The Builders Arms
Cubitt House took this Chelsea backstreet pub over and refurbished it, and in April 2026 Young's bought the whole eight-pub group for about £30m (Restaurant Online).
Why go
The kitchen runs under Cubitt House chef director Ben Tish and cooks the labor-intensive end of the pub canon rather than the freezer end. The kitchen makes the steak and ale pie with suet pastry, which sets by melting fat through flour and steam instead of by lamination, and gives the crust its heavy, tender bite. Bacon ribs cure before they cook, so the seasoning reaches all the way through, and the Angus tartare arrives under what Pub & Bar's Tristan O'Hana measured as a centimetre-thick layer of pecorino
(Pub & Bar). The building splits into a fireplace bar, a dining room and a terrace, 40 covers in all, in a street off the King's Road (Cubitt House, Harden's).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Angus steak tartare, the bacon ribs, and the steak and ale suet pie, the three dishes Pub & Bar singled out in 2024. On Sundays the roast comes as Cotswold chicken or Angus rump, sized for one or two (Pub & Bar, Cubitt House).
- Avoid: a late dinner. The kitchen stops at 9.30pm Monday to Saturday and 8pm on Sunday.
What locals & experts say
- Pub & Bar, Tristan O'Hana (2024): the menu
reads beautifully from start to finish,
and of the bacon ribs,we should have ordered another plate.
2 - Harden's:
Lovely pub in a Chelsea backstreet,
average spend £47.30, with the guide noting too few survey responses for a full score.4 - Trade press (April 2026): Young's bought Cubitt House,
The Builders Arms in Chelsea
among the eight pubs, and said it would retain and develop the group.3
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Saturday noon to 10.30pm, Sunday noon to 9.30pm, with the kitchen closing an hour earlier (Cubitt House).
- Booking: tables through the pub's own booking system; worth doing for Sunday lunch, since the room only holds 40.
- Dietary: nothing published by the pub. No allergen, gluten-free or vegan statement appears on its pages, so ask.
- Ownership: Cubitt House at time of writing, with the Young's purchase due to complete on 22 April 2026 and the same operators and chef director staying on.
- Getting there: 13 Britten Street, a few hundred yards off the King's Road, nearest tube South Kensington or Sloane Square.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: On lots of lists, a bit touristy.
Verdict
could-visit — A Georgian backstreet pub off the King's Road that Cubitt House rebuilt into a proper dining room, with Ben Tish as chef director and a menu Pub & Bar said 'reads beautifully from start to finish' in 2024. The cooking is old-school pub craft done carefully, suet pastry on the steak and ale pie, bacon ribs, tartare cut with pecorino. It is a good Chelsea lunch rather than a reason to cross London, and Young's takeover of the group in April 2026 puts a question mark on the next year.