Westminster Arms, Whitehall  

The Westminster Arms has the privilege of being the closest pub to the Central Methodist Hall and Westminster Abbey. As a result the upstairs of the pub is predominately standing only to cater for the busy mix of tourists, conference attendees and politicos. The wine bar downstairs (where they serve the food) is far more charming, with wooden booths and flagstone flooring. Speaking of food, the menu was bizarrely called a 'food agenda', making it sound like it should've been accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, but the contents were pretty standard - pies, fish & chips etc. It wasn't exactly cheap either, with prices around £9. Service is patchy, too: we had to work pretty hard to elicit any verbal interaction with the landlord and all the staff seemed to be perpetually on phones, relaying food orders or stock issues between the two floors. In the pub's favour are the selection of ales - although mainly from big brewers (Young's, Fullers, Greene King), it was still a good choice. Sadly, this isn't enough to rescue the place from a distinctly average two pint rating.