The Lyric on Great Windmill Street: what to order and when to go

First, a correction that saves you a wander: The Lyric is not on Berwick Street. You want 37 Great Windmill Street, off Shaftesbury Avenue, at the Piccadilly end of Soho and near the top of Ham Yard. Piccadilly Circus is about three minutes away on foot.

What it is

A small Victorian pub with a big beer habit. Its own website calls it "Soho's local" and describes craft beer, real cask ales, fine wines and pub classics, with the claim of being the area's oldest independent free house. Live sport is on the menu too, which matters for when you go (more on that below).

It sits close to the Shaftesbury Avenue theatres, so it works as a pre-curtain stop as well as a late one. In summer, drinkers squeeze into the tiny outside area at the top of Ham Yard. Squeeze is the word.

A little history

The site is older than the pub you see today. Two separate taverns stood here in 1739, the Ham and the Windmill, and in the mid-18th century they were merged as the Windmill & Ham. According to WhatPub, it was renamed in 1890 and rebuilt 16 years later, which puts the building at about 1906. The name became the Lyric Tavern in 1890.

The Soho Society named it Pub of the Year in 1992, when it was still the Lyric Tavern. At one stage it was boarded up and featured on BBC London as an example of Ghost Town Britain. It came back, and later took third place in the CAMRA West London branch Pub of the Year. A refurbishment since then shifted the focus firmly to beer and added an upstairs dining room.

The building itself is worth a look before you go in: glazed tiles at the entrance, a bay front with mostly original etched glass, and a tiled and panelled interior with a small fireplace. Then look up. The ceiling is covered in beer mats.

What to order

Start with the beer. Time Out ranks it at number seven in its best pubs in Soho and calls it an "altar to craft beer", citing Camden Hells and Brooklyn Lager alongside Magic Rock and Big Smoke. Londonist rates the beer range as the best in the area, with a cask selection above the Soho norm. Counts of the taps vary from list to list, so call it a long list of taps and let the board decide for you.

• If you like cask: CAMRA says the pub serves up to ten cask ales, so ask what is on and take a half of something you do not recognise.
• If you like keg: go for one of the craft taps from the Time Out names above.
• If you want something plain: the Budvar has been listed at £6.20 a pint on a pub-map site. It is undated, so treat it as a rough guide.

For food, the pub lists fish and chips and Sunday roasts. Visitors on Tripadvisor rave about the Scotch eggs, one calling them the best in London. That is a punter's opinion rather than a critic's, but it is a decent reason to order one with your first pint. No food prices to quote, so ask when you sit down.

When to go

The kitchen runs from midday to ten at night, Monday to Saturday. CAMRA gives Friday and Saturday opening as 11am to midnight. Hours can shift, so check before you set out, particularly for Sunday, when we have no kitchen times to give you.

It is small, and small pubs fill up. Friday and Saturday evenings are the busiest, and when there is sport on, tables can be reserved for it. If you are a group, or you want a seat for a match, ring ahead on (020) 7434 0604. There is no booking policy to quote, so the phone is the honest answer.

• Go at opening or mid-afternoon if you want a table, a proper look at the tiles and a slow read of the tap list.
• Go after the theatres turn out on a Friday if you want it packed and loud.

One practical warning: the stairs down to the gents are steep, as Londonist has noted. Mind your step after the second pint.

For after

Step back onto Great Windmill Street and you are a short walk from Shaftesbury Avenue and the Piccadilly end of Soho. Pick a spot for your second drink from the stretch around you, and keep the Lyric as the first stop of the night, ideally with a Scotch egg to line the stomach.

The short version: 37 Great Windmill Street, a half of something from the cask list, a Scotch egg, and a quick look at the beer mats on the ceiling.