beef option and my family had 2 veggie options which they enjoyed. Very friendly staff and did a check once we started the meals that everything was alright, which is a touch I always like. We will be back!

We had a birthday get together in the tipi in the back garden. Really lovely space, well looked after by the friendly staff. Delicious food. Great pub 👌 definitely recommend.

Lovely little country pub, friendly and helpful staff. Car parking ample for large numbers. Very busy at 2pm on a Sunday but service was prompt. Food was OK but overpriced considering the quality which was average. Portion size acceptable.

Great roast- although would have liked another roastie as they were beautiful!. Get there early as we took one of the last few at 3pm Staff were very positively and upbeat even though really busy.

I was recently the photographer for a wedding at this lovely pub. I highly recommend it if you are searching for a pub wedding venue - the gardens are gorgeous, allowing you to have a beautiful outdoor ceremony, space for lovely photographs, and the teepee setting for the party is very magical. The staff are also very friendly and helpful. I took my family back for a meal and will return again!

Great country pub fantastic service good food

Beef Wellington fantastic, have to pre order, brilliant shared between two.

Quiet dinner on Friday night. Fabulous calamari. Shame they didn't have any eggs for my main course, but the fish pie made up for it. Husband's steak was excellent. Dessert wasn't homemade 😢

We come all the time. Fantastic

Great food, great atmosphere, fantastic ales, brilliant staff. What more can one want...

Lovely little country pub with cosy atmosphere. Staff are really friendly too. Marked down slightly because they were short of steaks and didn't have the red or white wine we ordered off the menu.

Stopped by after walking the kids across the fields. Great beer, friendly accommodating staff. Only had a few bowls of chips, but others food looked good. Great all round.

In a lovely setting menu excellent and so was the food.Service was excellent staff friendly and polite. Will return.

Very enjoyable Sunday lunch ,good food and beer ,lovely old pub, first class service,look forward to going back

Great pub. Good beer and food. Often stop here on when out for a cycle and always made to feel welcome. Would recommend.

Lovely lunch for my daughters birthday, the staff were really great and made it special. Will be back very soon.

Great for a drink but not an evening meal out. Too many others in the area are better Food was disappointing, one undercooked, one overcooked and one way to salty. Understaffed, they were great but we had to get up and find them a couple of times. Toilets were not great.

Had an evening meal here with friends. The pub is in a lovely rural location with lots of outdoor space and is dog friendly - dogs even get their own menu! Service was friendly and helpful all evening and the Farr pale ales particularly good. We ate inside, and while the food was generally okay, the battered fish and chips had to go back as it was cold, which the pub kindly replaced and took off the bill for us. The meze board I had for a starter was three bowls of dips and small triangles of flatbread (for £12), while my fish pie main was a bit heavy on the salt. I also thought the Men's toilet needed a facelift or revamp to make a lot bigger and cleaner - the Ladies' was reportedly in poor condition too. This is a highly-rated pub and I really wanted it to be a great experience, but it didn't meet our expectations. I'd go again but other pubs and restaurants in the area have set the bar a lot higher.

A beautiful very old premises with garden and tippees. Food is brilliant as is their own cask beer.

Birthday lunch for grandson (and sister plus mummy and daddy 💞), we had the steak and chips which were great and the children had fish fingers, chicken nuggets and chips 👍🏻

Beautiful place with very good food, the outside is spectacular, highly recommended

Stopped off for lunch whist out on a cycle. Had a lovely mozzarella, tomato and pesto baguette with sweet potato fries on the side. Just the job.! Staff very friendly and professional. Would just like to point out that the ladies outside toilet could do with clean and some soap. However, the inside toilet was OK.

Haven't eaten here but the food did look very tempting. Its off the beaten track....perfect if you want a quite afternoon with no sports TV blurring out. Only issue is parking if busy

Good food and service but table reservations were a little messed up.

Great country pub serving locally brewed beer. Large outdoor areas. Charming

Stopped here for a light lunch. Very nice in quite a secluded spot

Best onion rings I’ve ever had. Steak cooked to perfection. Look at it, just look at it! Amazing

Had a brilliant lunch today. The smallest member of our dining party (who has discerning tastes) stated “This burger is perfect size for me, it’s got cheese, burger and ketchup, simple but tasty” portion was perfect for an 8 year old. We also had the haddock and chips and a steak. All were cooked perfectly (including the steak that actually came out medium rare as requested). Friendly staff and quick service.

I have been coming to the Elephant & Castle for several years now and Farr Brew have really turned this place around. From what use to be a dull quiet pub is now full of life and excitement. The staff are very attentive and always very friendly. Although I don’t like the menu personally the food is still cooked too perfection and offers a very wide pallet. They are always very accommodating and welcoming. If you plan to come here on a very hot day, it may be worth parking up the road and walking down the lane as the parking van be very limited, albeit a very nice country walk down the lane. Strongly recommend on a hot summers day.

Amazing pub and a cracking atmosphere would definitely recommend. Food and drinks were bang on and a special mention to Millie for the unbelievable table service. It’s not everyday you get waitresses so friendly and welcoming as Millie 🙌

Most banging pub in Wheathamstead, staff are friendly and accommodating, good atmosphere on weekends. The beers are brewed locally offering fantastic tours by Jason.

Nice pub with great food and drinks. Emily on the bar was amazing, very chatty and friendly, best service I’ve had, the pub should be very grateful to have her.

An amazing venue for both food and drink, to meet with friends and family. Very welcoming and friendly staff. Would highly recommend.

Great pub! Really friendly staff! The outside area is beautiful and kids friendly! Food was really nice (and so were the drinks) xxx

Place has been ruined … bad service , food is terrible and they open and close when they want … price’s are ridiculous best thing about the place is the well the throw all the bad food and drink down … BUYWER BEWARE !!

Love the pub best staff and best atmosphere inside and out.

This is such a lovely friendly pub, the food is always delicious and the staff friendly. We have taken friends and family there and we have always come away having had a really lovely time.. highly recommended

Staff amazing and attentive. Beautiful surroundings with playground for little ones. Sunday lunch was perfection.

Lovely pub, food and service, a refreshing change!

bad treatment from the staff and i’ve heard from a couple of young people who worked there were treated horrifically

An absolutely amazing pub with an incredibly dedicated team. Very proud to have such a cracking pub in our village and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Very cosy and welcoming pub. Our service was top notch and the food was delicious. Will definitely be back!

Very mediocre was not in the slightest impressed with the food service was ok

Excellent country pub with a great outside space. Good for a pub lunch.

Great lunch with the family. Service great. Staff always on hand in the garden. The TPee was handy when it rained for ten minutes.

Excellent pints of lovely beer. Fantastic staff, great food and lovely atmosphere.

I love this pub! It’s perfect setting, hardworking, friendly staff and great vibe as well as delicious food & local brew make it a winner 👍

Beautiful setting. The service was amazing and I was really impressed by the range of food and drink options.

A great relaxing atmosphere and lovely stuff at this pub. It’s dog friendly and has a play area - perfect for kids! I really enjoyed my time here and the food was exactly what I was hoping for, will definitely be back :)

Really nice pub with such lovely and friendly staff. They provided excellent service and the food was amazing.

Firstly, I can’t stress how amazing the staff are to tend to not just our table but every single customer. The food was amazing and the selection of drinks for everyone varies massively, making Sure everyone is tended to properly. I want to give a special mention to Harry, one of the runners, he made our experience extra special, chatting to us every time he came up, giving us all the information about the pub and Farr brewery in detail and really made us feel at home at the elephant and castle!

Lovely pub with lots of history and a beautiful garden for the summer. Food is always excellent and service faultless. Would 100% recommend to anyone looking for somewhere to eat in the area.

This is one of my favourite little pubs. Lovely building in a beautiful setting. Nice pub grub and the staff are friendly and helpful. There is a nice big garden outside where you feel you are miles away from everything. I go there often and can highly recommend it.

Lovely little local pub. Great garden with teepees. Staff were friendly. Food service was great. There were 14 of us in our group and the order was swift, quality great and service overall was excellent.

Lovely proper English pub !! Food was super with friendly service !! Will go again

Just turned up for Sunday lunch without a reservation and they fitted us in. Great location, great food, great beer. Large portions.

Huge garden supplementing the very old bar and lounge. Well in the middle of the lounge.

Lovely pub in a quiet and beautiful location. Great food too.

A traditional English country pub in the heart of the Hertfordshire countryside. Excellent food, great value and a very friendly welcome.