The stairs are the best part of the plan. Upstairs, a pub with a serious pint. Downstairs, a bare-brick basement where the most talked-about pizza in London now lives. You can do either. The sensible do both, in that order.
The people
Carl McCluskey started Crisp at The Chancellors in Hammersmith, his nan's pub, which he took over from her. For Mayfair he brought in the trio behind The Devonshire in Soho: Charlie Carroll, the chef Ashley Palmer-Watts and the publican Oisín Rogers. The aim is to copy The Devonshire's method for pouring Guinness, and the result comes close to the original. McCluskey sums up the new site as the same pub and the same oven, both on a larger scale.
A Victorian corner pub, a Guinness poured with Devonshire devotion and a New Haven pie in the cellar.
The room and the crowd
The Marlborough reopened on 10 November 2025 at 24 North Audley Street, the former Marlborough Head. A pub has traded on this corner since the middle of the 1800s and the current building dates from 1892. The ground floor is lovely and traditional, and the basement is a cross between a New York pizzeria and a speakeasy, with bare brick, steakhouse-red leather banquettes and a babbling crowd.
Upstairs is built for drinking: room to stand at the bar, built-in seating towards the rear, no bookings. A sign down below reads come for the pizza, stay for the Guinness. The crowd is Mayfair office workers who have discovered the pint, and pizza pilgrims who have discovered a pub.
What to order
Crisp pies come in three formats: traditional rounds, London meets New Haven, square grandma pies for sharing, and very thin bar pies.
Start with the Vecna, pepperoni, Parmesan, burrata and hot honey, a Hammersmith favourite and the pick of the three, so the one to order before anything else. Next comes the Crisp W6 Pie, with San Marzano tomato, buffalo mozzarella and a generous shower of Pecorino, which is exceptional. The Tie-dye Pie runs a spicy tequila sauce, fior di latte and a pesto swirl. The crust sits somewhere between New York thin and Neapolitan blistering.
Beyond the pies: a four-cheese calzone, baked pepperoni chips, and dips in quantity, with the garlic one singled out. The tiramisu is a slab built to share. The soft serve is fine but wants more of its olive oil. The wine list is short and includes a Margaret River chardonnay.
Pudding is deliberately short. Share the tiramisu and order the dips in numbers. The pub largely lives up to a reputation that had grown huge. The upstairs room carries two house rules, no laptops and no loud phone calls, which sounds strict until you have drunk in a pub that lacked them.
The hedge
The hype is the problem. A direct booking gets you a table without the five-hour queue some expect. A walk-in arriving at half past five on a Tuesday, soon after opening, faced a wait of just under two hours, which should ease once upstairs and outdoor seating open. Bookings go quickly, and the practical advice is to walk in off-peak.
Mayfair has plenty of rooms for spending money. Few will pour you a proper pint and then send you down a flight of stairs for a square of cheese-heavy comfort. A pub that finally knows what it is for.
- The vibe
- Victorian corner pub upstairs; brick-lined New York pizza cellar below.
- The food
- Crisp pies: round, grandma, bar; Vecna, W6, tie-dye; calzone and garlic dip.
- The drink
- Guinness poured the Devonshire way; Margaret River chardonnay if you must.
- A tip
- Walk in off-peak; bookings vanish and weekday evenings queue.
