Southwold:
Another Southwold Adnams pub, and a familiar thing: here, though the food is provided by a local pizza co (we didn’t try them).
Our first visit here resulted in us sitting just down the street on the seafront: this pub was busy.
Inside, it’s quite traditional but similar to the other Adnams houses in town. Similarly, it’s cashless and has the same beer range. Pleasant place, though.
Beccles:
This was pushing itself much more as a restaurant, hence the “Graze at” but the origins are a pub, and the bar felt pubby. Clearly very old, inside’s a bit stripped out, but by no means featureless.
Really pleasant welcome from the staff, great food, and ABK Hell on draught :-). Outside but under cover seating available too.
Beccles:
We should have liked this, really. From outside it looks typical well-looked-after rural town pub, like it’s been there for ever, and it probably has.
It didn’t hit the spot though: inside had pubco-catalogue furniture that was too modern, and the toilets, jarringly, felt like, while clean, they hadn’t changed since the eighties. The menu didn’t appeal to us either: lunchtime sandwiches were only ciabatta, no other choice.
There wasn’t anything actually terribly wrong, it just didn’t hit the mark. The licensees are clearly working hard, it just didn’t suit us.
Aldeburgh:
We only went in here because I needed a slash (curse my medication!), and I had a diet coke (driving) but what a nice pub. Single-roomed, wood panelled. Lovely traditonal interior, friendly staff. Adnams beer, Pizza available at times, or you could eat stuff from the nearby chippy in the garden if you bought a drink (reasonable prices, given Aldeburgh is, if anything, posher than Southwold).
Lowestoft:
From the outside, this didn’t look that inspiring, on Lowestoft’s South Pier (which is more of a jetty, really) but The Harbour Inn nearby was shut, and we needed lunch, so we dropped in.
Inside, it was pretty pleasant, with great views over the seafront. The food was decent, and prices were good too, especially after Southwold.
Southwold:
Our first visit to one of the several Adnams-operated pubs in town. This is one of the ones that is just a pub, not far from the seafront, just south of the High St.
In common with the others, this is cashless.
Inside is tradional, a little modern stripped wood, maybe. Staff pleasant, usual choice of Adnams beer, including a very nice couple of lagers. Great outside space in the sunshine. There’s food- from snacks including some excellent sausage rolls to a full meal.
Southwold:
A hotel, but it’s in Whatpub and the bar feels pubby.
Originally The Station Hotel, this is a fine Edwardian building, opposite where the railway used to terminate, and is seemingly one of the few licenced premises in Southwold not operated by Adnams (though they apparently retain the freehold).
Outside looks a little bit faded magnificence, inside has clearly seen a fair bit of work and is pleasant, light, and bright. This could be fabulous, but clearly costs a lot of money.
Friendly staff, decent beer choice (Adnams, unsurprisingly!). It did have a bit of an air of struggling to me, which was a shame: the restaurant opening was sporadic and the phone went to voicemail, though email was answered promptly.
Bury St Edmunds:
Once officially recognised as Britain’s smallest pub, and still claiming so, this is seriously small pub, at 15ft x 7ft, but doesn’t seem to be actually the smallest now.
It was, however, ….cozy. We went in mid-afternoon, reasoning it might be quieter, and managed to get a seat, just, but it seems people rotate between outside and drinking (sadly, local laws don’t allow drinking outside). Needless to say, no food, as there’s only one table. There’s one toilet, up a very steep set of stairs. Beer is Greene King, but well kept Greene King. Staff and locals very friendly. The Pubcat, though, looked a bit skinny and didn’t want attention.
Bury St Edmunds:
This was the first pub we found walking into town from our hotel, and we needed lunch, having been up early that morning. Outside looks traditional, inside is a modern Greene King (who else, that close to the brewery?) pubco makeover, so stripped boards and green paint.
I was ready to not be keen, because there was a bit of a hipster air about the place too, so that coupled with decor and GK beer wasn’t encouraging, but in the event it was fine: the sandwiches were nice, there was guest beer, the music wasn’t too loud and the staff were really pleasant. We visited again that evening, and the food wasn’t bad then, and the music wasn’t deafening, so overall, pretty good. There’s romms here too, and they seemed to be in a seperate building to the pub.