March 7, 2012
Welcome reopening of a former Firkin pub in back-street Kentish Town. Visited on 5th March 2012. Pleasant, comfortable, sympathetically refurbished corner pub. Friendly staff and recorded music at comfortable volume. Visitors to TTA have a choice of eight cask ales on handpump, mainly from micros and regionals. On my visit these included Elgood’s, Dark Star, Oldershaw, Kingstone, Black Sheep and Adnams. Thai cuisine is offered at lunch and dinner times most of the week with a traditional English roast on Sundays. Weekday "Lunch for a fiver" is great value, and the quality of the food was good (returned for lunch on 6th March). Welcome addition to an area without too many good real ale pubs around. Deserves to suceed.

February 18, 2012 [ Updated March 4, 2012 ]
A welcome new addition to the north London beer scene. Tapping the Admiral is owned by the same people as the Pineapple nearby and they’ve done a great job of creating an old style place with a modern take (cool green walls, black blinds and tea lights) in a knocked through street corner pub close to Kentish Town station. It’s away from the busy main streets but you can’t miss it at night as the bricks on the corner are painted white and illuminated. There are eight interesting hand pumps, six keg taps and a good bottle range. They also have house recipe infused spirits and a Thai kitchen serving curry, rice dishes and noodles for c.£7 a plate. We went in on new year’s eve and it was pleasantly quiet but it seemed as if they’d chosen the music especially for Ian – the Bangles, Bare Naked Ladies, Primal Scream and the Charlatans, amongst others. Incidentally, the name “Tapping the Admiral” refers to the story that when Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, his body was put in a barrel of rum (or possibly brandy) to preserve it on the journey home. However, the sailors drilled a hole in the barrel and repeatedly helped themselves to a few surreptitious nips, presumably because they wanted to toast the admiral or – more likely - because their other rations had run out. (Last visited 14 January 2012).