The Lower Red Lion in St Albans

We had a lovely evening at The Lower Red Lion to celebrate our marriage, David and the lovely staff looked after our party of 35 and nothing was too much trouble, they went that extra mile to make our celebration evening perfect. The buffet was amazing and everyone enjoyed themselves. We can’t thank you enough.

Great choice of drinks and very nice atmosphere. Recommended, especially if you don't like the sound of noisy children!

Best quiz night in town and the foods pretty good too.

Outdoor garden is fab really nice spot

Great traditional pub, with beer garden...

Very quaint location, a five minute walk from park (via Abbey), and a friendly welcome. Has good selection of real ales, that cost less than at nearby pub, YOFC. Large enclosed beer garden, less crowded than YOFC, and no crying children!

Fabulous oldy worldly pub. Great beers food and atmosphere.

Nice place and food, good service

Very special place to go with our dog....and a treat when we are child free. Food is fantastic as is the red wine.

Proper traditional pub with pleasant staff! Well worth a visit!

The Lower Red Lion was near our hotel so we stopped in for a pint. Nice friendly service and a decent pint. They also serve food.

A delightful pub, lovely selection of quite uncommon cask ales and served and kept very well indeed. A lovely peaceful place for a pint.

Been a few times for a few beers and for the summerton whisky festival.. it's a great pub, plenty of space, lots of choice for drinks and the staff are very friendly helpful and welcoming

Excellent fish and chips. My wife was very impressed with the venison pie. Delicious desserts. Good selection of beer including 0%. It was crowded (early evening) but the staff were cheerful and helpful. Not my first visit and will definitely return on our next trip to visit family who live only 5 minutes walk from the pub

Lovely beer garden and old pub.

They had one of my favourite Scottish ciders Thistly Cross which was a lovely surprise. Service was fast and friendly. Manager put Cloudbusting by Kate Bush on for me especially as he could hear I was sitting at my table singing it terribly, and obviously rather loudly! Love this pub.

Nice food, good selection of craft beers and non alcoholic beers, lovely service. Pie tasted home made and huge triple cooked chips. Sorry I discovered it just before first child… Oh well back in 10 years

Found this place after seeing it go viral on social media because of its wonderful sign. 'No children but dog friendly'. Beautiful 17th century backstreet pub with old horse & carriage entrance to the rear & a well seated back garden + very limited parking. Serious real ale pub with all the other usual beer, wine & cider suspects. + some craft keg. 2 separate bars, one with a lovely inviting snug corner next to a wood burner.... Never ate, hence 4* but plenty of people eating

Congrats!! Keep up the great work

Cracking cosy 17th century backstreet pub & alehouse,...limited parking & food looks good

Really enjoyed our visit there. Lots of drinks on tap. Big garden. Friendly staff. Loved the sign telling punters that dogs were welcome but children were not. I like their openness about who they want in their building.

Dog friendly and kid free, what more can you ask from a pub? Perfect! Fully support the owners in their decision, never see a mess or have bad experience with dogs well done!

Superb pub. Great beer. Good staff. Child free. Dog friendly!

Best cyclist-friendly pub ever!! The manager (David?) and the other staffs welcomed us, a group of 7, like it was our club house. They offered us a secured place for our bicycles and gave us a table by the fireplace to warm up. The Sunday roast was amazing too. Highly recommend it!

When walking through Verulamium Park at Saint Albans this morning, by chance we met David Worcester, who runs the Lower Red Lion. On his invitation we went to the Pub for Sunday Lunch. Roast Chicken and Roast Pork. Excellent. Had a couple of the local beers, Gin and Tonic and Rose. Well worth it. Incredible English Pub Atmosphere. Thoroughly recommended. David and Pamela, Sydney Australia

We went for lunch today and oh my goodness, it’s the best Sunday roast in St Albans! We’re absolutely devastated to have finished - the meat was tender, the gravy was indecently good. The service was incredible - hilarious crew working. Already excited to come back.

Despite staff saying that they were understaffed, our group received excellent service. We all thought the food was fantastic too. The lower Red is a beautiful old pub!

A superb pub in St Albans. The landlord, David, and his staff are welcoming and friendly. Good selection of beers and non alcoholic ones. Dogs welcome which is an added bonus.

Dogs encouraged, children not allowed. I think the landlord prefers dogs to people. Absolute dream pub.

Great pub, fab landlord and team! Always love it here

Staff are friendly. My ale was a little flat. Pub smelled of dogs .

A really cosy pub, nice building, nice selection all for a decent price. Nice staff too, they were very friendly, highly recommended!

Stopped off for a quick drink. Quick service, nice pub.

A popular pub in the evenings with changing ales.

Nice pub , but it's full of craft beers. Nothing I or my friends fancied (yes we tried some). Also London prices

Organised a gathering for 16 old friends on a Saturday afternoon. Pre ordered to make things easier for the kitchen. Landlord David had organised a tab for each couple so we could order our drinks & pay for our food at the end of the day. Food, Service and entire afternoon was excellent. David and his lovely staff really looked after us all and we could not have had a better time!

Proper pub with lovely staff. Great beers on tap, and the food looked great (although we didn’t eat)

Great local type pub specialising in beers

The staff were overrun on this early evening, even sharing that with us at the bar. They were lovely, but it was obviously understaffed for that time. They seemed, well one in particular seemed really stressed and quite upset. The building is beautiful, clean and comfortable. We ordered meals ranging from vegan to meat options and some of the food was delicious. However there was a chicken burger ordered and it was raw. Pink on the edges and rubbery, then as soon as you cut in, it's pink moving to raw. It was so slimy from undercooked the whole breadcrumbs were falling off. One of us came and rejoined the bar queue to mention it, but after standing there 15 minutes, we gave us and it was just left. I didn't take a photo as I was hoping to get it resolved and then I wasn't planning on leaving a review. However the more I thought about... I personally have very complex medical needs some being gastro-related, so not only would that have been extremely dangerous for me to eat, nevermind anyone else. I also didn't want to seem rude and I couldn't get staffs attention in a packed loud pub any other way, so I just paid and left the food. It was such a shame as my friends enjoyed their meals.

Decent pub this. 1st time I have visited. Worth the stroll for sure.

Excellent local pub with a great range of beers and lovely home cooked food.

Used to visit here a lot about 20 years ago. Still a good, traditional pub

Lovely saloons. Barmaid very helpful.

Great pub. The only place in St Alban's that does gluten free fish and chips as standard. Plus they have a no kids policy and are dog friendly so added bonus!

lovely place only just opened at 3pm didn't eat just a quick pit stop

A proper pub pub - although we drank gin and extensive range of Fever Tree . Haven't been for many years - will be back sooner! Follow up: Friday lunchtime in the garden in the sunshine. Quiet but excellent food and great service. And excellent beers. Thank you.

Most. Delicious. Sunday roast. Ever We love a day out in St Albans (we live in North West London and its only a short drive) and really fancied a traditional Sunday Roast so ventured down to the Lower Red Lion. From the off the pub is cosy and traditional, with panelled walls and a fire place. The staff were super friendly and welcoming, so much so it kind of felt like we'd popped over to a friend of a friends place for lunch. We both ordered a Sunday lunch and it was terrific. The bar for a Sunday roast is high, not to mention they're pretty common and largely all the same. But all the ingredients were really well cooked and that gravy! We'll be back.

Great beer garden, lovely old pub with tasty ales..

Great place, highly recommended

It’s the 27th of April 2023 cover my husband tonight and I dog Molly walked into the front door to be greeted by an aggressive dog. The manager/owner said he’s only been here a week and he hasn’t done that before, so if you’re thinking about taking your door or young Children to this pub, on the drinks review we have been there several times the barmaid doesn’t know the difference between so the lemonade or tonic or soda. I think they do a cocktail of the leftovers mixers . And the owner has a bad attitude towards his customers would never go back again

Great food and personable service. Richard

Great Beer and lovely large garden out the back.

Came here December 2021 when the clowns were humming and !@! about another Christmas Lockdown. Madge is on her first visit. Excellent real ale pub, also doing great food. Deservedly in the 2023 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. Great 3 room pub with large beer garden. Ticked off two new micro breweries..Burning Soul and Lakedown. Thus a big success for me.

We are back after 7 years and the same old wonderful taste is still here...a lovely pub, amazing food and beers...Strongly recommended!!

St Albans best pub - no question. Excellent real ale, sensibly priced and tasty food, no fruit machine and no musak. What's not to like??

Nice inside. Other than what was on the pump, not a great selection of alternatives. I ended up with a soft drink as they didn’t have any of the 3-4 alcoholic drinks that I normally have at a pub.

Probably my favourite pub in St Albans, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Cosy atmosphere with lovely fires. Friendly staff and a great selection of craft beers and ciders. The food is great too.

Country pub feel 5mins from the High street. Great selection of beers with an open fire.

We had lunch here after a lovely walk with our pooch. The pub has a real old charm and oozes character. The staff are very welcoming and friendly. The menu is varied, catering for a range of eating styles. We both had the burger, the patty and sauce were exceptional.

The pub has an old world charm. All dogs receive a warm welcome. The food selection caters for all and can honestly say the best home made burger I have had.

Lovely traditional pub, real fire to warm you up, great staff and regulars to chat with. Thoroughly recommend.

This is a very nice pub with two drinking and dining areas split and served by one bar. There are a really good choice of Ales and Beer, I went for the Shipyard IPA. The pub is very close to the Cathedral but despite this has never been very busy on the occasions I have visited, not that I'm complaining, more a gentile flow of customers. They are a dog friendly pub as well which appears to attract quite a few people given its proximity to Verulamium Park. I cant comment on food as it was just the Shipyard and some bar snacks for me, but a couple of regulars did tell me the food is good.

Fantastic lunch with my good friend of 52 years from school. He lives Chicago now but distance is no barrier, fantastic food and the landlord parked the car for me. It doesn't get better than that.

Pleasant pub with good beer decent food and log fires

Good old style back street local with wide choice of cask

What a cool little pub! Felt nice and Christmassy in there.

Fab Tues night great band - Pat and the Butchers always delivers more bands every Tues

Fantastic pub, proper pub grub, old school style, friendly atmosphere and 15 beer taps plus dog friendly and massive beer garden.

We went to the Red Lion for my birthday on Sunday evening, which was all a bit disappointing, especially after seeing the 5* reviews on how good the roasts were. We arrived and our table hadn't been prepped and was dirty and the floor had lots of leftovers and rubbish. I had the beef sirloin which was overcooked, dry and chewy with very minimal gravy across all our roasts. They'd run out of pigs in blankets, red cabbage, truffle mash and we only managed to get 1 extra Yorkshire pudding before they ran out of their unlinited Yorkshires. My Dad & partner ordered the half chicken which came with no breast meat either. The staff also didn't let us know the kitchen had closed, so missed our opportunity to order any puddings. Unfortunately very disappointing considering our high expectations and won't be coming back.

We had Sunday lunch, 3 vegetarian and a carnivorous one. Excellent value, excellent presentation

A wonderful Friday fish and chip supper, great, food, service and atmosphere in this charming pub.i can't recommend it highly enough.

Fantastic pub with his own lower Red Lion beer and some fantastic food

Top tier pub, one of the best in St Albans

Great beer and food. A bit off the tourist route, so lots of locals. Well worth a visit

Very nice place to eat lovely people who run it.Great food .Proper old British pub.

Ate here with a friend a week ago. The meal was excellent and the service relaxed but impeccable. Chef/ landlord exceptionally concerned to accommodate my friend who has tricky dietary needs.

Perfect proper pub , and they had GF beer !

Lovely large garden to sit out in and off street parking which is convenient.

Nipped in for couple of drinks one evening while staying in St Albans, very friendly landlord, pub with a lot of character and a great soundtrack of music

I've been there at the Jubilee Weekend. I was very surprised by the beer festival in the garden and had the chance to taste a few very nice ales and milk stout. Very friendly staff! I can highly recommend this pub. Definitely going back there when I'm in St. Alban's.

Quite,but very pleasant, drinks very reasonable price,staff friendly.

An excellent destination for quality real ales. Regular beer festivals are held in the pub.

A charming, classic, welcoming pub. Great beers and ciders. Cozy beams and fire inside, beautiful garden outside. Incredibly friendly staff. Very dog friendly--so much so that our chihuahua tries to drag us in every time we walk by.

Great Sunday Roast friendly staff. Will definitely return. 👍

Lovely garden with a friendly pub dog, and best of all it’s kid free! A wonderfully peaceful pub to meet friends without the disruption of other peoples children.

The ONLY negative reviews are from butt-hurt parents that can’t bring their infants into a bar… lovely, traditional pub

Great pub for lovers of traditional pubs.. contemporary old school, accommodation available good pub garden for a pub in this location excellent food excellent landlord and staff enjoy these gems while we can

Always appreciate a business that's willing to provide adults a place to get away from children.

So happy to finally have a place to go that doesn't allow children, it's so peaceful!

Doesn't allow children! Huge plus!

Super awesome place, I wish there were more child-free spaces like this!

Excellent beer and food, dog loves it

Friendly staff. Nice food! Fair price! That's all I want...

Great original and important pub in a historic area of the city. Excellent range of independent cask ales - it's a must

In a city of excellent pubs, this may well be my favourite. A good selection of beers (even eeking out a couple of solid cask beer choices on a quiet January day which is a good sign), friendly staff, a small selection of interesting but very tasty food. Super dog friendly and kid free the comfortable and relaxing atmosphere can best be described as receiving a warm hug with your beer. An old school style pub done right.

Good cosy pub, friendly staff. Nicely spaced inside.

Very much enjoyed our visit to the Lower Red. Good to see David. Good beers at a sensible price.

Good atmosphere and great range of beers.

As at our last visit, quality meals, friendly staff, prompt service and choices for the vegetarians amongst us.

Great Food and service, child free and dog friendly.