The Pilot Inn
8 River Way, SE10 0BE

Greenwich Millennium Village is a strange place. Despite being the nearest you can get to the tube in this part of town, having the mammoth o2 on its doorstep and being a hefty residential stronghold, it somehow always feels like you’re in the middle of a computer-generated environment, miles from anywhere. The Pilot, GMV’s ‘local’, is much in keeping with its sim-city surroundings and despite being generally ok, it lacks a lot of the character that makes the town pubs successful.

Owned by uber-chain Fullers, the Pilot ticks most of the corporate pub boxes with a wide lager selection, Rosé in bulk and every flavour of j2o you could want. However, there’s a decided mediocrity about the place, with its uninspiring ale selection, forgettable décor and split-level interiors that make it disjointed and a little unwelcoming. The food is rather expensive (£10 for Scampi & Chips), and again, pretty middle of the road. The staff, apart from a standard issue try-hard manager, are a little on the gruff, robotic side – when I asked the barman if I could order food his reply was ‘Yeah why not?’, before taking a good 5 minutes to process my order for one meal. They also had a seafood specials promotion going on, but at 6pm on a Saturday they had crossed 5 out of 7 meals off the list, as they were unavailable.

Despite all this, the Pilot does have one saving grace in its spectacular beer garden. The water features, hanging baskets and ivy fences all look like they’ve been given the creative effort and thought that the rest of the place so conspicuously lacks and it’s a lovely place to sit with your Magners. There’s even a BBQ stand where they apparently cook sausages and burgers in the summer (assuming they have any left). Its only slight drawback is that it being north facing and fully enclosed, it does get rather chilly, but then this is Britain so perhaps I’m expecting too much!

All in all I think the Pilot is trying to be a country pub in a city spot and it’s this air of artifice and sterility that lets it down. It’s certainly not the most terrible pub you’ll ever go to and the garden is definitely worth a look, it’s just that it all left me feeling a bit cold. And not just because I forgot my jacket.