A bulldog wearing a tight vest adorned with the Union Jack and a smoking cigar hanging out of the corner of its mouth glares down at my seat in the dining room. Next to the dog, a faded print of Big Ben, and a commemorative plate with the late Queen Elizabeth II smiling from nine different decades. Curious about the more than 900 personal arms of every county in England and Wales? There’s a detailed poster on the wall.
Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks takes its British pride seriously.
“We’re Brits, so we have to find the British pub,” says manager Lydia Thelwell in her prominent Manchester accent. She started working at the pub in 1991, shortly after she moved to California. “I used to come here as a customer, and one of the bartenders was like ‘why don’t you work here?’ The rest is history.”
The exterior of Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks. To the left is the Friar Tuck Shoppe that stocks British sweets and snacks.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The pub near the corner of Woodman Avenue and Burbank Boulevard has been a haven for Brits and English enthusiasts since owners Michael and Lorraine Williams opened the doors in 1982. Both from London, the two met at Ye Olde King’s Head pub in Santa Monica. The couple were regular fixtures at the pub until Michael died of COVID-19 in 2021. With Michael gone, the 12-hour shifts were too much for Lorraine, and longtime managers Thelwell, Ali Osment and Julia Eaton stepped in to take over daily operations.
Lorraine’s original recipes are still the stars of the lengthy menu. Steak and kidney pie with a flaky crust that envelops chunks of steak and mineral-bright nuggets of liver in a deep brown gravy. Cornish pasties brimming with ground beef and potatoes. Dishes of shepherd’s pie blanketed in smooth, buttery mashed potatoes flecked with cheddar cheese. Nubbly Scotch eggs with ramekins of sweet and tangy Branston Pickle. Bowls of Thai curry soup crowded with shrimp, scallops and clams.
“I don’t know where she got that Thai soup recipe from, but it’s been on the menu for as long as I can remember,” says Osment, who’s worked at the pub for 27 years.
An order of fish and chips from Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The deep fryer is the hardest-working equipment in the kitchen. Whatever emerges from its bubbling oil — broad rods of Icelandic cod; thick, thin and curly fries; wings and bangers — is immaculately fried. And the person manning the fryer since opening day is chef and kitchen manager Andres Mejia.
I’ve written at length about my disdain for thick fries. At Robin Hood, you can request shoestring fries, called Julienne fries on the menu, with any dish that requires chips. Slender and golden, each fry is the prized crispy one at the bottom of every other basket.
The bangers may be the only item on the menu that Mejia doesn’t make in the kitchen. They’re manufactured locally from Jolly Good in Santa Monica. Mejia dunks them in the fryer until the casing is a deep mahogany, taut and nearly splits. There’s a slight but noticeable snap before your knife sinks into the soft, crumbly middle of pork and panko breadcrumbs. Firmer than meatloaf. Looser than your average Jimmy Dean link. Squat, swollen and glistening, they are the short kings of the sausage world.
An order of two bangers and pickled beats from Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
It’s at Robin Hood that I developed the British pub version of a “girl dinner,” an Internet term I still despise and therefore refer to as “I-am-an-adult-and-have-free-will-dinner.” I order two bangers with a side of nostril-singing mustard. A side of pickled beets. A side salad with extra blue cheese dressing. A basket of Julienne fries. If I’m especially ravenous, or if the meal needs to sustain a 90-minute football (U.S. soccer) game, I’ll add sides of pickled onions and coleslaw. Balanced enough.
Though I can confidently take credit for 2% of the annual 3,000 plates of bangers and mash served at Robin Hood, it’s the fish and chips that are most loved by the pub patrons. After crunching the numbers, Thelwell says the pub serves 10,000 orders of fish and chips a year.
The fish look like they’ve been plucked from the surface of the moon, with a porous, shaggy batter that shatters. Each piece is served with a cup of Lorraine’s tartare sauce. It’s a chunky, tangy, pickle-forward concoction that Thelwell says is so popular, people buy it by the deli cup.
I’ve become so enamored with the pub’s food that I stock my freezer with frozen packages of bangers from the small pub shop next door. At Friar Tuck Shoppe, you’ll find shelves stocked with jars of mincemeat, Lion candy bars, cans of Heinz beans, Bird’s instant custard, digestives, frozen sausage rolls and bangers and the Union Jack on cups, coasters and notepads.
“She named the shop the Friar Tuck Shoppe because he was part of Robin Hood’s band,” says Osment. “I’m not sure why they chose Robin Hood. Maybe because it’s so quintessentially British.”
At a time when the ever-widening wealth gap in Los Angeles feels like a gaping hole, the pub’s name, an homage to the English folklore hero-outlaw, feels especially fitting.
An English breakfast from Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks. The pub plans to play all of the World Cup games this summer. A Scotch egg with a side of Branston Pickle. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
Thelwell says the pub plans to show all of the upcoming World Cup games. It’s already my go-to pub for Dodgers games and Premier League football. While many pubs have an affiliation with a specific team, Thelwell says Robin Hood is for everyone.
Maybe it’s the bangers, the otherworldly fish and chips or the shoestring fries that have turned me into one of Robin Hood’s merry women. Yes, the glorious deep fryer, and a deep appreciation for a staff so devoted to the pub that they’ve called it home for decades. As I chat with Thelwell and Osment during a recent lunch, they point out Louisa. She’s going on 32 years behind the bar. My server, Veronica, is considered a newbie at nine years. Eaton, the third manager, has been on the payroll since 1995.
“This pub means so much to so many people,” says Thelwell. “People have friends here. They have somewhere to come. So we all don’t feel so alone.”
Where to watch the World Cup with proper pub food
Robin Hood British Pub, 13640 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 994-6045, www.robinhoodbritishpub.com.
