Tag Archives: greene king

Hampshire

The Scholar’s Arms

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Southampton:

CAMRA/Whatpub

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We should have known better, but we needed a sit down, a drink, and lunch. The outside impressions were of a typical, perhaps student-aimed, city centre pub.

Inside, it was, as our friend said, “a drinking shed”. Quite accurate- it’s a big space, no real character, quite spoons-a-like, down to the mucky table that we had to ask to be cleaned.

To be fair, the staff were pleasant, and service was quick, but the food was a bit disappointing- the bread was past its best, for a start.

This was the worst pub of the trip, but still not actually awful, but compared to the others, a bit of a disappointment.

Chesire

Watergates Bar (The Old Crypt)

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Chester:

Whatpub Link

Website

Well, it was World Goth Day, so a pub situated in The Old Crypt seemed appropriate. It was a bit of a disappointment that it was Greene King, but as it was I was drinking lager.

The crypt has seen various uses, including a morgue. On a bright sunny day it was cool, dark, and atmospheric inside, but there’s a rooftop bar if you wanted sun.

We’d been in the nearby Victoria, but the staff there couldn’t be arsed serving us, so we went in here and found friendly staff, decent food, and great service.

Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire

The Riverside Hotel

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Branston, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffs:

Whatpub Link

Our hotel for a couple of nights, it’s still just about pubby enough to be included.

Lovely, handy location by the side of the river, close to the A38 but feels rural at the rear, though the drive up is surrounded by Branston’s housing.

Cask ale, but it’s Greene King. Decent food, nice staff, hotel rooms, close to a bus route and not far in a taxi to town. Slightly upmarket family feedbag: you can have a wedding here (and to be fair, it would make quite a nice location).

Lancashire, Revisits

Revisits: The Dog and Partridge

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Original Post
Whatpub

My usual criteria for a revisit post is if something has changed appreciably, but that’s not the case here: it’s still a Greene King pub, it still serves decent, inexpensive food, and the staff are pleasant. The cask is in decent nick, which is nice, but it’s Greene King, which is less so, but it was my first pint of cask ale since November, so I’ll take that. There was decent lager for when I grew tired of GK.

Scotland

The Auctioneers

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Inverness:

Another spoons-a-like, really. A big shed of a place. Sister pub to Platform 8, and the same sort of stuff. No GK ale though, so instead it was misogynistic bell end beer, which was fine. Lunch was OK, or at least mine was, Stymistress’s less so. Keen prices and helpful staff though, but you have to wonder why a place advertising itself as a sports bar would find rowdy rugby fans a problem: I don’t care for them myself, but if you enter a sports bar when rugby is on, you shouldn’t be expecting peace and quiet.

Scotland

The Fisherman’s Tavern

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Broughty Ferry:

We’d underestimated just how busy Broughty Ferry could be on a Saturday night: this place was rammed, but we just scored a table by sheer luck.

This is a CAMRA award winning pub for multiple years, and seems well enough liked by the community for them to get all in a froth about the refurb which seems to have been completed fairly recently- when we were there, a local CAMRA member (yes, with beard) was taking photos and being shown round. The pub is three cottages, turned into a pub-with-rooms. The refurb has opened it up, which is a shame, but it’s still a decent place despite Greene King (Belhaven)’s best efforts. Great beer (courtesy of non-GK guest ales), decentish pub food, really great staff, pleasant customers (a requirement, given the density).