The Parakeet, Kentish Town: Fire-Cooked Gastropub Two Minutes from the Tube

The Parakeet is a gastropub at 256 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AA, about 130 metres from Kentish Town station, and on Sundays it serves roast beef with Yorkshire pudding for £28.50. Harden's says former Brat chefs Ben Allen and Ed Jennings opened it in March 2023 inside the old Oxford Tavern, cooking everything over flame. The front bar opens at noon every day.

The pub used to be called the Oxford. Hot Dinners reported at the start of 2023 that the pub had been bought by the team behind Camden's Jazz Café and The Blues Kitchen, and by March it had reopened as The Parakeet. Harden's credits Ben Allen and Ed Jennings, both from Brat in Shoreditch, with the opening menu, and the fire-and-flame approach has stayed at the centre of the cooking.

The pub describes itself as a classic North London boozer, wood-panelled, warm and open to all, and that is a fair account of the front room. The dining room menu, in the pub's own words, focuses on British dishes and produce at its seasonal height, all cooked over flame. Harden's 2026 survey scored food, service and ambience four out of five each.

The building splits into two very different rooms. The front bar is a busy local with Guinness at £7.20, Timothy Taylor Landlord at £6.50 and Camden Hells at £6.90, and Harden's reviewers call it very noisy. Walk through the curtain at the back and, as one reviewer put it, it feels like a secret and rather louche party, with an eclectic mix of old and new design in the dining room.

Bar snacks run Monday to Saturday from 12pm to 4pm and again from 6pm to 10pm. The September 2026 bar menu lists anchovy on toast at £4.50, ham hock croquettes at £6, a merguez sausage roll at £8 and a fish finger sandwich at £9. That is the cheapest way to try the kitchen without a booking, and it suits a pint after work.

The October 2026 menu on the pub's website, labelled a sample, starts small: potato bread with smoked butter at £5, a hoisin duck tartlet at £5 and a tempura shiso leaf with beef tartare at £6. Braised leeks with pecorino sauce and smoked mushroom are £13.50, and mackerel crudo with smoked bone dressing and cucumber is £14. Order three of these and bread for two before mains.

Mains show what the grill does best. Chalk stream trout with laverbread and butter sauce is £23, fried gurnard with masala sauce £28 and a jerk pork chop with peppers £35. For sharing, the whole sea bream with piperade is £68, and a 28-day aged ex-dairy sirloin is £70. Filtered water is charged at £1 per head, and a 12.5% discretionary service charge is added.

Sunday is when The Parakeet is busiest, because the roast runs all day from 12pm to 7pm in the dining room. The September 2026 roast menu lists hay-smoked roast chicken at £26.50, roast beef at £28.50 and roast pork belly at £26.50, with a squash and mushroom wellington at £21 for vegetarians. A fore rib to share is £110 and feeds a table that wants the full spread.

Every roast comes with Flourish Farm greens, roast potatoes, seasonal root vegetables, carrot and swede mash and a Yorkshire pudding. Cauliflower cheese is £6.50 as an extra, and sticky toffee pudding is £8. Dining room bookings open 30 days ahead through OpenTable on the pub's website, and the dining room takes groups of up to eight, so a family roast needs a booking rather than a walk-in.

Dinner-only weekdays are the catch. The dining room serves Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 9.30pm and Friday from 5.30pm to 9.30pm, with Saturday lunch from 12pm to 2.30pm and dinner from 6pm. Weekday lunch in the dining room only starts on 1 December, according to the pub's dining room page, so a Tuesday lunch in October means bar snacks rather than the full menu.

Harden's gives the honest warning: you have to be a fan of fire-and-flame cuisine, because the whole menu is cooked over flame. If that is not your thing, skip the dining room and treat The Parakeet as a pub. Monday has its own draw, with £6 cocktails from 4pm, while the rest of the week the Spicy Margarita is £12.50 and a Negroni £11.50.

The dining room takes bookings for up to eight. Bigger groups move to the private room, which has floor-to-ceiling windows and its own bar, and holds 30 for dinner or 80 for drinks. Anyone wanting a reserved area in the front pub for eight or more fills in a form on the website instead of the restaurant booking system.

The What's On page lists a weekly Tuesday pub quiz and events on Friday and Saturday nights in the front bar. This year the big one is a Halloween party on Saturday 31 October. Harden's notes the pub is widely hailed from more distant postcodes as the perfect gastropub, so expect people from across London in the dining room and Kentish Town regulars at the bar.

Kentish Town station, on the Northern line and Thameslink, is a couple of minutes' walk from the door, and Kentish Town West on the Overground is about ten minutes away. That makes The Parakeet an easy meeting point for friends coming from different parts of London, and the pub sits right on the main road.

For a Sunday plan with children, Kentish Town City Farm at 1 Cressfield Close, off Grafton Road, opens every day from 9am to 5pm with free entry and no booking. Spend the morning at the farm, then walk back for a 1pm roast. If the dining room is full, the front bar still pours a Deya Steady Rolling Man at £7.30 and serves snacks until 4pm.

Address: 256 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AA. Pub: Monday to Saturday 12pm to 12am, Sunday 12pm to 10.30pm. Dining room: Monday to Thursday 6pm to 9.30pm, Friday 5.30pm to 9.30pm, Saturday 12pm to 2.30pm and 6pm to 9.30pm, Sunday 12pm to 7pm. Bookings through OpenTable, open 30 days ahead.

Who it suits: Sunday roast groups, couples who like smoky grill cooking, and Northern line commuters after a good pint. Who it does not suit: anyone wanting a quiet front bar or a weekday lunch before December. Prices are from the October dining menu and September roast, bar and drinks menus on the pub's website. Ask the Karpo APP for a nearby pub if the roast slots are gone.