Canary Wharf Beer Hall at West India Quay: Saturday Fondue

On Saturdays the Munich Cricket Club at West India Quay, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AE, serves a bottomless cheese fondue brunch inside a converted docklands warehouse, and from 10:30am the riverside bier garden out front is already open. This is the Canary Wharf branch of London's three-site Bavarian bierkeller group, and it adds what the other two cellars cannot: a waterside bier garden, a ski chalet room and a fire pit. Steins of Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier cost £15.30, and happy hour runs from 4pm to 8pm every day.

The setting is what sets this branch apart. Munich Cricket Club describes the building as a beautiful, authentic, historical docklands heritage building, and it sits right next to the Museum of London Docklands on the quay. The warehouses along West India Quay date from the opening of the West India Docks in 1802, when sugar, rum and coffee were unloaded here from the Caribbean, and the brick walls and timber beams still carry that working past.

Inside, the club has split the space into separate rooms that can each be booked: a Garden Bar, a Bier Halle with long tables, a Ski Chalet, a Fire Pit area and a Library with its own bar. Staff wear traditional dirndl and lederhosen. The site pitches the venue at after-work drinks, team socials, weekend gatherings and hen and stag parties, so expect office tables early in the week and celebrations at the weekend.

Weekends are the reason to choose Canary Wharf over the other two branches. On Saturdays the club runs a Bottomless Fondue Brunch, and on Sundays it serves a Bavarian Sunday roast with extended drinks offers. Both days start at 10:30am, the earliest weekend opening of the three branches, so a late breakfast stein by the water is genuinely possible.

Outside brunch, the cheese fondue is on the main menu at £20 per person with a minimum of two: a blend of Gruyère, mature Cheddar and Emmental with cured meats and baked pretzels for dipping. It is a better fit for the chalet room or a fire pit table on a cold night than for the summer terrace, and the minimum of two means it works best as a shared starter before schnitzels.

The drinks list is shared across the group and is printed with pint and stein prices side by side. Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier is £7.65 a pint or £15.30 a stein, Spaten Oktoberfest is £7.75 a pint or £15 a stein during the festival season, and Alfrik's Apfelwein, a German-style cider, costs £7.15 a pint or £14.30 a stein. Low and no-alcohol options include a Paulaner Radler at £5.25.

For food, the Schnitzel Platte is the group order at £35 for two or £82 for five, with pork and chicken schnitzels, mushroom sauce, fries, salad, Bavarian potato salad and pretzels. The veal Wiener Schnitzel with pan-fried potatoes and lingonberries is £25, and the house special, a baked chicken schnitzel topped with ham, tomato sauce and melted cheese, is £20. Finish with Apfelstrudel and custard at £8. The Caesar salad can be skipped, since it does nothing the dockside chains do not.

During the week the programme is built for groups: live music party evenings, regular pub quizzes, bier pong and other games. Happy hour from 4pm to 8pm daily turns cocktails two for one, and the offer extends across Friday and Sunday. Oktoberfest runs at all three MCC branches from 17 September to 31 October 2026, with special Munich festival beers on tap and 25% off the Oktoberfest food menu from Sunday to Tuesday.

One honest note before you plan an Oktoberfest night here: the group's own Oktoberfest page says the oompah bands play at Victoria and Tower Hill. Canary Wharf has the bier garden, the fire pit and the river view, but if a brass band is the point of the evening, book one of the other two branches for a Friday and save the quay for a long weekend lunch.

Small tables can be booked through the website. The club offers ready-made party packages or a bespoke plan, which is worth asking about for office socials and Christmas parties.

If the quay is full on a sunny afternoon, the fallback is a short walk away. Cross the footbridge to the main Canary Wharf estate, where the roof garden at Crossrail Place has free seating under its timber lattice, and come back once tables clear after the lunch crowd heads back to the office.

Make the Museum of London Docklands your first stop. It sits in the next-door warehouse on the quay, entry is free, and its galleries explain the sugar trade and the slavery behind the West India Docks, which gives the building you drink in some real context. Allow an hour if you want to see the reconstructed Sailortown streets on the lower floor.

Afterwards, walk the waterfront along the old dock basin toward the Canary Wharf towers, or head the other way to the DLR station and the floating bridge. In the evening the reflections of the office towers on the dock water are the best free view in Docklands, and the bier garden faces straight onto them.

Address: Munich Cricket Club Canary Wharf, West India Quay, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AE. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 11:30am to 11pm, Thursday 12pm to 12am, Friday and Saturday 10:30am to 12am, Sunday 10:30am to 10pm.

Nearest stations: West India Quay on the DLR is closest, and Canary Wharf on the Jubilee line and the Elizabeth line is a few minutes on foot across the dock. An optional 12.5% service charge is added to bills. Vegan platters are available on request during Oktoberfest, and the menu marks vegan schnitzel and sausage options throughout.