The Dial – Home of Meantime opens next to London’s O2 arena next week

A new drinking and dining option is coming to Greenwich, ideally placed for those about head into a gig at the O2.

The Dial — Home of Meantime is a large craft beer spot just a couple of minutes’ stroll from North Greenwich tube, and it will open its doors on November 7th.

We got to take a look early doors to see what’s up. And this place may well leap ahead of where we usually go for a pre-gig pint.

For starters, there’s the happy hour. It’s no ordinary happy hour. From Monday to Thursday, pints can be had for £3 from 3pm, rising a pound an hour until it ends at 6pm.

And even after happy hour(s), prices are very reasonable for what is a central location.

As a Meantime location, on tap you have beers like Yakima Red, Anytime IPA and the brewer’s new Dial lager. But our pick of the night was the Cutty Haze IPA.

So there’s a lager named after the Dial venue itself? It makes sense as The Dial is its own microbrewery. It’s a 6-hectolitre setup, equipment capable of making around a thousand pints per brewing cycle.

That won’t go too far with rabid hoards of ageing millennials getting on it before Five take to the stage in November. But in-house brewing does does give The Dial a sense of authenticity that is not exactly endemic to the Las Vegas-like hall of eateries that rings about the O2, just a few hundred metres away.

Asahi is also offered on tap too. It may stand out oddly next to Meantime’s own beers, but it all makes sense as Asahi acquired Meantime in 2016.

As well as drinks, The Dial offers a robust menu of food including burgers, meaty “sando” sandwiches, pizza, hot dogs and sharing platters. And for those not all about carbing up, grilled salmon and a couple of salad options are available too.

The opening of The Dial — Home of Meantime follows a shift in the brewer’s operations that took place last year. Meantime had a brewing facility nearby in Greenwich, which was closed in 2024, in favour of consolidating in Chiswick, where an existing Fuller’s brewery sits. Fuller's is part of the wider Asahi group.

• I've found my new favourite beer festival: Here's the four pints from it everyone should try