Marston's said the price of a pint of the best beer in London is nudging £8, though drinkers in Wales can still enjoy a tipple for as little as £3.
Andrew Andrea, the pub owner's chief executive, told the Standard that it has pushed drink prices up by 7-8% on average to cope with its own rising costs, especially electricity and gas.
Food sales have slumped, he added, as customers have stopped going to carveries due to the cost of living squeeze with the recent heat wave doing little to reverse the trend.
The pub group warned that electricity costs would be higher than expected as it revealed sales had fallen by 2% in the 42 weeks to 23 July 2022.
Marston's, which has about 1,500 pubs and inns across the UK, added that like-for-like sales slowed in the last 16 weeks of the period compared with the first 12 weeks.
Higher energy bills will cost the pub group an extra £2mln in the second half of this year, with the decision taken to hedge electricity rates for the winter and fix its gas tariffs until March 2025.
But it's not just energy said Andrea, with Marston's also seeing sharp rises in the cost of food and wages, where there is ferocious competition between hospitality providers to retain good staff.
Shares rose 2.3% to 48.1p.