Whitby Pubs and Taprooms Compared: Seven Places in One Table

Read this bit first

Seven places in Whitby, walked in one Saturday, all on foot. They are not doing the same job as each other, so this is not a league table. The full write-up of all seven we visited, with what was on every board and what each room is like, is over on the Taps post. This post is for when you want the answer without the reading.

The rules to check the place still works. Count the taps. Count the hand pulls. Read the names. Then look at the room and work out which of the two got the money. Almost no places had done both, and the ones that had were not the expensive ones.

Prices are from 8 August 2026 and read off the board, not remembered. The Abbey Wharf prices are the exception: they come from the pub’s own ordering app and were checked on 22 October 2026. A blank cell means we did not write it down properly. We would rather leave a gap than make one up.

Dogs are not in the table, because the answer is the same almost everywhere. All six of the places we got into welcome them — the Green Dragon, The Esk Vaults, Beer O’Clock, Whitby Brewery, Abbey Wharf and the Helmsley Tap. The Quirky Den we cannot say, because we never got through the door.

The table

The seven, one by one

Green Dragon Ale House — 4–5 Grape Lane. A small beer bar and bottle shop with two rooms, an eclectic mix of quirky seating, and shelving lined with bottles and cans. Twelve keg lines is a lot to keep well. Kirkstall, Atom, Northern Monk, Brass Castle, DEYA, Turning Point.

The Esk Vaults — 5a Golden Lion Bank. A bar above a couple of traditional shops on the hill. Inside is plain, more like an old working men’s club than a bar, and that is not why you go. You go for the board: five beers and two ciders, a rolling list, and a chalkboard showing what is coming on next. They do stone baked pizza. Opens 4pm most days and 1pm on Saturdays — the one on this list you can turn up at and find shut.

Beer O’Clock — 11 Flowergate. A micropub in what was until recently Mason’s greengrocers. Wood-planked walls, tiling, clean and modern, and the nicest room of the day. Seats about ten parties of four and is always busy. Open 12 noon to 10.45pm, seven days a week — the most reliable door on the list. Whitby CAMRA made it Pub of the Year in 2024.

Whitby Brewery — Abbey Lane. In an old farm next to the Abbey, at the top of the 199 steps. The bar is small with nowhere to sit, so everybody ends up in the brewery area or outside at the benches. Bands on most weekends, right through the winter, in a converted barn that turned out to have good acoustics. There is a pizza oven, and the pizza is good.

Abbey Wharf — Market Place. An old bar upgraded into something large and modern: stripped beams, a steel mezzanine, a glass roof, fifty to a hundred tables. The mezzanine is bookable, downstairs is first come first served, and there is a small seating area outside over the harbour. Fifteen to twenty beers on, but mostly commercial — the ones worth finding are on the cask pulls at the back bar. There is a self-pour wall, which is an excellent machine with nothing on it worth pouring. Live entertainment most weekends.

The Tap Room Helmsley Brewing Co — Wesley Hall, Church Street. A converted Methodist church with the organ pipes still above the bar. Six hand pulls and six or seven keg taps; three Helmsley casks plus Bradfield, and Guinness, Aspall and a Brew York on keg. Asian street food served inside has good reviews and big portions. Plenty of seating inside; outside is six tables down an alley that catches the sun. The service is slow, so go when it is quiet, and do not go if you are in a hurry.

The Quirky Den — 11 Grape Lane. A micro pub and gin bar in a building from the 1630s, with floors on a slope because the ground has had a few hundred years to have opinions. Ian has read that they serve Theakston’s Old Peculier from wooden sherry casks, which if true is reason enough on its own. Full at two o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, which tells you something, and none of it bad.

Which one, though

• One pint, best beer: Green Dragon.
• Best beer despite the room: The Esk Vaults.
• Best room: Beer O’Clock.
• Cheapest sensible pint: Whitby Brewery.
• Eating: Abbey Wharf.
• With a dog: any of the six we got into. The Quirky Den we cannot say.
• Sitting in the sun: Whitby Brewery for the benches, Abbey Wharf for the balcony over the harbour, the Helmsley Tap for the alley.
• Finishing the day: Whitby Brewery or Abbey Wharf, if there is a band on. Check first — it changes where you end up.

And the honest caveat

Seven places in one Saturday is seven snapshots, not seven verdicts for all time or the only places with Craft beer in Whitby. Tap lists change every week — that is the point of most of these places. The Esk Vaults was shut when we first tried it. The Quirky Den we never got into. Prices are from 8 August 2026.

What does not change much is what each room is for, and that is what the table is really about.

Where they all are

Every pin is clickable. Open the map full size — it works on a phone, so you can carry it round with you.

If something has changed, tell us. We are going back to Whitby soon anyway.