Review | The Owl & Hitchhiker, Islington

The Owl & Hitchhiker is a pub situated on Holloway Road and was recently awarded the "Best Pub In North London" by DesignMyNight. Despite having been a local north London resident for a few years, I'd never frequented it and with a multitude of pubs on my doorstep, I had never really been too bothered about visiting. Then a couple of months ago, they released a very vegan-heavy food menu that reflected its sister pub, The Birds in Leytonstone – and it was definitely then that my interest was perked and I began to nag people to come with me to check it out!
With the promise of 50% off all food between Monday - Wednesday, I met up with a friend at the O&H for a well-needed catch up over beer and burgers. 

The name of the pub, The Owl & Hitchhiker, is an amalgamation of two of the local area's most well-known residents: Edward Lear (writer of the Owl and Pussycat) and Douglas Adams (writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). This Holloway-based boozer is a little different from your traditional pub; murals adorn the walls, the interiors are festooned with bunting, there's wall of stacked vintage stereos and speakers and the Hitchhiker's motto, "Don't Panic" brazenly hangs from the balcony level. Needless to say, the interiors are unique and I fell in love with it pretty much instantly. 
The pub holds weekly themed brunches and quizzes, from bottomless brunch with drag queens to Harry Potter themed pub quiz nights. However, we were purely there to eat as much food as we could during the half price offer.

If it wasn't already obvious from the photos above, the portions are humungous – make sure you head here with an empty stomach or else you'll be rolling out the door! We made the mistake of completely underestimating the portion sizes, because y'know, we're so used to being ripped off in London and ordered an extra size of fries that we absolutely didn't need for just the two of us as the side of fries that came with the burger was more than enough!
As I have eyes bigger than my belly, I opted for the biggest burger on the menu: the MD burger (£13 usually / £6.50 Mon-Wed). Stacked between a vegan brioche bun is crispy seitan reminiscent of fried chicken, smoky facon, a hash brown (!!), mac 'n' cheese and salad, served with a side of fries. This isn't a burger for the faint-hearted or health conscious – oh no, this is a burger the fellow vegan junk food aficionados who don't care for the calorie count! It was messy and ridiculously impossible to eat, but good grief, it was f**king delicious!
The dirty fries (£7 / £3.50), that we zealously ordered before realising the size of our fries portion that came with the burger, were essentially a mountain of salty chipped topped with vegan garlic mayo, facon, onions, pickles and fresh coriander. 

My pal opted for the slightly more humble "chickenish burger" (£11 / £5.50) with a faux crispy chicken fillet, facon, ranch mayo, tomato, pickles, rocket and a side of fries. We also ordered a couple of sides, including the mac 'n' cheese (£3.50 / £1.75) topped with seitan facon, chives and truffle oil and the salt 'n' pepper cauliflower (£3.50 / £1.75), which is a deep-fried, crispy cauliflower with house pickled chillies, onions, coriander and a salt 'n' pepper sauce.
Although I'm a mac 'n' cheese enthusiast, the salt 'n' pepper cauliflower was the real winner for me!
For the portion sizes, everything is reasonably priced – however, with the 50% off deal, everything is cheap as chips! These five huuuuuggggeee dishes came to just £19. I repeat: NINETEEN WHOLE POUNDS. Wild. I enjoyed all of the food that we ordered and I'm already planning my next trip back as I keep raving to everyone about just how great the Owl & Hitchhiker is!

Find the Owl & Hitchhiker: 471 Holloway Rd, Archway, London N7 6LE Website: https://www.owlandhitchhiker.pub/ Closest station: Upper Holloway (overground)



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