please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Popped in today for a crafty half whilst on the way through. (OK - we took a ten mile detour to pop in). Smashing home brewed beer and an excellent bit of stilton soup. There's a beer festival there next weekend.
Oh - and Mr jgurney1 - the place now has three real ciders on tap :o)
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A very fine pub in a truly great street (all of Hastings Old Town in fact). Great mix of characters and very traditional feel. Ginger Tom was an acquired taste though - go for the other one !
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Best pub in Hastings by a mile and the food doesnt look too bad either, Recommend Mikes Mild as well
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I think I had the same barmaid on my last visit. I asked what she recommended in the beer selection and got told they were all good. I would have expected a CAMRA pub to have staff who know their beer. But the beers they have were good and the ambiance pleasant. Well worth a visit when they have a beer festival in the small beer garden outside.
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Excellent for real ale, and good food, but real cider drinkers may prefer the Biddenden cider down the road at the Duke of Wellington to the Addlestones semi-real cider at the FILO.
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Excellent beer, friendly service.
It takes over an hour to get there, and it's always well worth the trip.
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An excellent pub, the best in Hastings for the real ale drinker. 4 ales on tap, 3 of them brewed on the premises. Friendly staff and a good atmosphere make this a fine place to drink in.
Floyd - 22 Dec 2007 15:07 |
Looks nothing special from the outside, but looks can be deceptive. With four home-brewed beers on the hand pump, excellent food and friendly bar staff, I just keep going back to the place.
It's a shame it's thirty miles from home, but it makes for a good day out every so often.
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On an impromptu crawl around the town I made a point of coming here on the basis of BITE and a strong personal recommendation - to be honest, I was a little disappointed but it was mid-week during the day. You can see the brewery in the back and watch your food being prepared in the kitchen that is more an extension of the bar. The beer was in good form but not to my taste and - boy-o-boy - what a miserable 'barmaid'! I would expect that evenings & weekends are far, far better but it's a bit quiet during the week.
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There's not many places that you can phone up and ask for a box of beer and they sort you out with one. This place goes from strength to strength.
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Totally badger!
anonymous - 30 May 2007 15:31 |
This is a very cosy pub and a must visit if in Hastings.
Situated towards the end of High Street (keep the sea behind you and walk up past the Antique Shoppes) and this little Oasis awaits you on the right.
A fine choice of alea waited me (all brewed on site) and after sampling each I settled on the Porter.
This pub is a VERY welcome change from the usual tied Brewery pubs in Hastings.
Negatives? Perhaps better ventilation as it can get a bit smokey.
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This pub is wizard, man.
anonymous - 13 May 2007 11:28 |
Ok pub,beer festivals are good,boss man is good,miserable git behind the bar though.
anonymous - 13 May 2007 10:05 |
Went back again today - every bit as good as my visit of a month ago. Excellent home brewed beers & excellent home cooked food. Will jsut keep coming back !
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briliant pub,lovely beer, staff friendly and they know their stuff
re 3 mar post... beer brewed on premises so you probably smelt the hops n mash.. the head brewer is a cider drinker by choice so as he brews the beer well done him especially as he invented the Gold
we live 120 miles away and are still treated as locals when we go into the pub
that fire is wonderful on a cold winters day even if the stones does get your beer a tad warm
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Heard there will be a beer festival over the Jack in the Green May bank holiday week-end. Look forward to it!
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Annual visit after the Hastings Half. Still love it. Food appears to be served on a Sunday now - or at least some form of nibbles. There was a meat raffle taking place which just adds to the eclectic charm. The old cat is still alive, and still ignoring the dogs. The pub brewed porter is glorious.
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Visited it mid week lunchtime - the barman/brewer couldn't have been more friendly. Beer excellent, food really good. Will definatly be going back
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What with the brewing and that you'd expect a little bit more of a welcome, but forget it stranger. Don't show any interest either, you won't be rewarded. Maybe the brews'd taste better if the pub conveyed some pride in what it does. Smells a bit, too.
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Unfortunately the barman picking his nose put me off what I, until then thought was a very good pint. Better ventilation is needed to remove the smoke from the open fire in the bar.
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Been to the FILO for a couple of weekends running and enjoyed the different beers brewed by them both times. Nice roaring fire in middle of pub was great on the cold days but the young guy behind the bar was not the most friendly the second time and the first time the lady of the bar didn't speak apart from asking for the money but then I went for the beer not the chat.
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I cannot add anything to Silk Tork's most accurate description of the pub.
I paid a visit on Tuesday, my first for nearly two years, and passed a few very pleasant hours quaffing "Crofters". Friendly and efficient staff and a mixed nag of local clienetele make this a very pleasant, Chav-free environment in which to while away the time.
The lunchtime nosebag is good, with nothing over £5-10/-.
Apparently, they hold a pub quiz on the first Sunday of the month, and regular ( but not too regular ) music nights. An excellent pub, which in my book warrants a worthy 7/10.
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Loving this pub, well done
anonymous - 18 Jan 2007 15:26 |
Well worth a visit. Real ale brewed on the premises and it's not bad.
I found the locals un-friendly (not unexpected) but the staff could have been more welcoming. Like the best pubs in the South there is an increasing likelihood that you will be served by some surly tattoed youth keen to let you know that meeting you is the lowest point of their miserable life and that it's all your fault.
We are not worthy of them.
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excellent pub that brews its own beers, has occasional beer festivals, next I believe in January. Always worth a visit when in Hastings
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As I was spending the weekend in Hastings I followed the recommendations below, and wasn't disappointed. We got there early on a Friday evening, which meant we had a good table (it did indeed fill up very quickly) and sampled the range of beers. Not one, but two porters, which is always a plus in my book.
I didn't particularly notice the carpet, but it didn't spoil my visit.
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A truly great and independent pub. My regular hang-out for the past five years, and it keeps improving.
All four home-brewed beers are decent and are well priced (even though they have gone beyond the £1.80 mark I remember when I first went here!). They range from the best bitter Crofters, which is a solid beer, its interesting derivative cousin Ginger Tom (does exactly what it says on the tin, and my personal favourite), and the seasonal and slightly stronger offerings of the light-coloured Gold (summer) and the Porter. For real ale lovers there are frequent themeatic beer festivals in the covered beer garden at fairly regular intervals, featuring around a dozen types. Best time for these and similar events would be Hastings week in mid-October, Old Town Week in August and the May Day bank holiday. These events also often include some rather good live musical acts, which make for an especially good summer's evening when the front windows are latched down.
The food is also excellent and well-priced. Added to the rather unique wooden booths, open fire and friendly staff this makes the FILO the best pub in Hastings by some distance. The only problem as other reviewers have pointed out is that the carpet is rather knackered, but the rest of the decor is fine for a traditional style and busy pub which is of good size.
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First rate brew-pub, recommended if in Hastings.
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Charming ancient pub in Hasting old High Street. Church pew seating, brewery visible through a window at the back, pub cat curled up on a bar stool, open fire in the middle of the room, a relaxed friendly atmosphere with the warm buzz of conversation all add up to a great pub. Beer is fresh and tasty and unique to the pub. Three own beers and a guest. The downside is the decor. The bar is a huge embarrassment - like something from Abigail's party. And there's artex and fake beam's and other hideous things. Don't even think of looking at the carpet. All in all, this is a must visit pub if you're in the area- and is so good it is worth planning a visit to Hastings just to see this place and drink the home-brewed beer.
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Great Pub, Brews its own great beer and has a raised fireplace right in the middle of the bar that you can walk around. It gets very busy at the weekends so getting a seat can be hard. Also Chav free!!
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A well looked after and fabulous pub in the nicest part of Hastings. No undesirables in this part of town at all. Lovely beers from their own brewery, friendly staff too. The booths at the side are where to perch on a saturday afternoon/night, if you get one - keep it ! They regularly hold beer festivals at the filo and the last one I went to back in October was perfect with the atmosphere of the `Hastings Festival` procession going on outside the door.
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Used this pub for the last three years or so. A true freehouse. It's a shame that they no longer sell Leffe Blonde on draught
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Excellent pub with small brewery at the end of the bar. Enclosed Garden.
Music at times, and it's a cut above yer 'pub band'.
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