The Old Fountain in Islington

The (very) bad: without being asked, or even told, I seem to have been charged extra so the change could be pocketed, despite going to the bar to order (i.e. not table service). See receipt - I paid by card, not cash, and I was charged the cash amount, not the total. The "service charge" also seems to have been applied to drinks, which I carried back myself. No service given or required on that front. I'm all for giving tips, but you can't take them without asking. Perhaps the pub can respond and let us all know if this is common practice. The good: burger was nice, beer selection was great, and when the staff weren't (literally) taking my money they were very friendly and efficient. Also quite a quiet spot on the Monday night I was there considering how close it is to Old Street.

Big portions of Sunday roast and some of the best craft beer and cider in town. If you like cider, definitely ask for the Herefordshire Strawberry & Lime Cider.

Was recommended the buffalo wings by the young woman behind the bar and they were revolting. Absolutely preposterous that I was recommended these

Wonderful. Really welcoming and superb beers

Awesome local pub with a great selection of beers and whiskey. Friendly staff too.

Edit: this was a Cracking spot with a Sunday roast to die for. No corners discernibly cut - excellent beef, decent roast spuds, punchy horseradish - it’s a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon ..and now it’s started cutting corners, portions are meaner, ingredients quality not as good - super disappointing

The staff were so friendly and the food was amazing, we'll definitely go back next time we're in town!

Had high expectations but in the end very disappointed. Had pork Sunday lunch which looked impressive but was luke warm, pork was recooked slices of tough pork rather than freshly carved off a joint, potatoes over cooked, as was other veg. Huge Yorkshire pud topped the disappointing remainder of the meal. Pudding supposedly sticky toffee pudding but honestly it was a light sponge totally unlike sticky toffee pud, no density, no dates, no taste. Beer was nice though.

Nice little tucked away pub with large screens and a rooftop garden with seating. Food was very good and service was great. Rooftop can be booked out for parties

Great selection cask and craft beers and generally cheaper than other pubs in the area. Friendly atmosphere.

Pork belly 선데이로스트 맛집! 핌즈라는 술도 맛있슴!! 직원분도 친절해서 좋아요!

There is a good selection of beer and some reasonable pub food but the staff are unbelievably rude. It’s disappointing that the staff’s dissatisfaction for the pub and its customers has such a negative impact on the experience.

We used this venue for a birthday party and surprise proposal. The staff were friendly and fun (Jeff, John, and lovely lady in glasses who's name escapes me) and they drank shots with us. The sunny roof courtyard was private and intimate and beautifully maintained (flowers) and the venue let us play our own tunes on a speaker. We put up our own decorations etc so the staff allowed us to cultivate the vibe ourselves which was appreciated. The drink options were varied and interesting and there was a flight of stairs between the bar and courtyard which maximised the intimacy. Again shout out to the staff who were diligent, helpful and friendly. Once again shout out to the Old Fountain, the venue of the best night of my life! Thank you so much!

Changing of the guard, watch that space, it's been great in the past and may still prove to be.

Nice pub, rooftop, close to old street and great pie. Cod goujons & chips also great. (Though burgers didn’t look that great).

You know this is just perfect. 19 beers on tap, 4 on cask plus 2 ciders. NO PIPED MUSIC! Just (loud) human conversation. Full marks for that.

We were told last orders, ordered a pint, and 5 min later were told they were closing and we had to bring our beers out in plastic glasses. Why do last orders if there's no time to drink the beer? I got the sense the staff were trying to close early.

Beer was nice, long queue for the bar though; barstaff somewhat lethargic.

Great Sunday roast with some fun drinks. Lots of options for vegetarians and great service. The jackfruit fritters are so good! There’s a lady with pink hair which everyone else mentions as being a little upfront. She seems fine to me :) The staff are really patient and helpful and the food is really great. They even have a recommended beer with each of the roasts. What more can a person ask for on a Sunday than roast and a suggested pint to go with his food 🥘 🙌🏼

I love this original style pub, The food is amazing, The service is 10/10 And not forgetting the roof terrace. Must go,you won't be disappointed.

Really great beer selection and overall great services. Make sure to check out the roof terrace

Really good variety of beers available and the staff are knowledgeable and friendly. Can get very packed after work on a Thursday/Friday but that’s ok. I always recommend here when friends are visiting town.

We had a roast booked in a different venue who cancelled last minute so I found this place randomly. Really nice food and atmosphere! We had two vegans and one non-vegan in our party and we were all very happy with our meal. You could tell that there was thought put into the vegan meals as they were more creative than in other places. Generous portions, reasonable prices and really quick and friendly service. Would definitely recommend!

Good selection of cask ales in this spacious pub.

Great real ale (and cider), lovely staff and a pretty roof terrace. Recommended!

I love their fish and chips! The service was slow though.

Great night with top notch bartender Alison!

Nice to come back here again. Beer excellent as always 😁👍

Proper boozer with a hipster twist. Good roof terrace.

Hidden gem, old school pub! Lots of interesting beers on offer. Highly recommended!

Great venue, just a shame about the staff. Agree with the comments about the pink-haired bartender, probably the worst, most weirdly-aggressive service I've ever had at a pub. And I don't leave reviews!

Two room and two entrance pub on a side street off Old Street. Somehow paid £8.50 for a pint of 3.8% session IPA. Nice old school facade and well worn wooden floors. Otherwise non-descript decor and slightly snooty staff.

Very reasonable prices and delicious Sunday Roasts - thank you

By far the rudest staff I've ever met in a pub. Expect sarcastic comments, rude looks and extreme attitude. Stay away from the bartender with the pink hair especially.

Amazing Sunday roast! Very good value for portion sizes, and awesome crackling for starters!

Went with my mum. Food was beautiful. Beef. vegetables beautifully cooked. Staff was lovely and friendly. Dog friendly. Children welcome too. Would highly recommend a visit.

The finest bar staff I have had the pleasure of meeting in 25 years. Food truly exceptional and service top class. Friendly, professional and definitely somewhere I'm coming back to.

Fantastic pub! A great selection of beer, friendly staff, cracking rooftop terrace and one of the best Sunday roasts I've had in a while.

Best beer selection and vibe anywhere around old street

Excellent Sunday roast - the roast pork was fantastic! Friendly, relaxed and informal setting. Dog friendly and welcoming. We shall return!

Always an awesome proper pub with brilliant staff. My go to in Old St

Good old fashioned back street pub, only 3 minutes walk from Old Street station, four real ales on £5 a pint....food looked good but a bit expensive.

Super friendly place, really great range of beers, thankfully not all IPA. The most unusual is the Imperial Stout, 12.5%! £18 a pint, apparently.

Lovely, traditional free house, just off City Road and 2 minutes walk from Old Street roundabout. Great selection of cask and keg on rotation. Lovely staff and clientele; really busy on a Thursday evening, despite the Tube strike. Didn’t eat here but the food looked good. Maybe next time. But the main attraction is the beer; the best selection in this area.

Fantastic pub that offers both well-kept cask real ale and keg craft beer. The roof terrace is a glorious spot to spend a summer afternoon. Decent food.

Un piccolo pub con una grande selezione di birre!

Surly staff, cloudy beer. One visit.... won't be back. Judging by the other reviews perhaps I caught them at a bad time.

Great find. Absolute gem and brilliant value. Also lovely service from the scouser behind the bar, nice to hear a bit of home when you’re away.

We visited here the other week, and it was great. Staff where really helpful, especially the blue haired girl behind the bar! Lovely beer, lovely place. Will be returning soon 😊

Recent visit to London and spent a few hours here before a train home. Food was excellent, service was fun, friendly and non intrusive. Think her name was Alison, blue hi-lights in her hair and quite trendy. Will revisit next time in London

Favourite pub in all of London, hands down. Looking for a cosy place to grab a pint after work? The old fountain has a wide selection of craft beers, on rotation, as well as some trusty classics on offer. Want to watch a rugby or football match and have a roast on Sunday? This place has you covered. Great staff, good drinks, excellent music, no drama... Just good. If you haven't been, you're missing out

Amazing roast - the fountain roast includes various meats, cauliflower cheese, well made potatoes and delicious gravy. Looks small from outside but big on the inside. One of the best roasts I’ve ever had, hands down!

Great vibes and wonderful collection of beer! Only concern is that you have to wait at the counter to order.. so better to order everything at once and enjoy the time .. upstairs is much peaceful as there will be a lot of crowd downstairs :) Cheers!

We attend the fountain regularly and have built up an excellent report with the bar staff! However, on my latest trip to the fountain I was served by a new member of staff with iconic blue highlights who was as extremely rude. She expressed distaste at my choice of drink, actively rolling her eyes when I placed my order. On a separate occasion she slammed (repeatedly) a card machine at my colleague, who was unaware that was her indication to pay - she did indicate that this was not clear but again was met by a sarcastic eye roll! Her manner is wholly unkeeping with the old fountain staff and I am horrified to have been met with such poor hostile customer service.

Been going here for years and never had a problem until last night. Me and my partner were celebrating our anniversary after a long day at work, and decided one last drink before heading home. A very young looking bar maid decided she wouldn't serve me. She said I was sluring my words and said "pint of water" with a smerk on her face. The audacity! I am most likely old enough to be her mum. We were out celebrating for god sake. Jokes on her though as we saw a friend at the bar who bought us our drinks.

Large selection of craft beers and good music and atmosphere. Visited on a Monday evening when it was very quiet but welcoming

Great pub with friendly staff. Solid beerlist with wide selection of casks and drafts

Busy watering hole Near Moorfields Eye hospital Adjacent to City Road and Old Street Well worth a visit

Amazing spot! Great hand pull, draught and food. Don’t miss the roast! Vege/vegan too. We will be back.

Great boozer - always a decent selection of beer & cider. Good staff, and a nice rooftop which catches the sun on those golden summer days

Great selection of drinks at reasonable prices, staff are super friendly, roof terrace is lovely, clean loos and nice decor. Faultless pub.

Authentic british pub with traditional cask beer. Very friendly staff, nice atmosphere and huge and delicious servings!

Went here for a Sunday roast and it was one of the best I have ever tasted! Very generous helping of the meat, roast potatoes cooked to perfection and great veg options! I will definitely be going back for more :)

All the beer. My favourite pub.

Very good hidden spot. Very nice.

Uptown Carribean food, mouth melting chicken was ace. Veg option, chickpea and spinach was well balanced, not too hot but full of flavour. Rooftop terrace is cool spot to hang out. Real jewell.

Went here for drinks with work last week. We had a table reserved on the roof garden which was a fantastic setting. The selection of drinks was superb and service was quick at the bar and you can also order online from your table which was also really quick. A great place to drink with friends of you are around old street.

Great pub! Strongly recommended!

Friendly pub with a good selection of well-kept cask beer. Also interesting keg and can options.

숨겨진 선데이로스트 맛집 ! Pork belly 선데이 로스트 강추다 스텝들도 매우 친절하심 굳이 선데이로스트 맛집들을 찾아다닐 필요가 없다 최고!

We'd read about this being one of the few independently owned pubs in London, and booked a table for Sunday roast. So glad we did! Friendly staff, relaxing atmosphere, good beer menu, and a fabulous, fabulous Sunday Roast. Couldn't have been any better!

Great hidden gem! Friendly staff and landlord. Good variety of cask and keg beers and the food looks amazing.

Awesome selection of beers and the vegan calzone is *chef’s kiss*

Best pub in this part of East London, bar none. Unpretentious, fantastic selection of ale, cider and porter.

Went there yesterday for a belated Mother's day. Good service, food was excellent, and fresh. Recommend highly.

If you want a Spectacular Sunday Roast with a reasonable price, great ambience & super friendly team of staff… then this is your place! Has to be in one of my TOP 5 Sunday roasts EVER. & Yorkshire puddings… well let’s just say Amazing. Can’t wait to go back.

Excellent beer selection, great Sunday roasts, paired with friendly and efficient service.

Slightly lacking atmosphere made up in spades by friendly landlord and great range of beers and drinks in general. Also quite nice to find somewhere you can hear yourself think on a Saturday night.

Really good Sunday roast. Only thing that would make it better would be if they weren’t so skimpy on the sides. I think I only had 1 broccoli floret - it’s not an expensive vegetable. 10/10 Yorkshire pudding though.

Cracking central London pub! Superb cask ales and amazing service. An absolute must if you want real beer near Old Street. Well done to Alex and the team!

We had to cancel a group booking of 16 people due to Covid concerns. I’m very Disappointed the venue will not refund the deposit, even though it’s over 24 hour notice. Businesses will reply on returning customers, and I certainly won’t be one, when things go back to a more normal.

Unfortunately, not a good experience for us. First of all, the food wasn't great. The soup was OK but it didn't come with any bread. We asked for some bread and after bringing a few slices the waiter/manager said that there is no more as the soup does not come with it! Roast potatoes were only top roasted and were really raw inside. One of the staff is allergic to some ingredients and asked the waiter/manager for the contents of one of the drinks. He didn't know, which is fair enough but didn't even make an attempt to check. He just said, change your drink, that's the best thing to do. Originally the party was booked for 15 people but due to self isolation issues 6 people didn't attend. We had told them about this 6 hours prior to the booking but they charged us for all 15 meals. We raised the issue with the waiter/manager and he just shrugged his shoulders and said that because they had only been notified during the day, they have to charge for everyone! The least they could have offered was to bring all 15 meals out to the table, to take it away if we wanted to or even charge a cancellation fee for each person attending and not the full whack! Lastly, the waiter/manager had quite an attitude and was quite rude on a couple of occasions. Don't think we will be going back there in a hurry.

Absolutely fantastic roast! Congrats to the Chef(s) and thanks to the staff which was very polite despite the very stressful situation they were in. I'll definitely come back!

Had a wonderful Sunday roast. We reserved for a group of 14 people and the staff was brilliant. Showing up with a large group tends to be hectic, but we were met with a big smile and great sense of humour. To top it all off - the beer selection is fantastic

Off the beaten track but well worth the visit. Staff are very friendly and attentive with a great selection of beers on tap. Old style boozer with a certain charm about it. Max and Kieran made us feel most welcome.

My friend had fish and chips which she enjoyed. However I had a beef burger which looked like it had been flash grilled and only the outer burger was cooked the inside was raw. When the staff took the plate away I told them the burger was raw they didn’t seem concerned and didn’t not apologise. The menu was also very limited with a few options.

Usually a great pub. Tonight they were servicing stagnant cask ale out of jugs and pretending it was from the pipes...for the same price. Very poor. Not a way to keep or serve real ale. Will be emailing CAMRA.

Exquisite beer! Would highly recommend

One of the worst roasts I’ve had. Cheap apple sauce and Aunt bessies potatoes for 19 Quid! Spoons is a better bet

A most fine backstreet pub offering an amazing selection of keg and cask beers. Friendly staff to help you both drink and eat. A wonderful Sunday roast made me late for my next stop. Who cares, it was brilliant!! Shame Mr Google only lets me have 5 stars. Seek out this pub and enjoy, Sunday is not a bad day to try, if you like your roast dinner!

The Pub! When done this well it really is fantastic. The staff were really friendly and so good at their job. Respect where respect is due. Sunday lunch was one of the best I ever had too. Beer list fantastic, cask absolutely at it's peak. Yep!

Just had a lovely Sunday lunch, highly recommend, will be back 😉

Off the beaten path but a lovely pub with nice staff and a fine selection of ales. Well worth a visit and a how do you do...

Absolutely great pub with relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff, plenty on tap too. Came in for a few drinks last night and had a great time, plenty of tables and staff super relaxed and friendly. Ordered at the bar and was very easy and good price. Menu can be a bit confusing because there is so much on offer but the staff are really great. Food looked good too! Definitely a nice little place to come by and the roof terrace looked nice but was too cold to sit. If you liked my review feel free to give it a 👍 and follow me on Google Maps for more reviews!

Order some food and they forgot one burger for the table, and at that point the kitchen was closed. Ok place for drinks but I would avoid having food in here

A few days ago I was caught short and needed the loo urgently, I was in the vicinity of this pub and entered; a man hurried towards me; I asked politely if I could use their toilet. He said no, Ushered me out of the pub and when I begged him because I was really desperate( we’ve all been there) he told me to get out and try to find some other place open and ask them if I could use their facilities. Thankfully a nearby restaurant let me use their loo. Ive been a customer of this pub many times but that aside, I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that it’s just common decency to help someone in need who asks for it. That’s what my parents taught me anyway. I will never go back to this place

Lovely side street pub with a roof terrace and a great selection of beers to boot. Annoyed I waited so long to finally seek it out.

Here you can find the best beers of London, the staff is kind and the food is good!

Barman terrible and horrendous attitude. Added to that, the Chef at entrance was annoyed that we asked him if we can come in - said I’m not a waiter here!.. outrageous stuff for a venue that was not even full. Wouldn’t come again

We sat on the roof terrace (which is dog friendly) and enjoyed the Sunday roast, just as it should be. Well, mine was as I had the “Fountain roast” with roast beef, pork belly and ribs, accompanied by lovely crispy roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables. The others were vegan and vegetarian and their alternative was also excellent. We finished with a variety of ice creams, a selection of which are also suitable for vegans. The staff were very friendly and welcoming, with a good knowledge of the food and drinks served. It is certainly somewhere I would recommend and I look forward to going back.