Mason & Taylor is a brand new craft beer and real ale bar from the team behind The Duke Of Wellington in Dalston. Located on the site of the former Green And Red Mexican restaurant at the junction of Bethnal Green Road and Redchurch Street, the premises have been completely refurbished, and we re-opened in December 2010.
Mason & Taylor are proud to be independently supplied. All our beers come be from independent brewers and all direct from the country of origin, with nothing brewed under licence, and with a particular focus on London micro-breweries such as Camden Town Brewery and the Kernel Brewery. We have 12 draught beers and ales on tap at any one time and a seasonal list of 40 bottled beers which will change every 2 months.
Food at Mason & Taylor has an emphasis on seasonality, local producers, sustainability, responsibility and traceable provenance, and served as smaller dishes, perfect for sharing rather than as traditional starters and main courses.
We also have a late licensed basement bar (open until 2am Fridays and Saturdays), which is available for private hire as well.
Mason & Taylor
Bar in Shoreditch
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All In London Review
Authentic British food down to bones and the suckers on the ox tongue!
This venue was conceived by the minds behind Dalston’s Duke of Wellington. They state that rather than tapas, this is in fact a unique menu based on an ethos of sharing. However, with the collections of small portions, and the wine served in carafes, it is hard to ignore the debt to Spain. But this is no bad thing, and British flavors turn out to lend themselves well to the diversity of tapas-style serving.
The selection of beers is something to get excited about. Their menu boasts roughly fifty different choices, divided broadly on colour from pale, to amber, to black. There is also a great choice of fruit beers. The ‘exotic’ Mongozo Mango beer is amazing; a spicy malt beer blended with mangos. The Boon Kriek is also pretty damn good, probably something to do with having been matured in oak barrels for two years accompanied by two hundred grams of cherries per litre. There is also a section that calls itself ‘oddities’, including the blends ‘Ginger Marble’, ‘Kenal Coffee’ and ‘Timmerman’s Geuze’. The bar aims to have 12 craft beers and real ales on tap, as well as the plethora of bottles.
They have the usual spectrum of wines with the top end ecstatically smooth and rich, but the syrah house red fairly mediocre.
If you go, go for the beers. The food is good, but has more of a business meeting snack feel to it than dinner out with loved ones. It’s meticulously arranged, and the flavors are all substantial, but it just lacks that certain sparkle to get the pulse racing.
The glazed parsnip side is where the pleasures of mastication peak with the parsnips thin, sweet and peppery. The green beans that accompany them though are really just green beans, and in the trendy and moneyed east end, they cry out for a bit of something extra.
The scotch quails eggs with sauce gribiche are a little disappointing. Although they have been carefully soft boiled, these are no plover’s eggs and for the price, they might have been a little more unique. The flavor of the Smokie is great; the tiny bones are not so great. And the cured loin of venison, Cumberland sauce and redcurrants had more of a beef jerky or Biltong feel to it than the succulence of English game. However, the pickled ox tongue, blackberries, hazelnuts and rosemary oil has an authentic feel (it actually looks like an ox tongue) and it is surprisingly soft with a melting texture, delicious with the jelly.
Coming round to deserts, the Eton mess is quite overwhelmingly creamy and demands to be eaten fast. The chocolate pudding was sadly not the plate of chocolate for two advertised, but it was warm and gooey and it would be hard to complain about.
The British feel to the food at Mason and Taylor is authentic, down to bones and the suckers on the ox tongue. What stands out is that for the competitive area and the price, the experience is a little underwhelming. If you came across this restaurant in the suburbs, it would be a real achievement, but for dining out in the centre, there could be more to grab one’s attention. And the unisex toilets leave much to be desired.
Reviewed by Directionless
Published on Feb 21, 2011
Best For
London's best craft beers and real ales
Who fancies a pint of Willie's Old Groyne?
Mason and Taylor is all about celebrating the hipper side of craft beer and with a location at the end of Redchurch Street, you can see why. Live bands support the wonderful array of beers in the fridges and on tap and although prices are fairly high, you’ll certainly remember a drink here. Try: Bristol Milk Stout from the Bristol Brewing Factory.
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