fair enough. point taken. sausage night here we come.................!""but im sure the new owners will find out for themselfs soon enough, but the pubs definately back on track."" ...

*nods* some of your comments may be true 'iknowbest', however the stockwell has had a second chance so perhaps its previous regulars should be given the same chance.. fear not the pub is much bigger than any one person!...

We have a whole raft of new features incoming.. the latest is the return of the sausage night , now this is not to be missed!! i assure you.

Steve
after living in the dutch quarter for 5 years and spending a lot of time in the stockwell,i wasnt surprised it closed down. the beer was awfull(i had bottled beer), and in the end no-one went there, including myself, as old brian was clearly losing his marbles. I have since moved from the area compltetely and was happy to hear it had re-opened.i visited recently and it looks fantastic. the beers are soooo much better and the dutch quarter now has its pub back.was slightly saddened some OLD faces were back like dave whyte, as they will only put people off in the long run, but im sure the new owners will find out for themself soon enough, but the pubs definately back on track.

So Adnams want to focus on food and wine now? What a surprise. I've seen some of Adnam's refurbished pubs around Essex and they are a depressing sight to behold - clinical, formulaic wannabe All Bar Ones.

It is a shame, as 'normal' Adnams pubs are some of the best around. I wish the Grenadier all the best.Penultimate stop on Saturday’s crawl so things are a bit hazy by now. I can just make out that 4 handpumps offered Adnams Bitter, Broadside, Oyster Stout, & Mauldons Cuckoo. There was a dartboard with its own space, ie not crowded by tables, & I think we endangered the local populace by having a couple of games of ‘tactics’, sorry folks. Quiet, so we got a chance to briefly discuss the sad news of the Adnams disposal with the friendly landlord/lady, I wish them and the British Grenadier all good fortune for the future.I am sure this will probably get removed but check out the Colchester Evening Gazette Video taken in the pub after their latest award - Colchester CAMRA's Pub of the Year 2008.

Add usual codings in front of
gazette-news.co.uk/video/index.var.18872.0.0.php

Fat Cat - Good Job! great selection of beers, friendly atmosphere, good live music and late license, a pub to be cherished and well used me thinks. A v impressed customer, will be back.Having learned of it's existence I was excited by the prospect of a visit to The Fat Cat. Initial impressions were favourable with an excellent selection of beers on offer and friendly staff. However the place feels extremely new and lacks a community feel in my view. Strangely there were very few male patrons when I visited.Bright lightwood front bar above which a blackboard showed available ales - five of six handpumps Sat pm, and seven of the originally listed eleven from the tap room; I don’t have all details but when the choice is reduced and still stretches to 12 beers, it’s gotta be good. I know they had Brewers Gold & Hophead and, I agree with GDS, the couple of FatCat beers I tried were really tasty too. A plain looking pub, too plain according to my fellow crawlers, but I didn’t mind the simplicity of the whiteboarded walls & ceilings in the front, contrasting with the green wall housing the windows to the tap room stills, and there was a small plasma showing the rugby above a decorative fireplace. Around the bar to the right is a more shadowy section with some serious beer tasting going on, beyond this a small tiled area leading to impressively spotless loos, and a tiny outside corridor for smokers. Come on FatCat, we need you to open an outlet in SE London.

I must've been unlucky then as it sounds like other reviewers have found a better selection. Shame Col U are moving away from Layer Road as next time I visit Colchester for football, the drinking option will probably be some plastic chain pub.This is the most scruffy pub in the whole of Colchester, with the pub not being decorated since 1920 -who cares.
I don't care, because the beer is served at THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE , this is one of the few pubs in Colchester that gets this right, the selection could be a little better, the Cheese rolls are recommended, at £1.10, maybe alittle overpriced but nice all the same.
The pub is run by John Parrot ,who has a great knowledge of Good British Ale. He is a nice enough guy, but has rules, and shouldn't be messed with.Homely traditional feel, warming & hospitable, friendly chatty atmosphere of a proper pub. Nice careworn bar, decorated with breweriana trays, comfortable rooms to either side, gas fire & real fire with glowing coals, Elgoods Cambridge, Archers Best, Nethergate Old Growler, Brandon Wee Drop o’ Mischief, Brains SA Gold, plus 4 cider kegs on bar. Looks like DuchyBoy was most unlucky on his visit, you sure you got the right pub DB?

What a great pub now they cater for Real Ale lovers, Would not have set foot in it a while a go, but now with a choice of 3 good ales, and the food is good.
Friendly girls at the bar !Nice atmosphere on sporting Saturdays.also, The landlord.. Dave your one of the nicest guys i have ever met!!

great pub!!Its about time a DECENT band comes along.

Do yourself a fav and get down The Bull on the 29th of March, a STOMPING band. Rammed the place out everytime they have played...!!

I finally got round to trying the sunday lunch recently. A good selection of meat was on offer, we were informed by Jeff that it is all sourced from the local respected butcher Frank Wright. The vegetables are all fresh as well and none frozen. We went for the beef roast and it was a well covered plate. The food is all cooked by Bev, Jeff's wife. The food was very good and we really enjoyed. The deserts were rather good as well.

Five Mighty Oak ales are available and the beer quality is always good. It is a shame that as a free house that all the beer does not revolve. It is good that a local brewer is being so well supported but it' a shame that English Oak is still an ever present beer. I can understand the IPA being a regular but I think the other 4 should change. It would be good to see more than 2 pumps where the beer changes. Mmm, Have used the pub about 17 times this year, the beer is normally ok, though the landlord should have more of a choice of guest beers in my opinion, and not the same ones.
Recently the beer had gone up to £2.70 a pint, which really for a freehouse is TOO MUCH, especially as there are more pubs around Colchester jumping on the real ale bandwaggon.
Nikki is a real credit to the pub and offers a warm personality. The pub is ok , but I think it could improve on beer selection.Another pub added to our crawl on local LGA’s recommendation, and rightly so. Very friendly greeting and service at the bar, Mighty Oak Burntwood, Maldon Gold, Everyman an Emporer, English Oak, and the fabulous In Seine. Pub arranged in 3 sections with bar and seating at the front, a lovely beamed room to the rear entirely occupied by a huge square table around which is seating for 12-15, and in between more seating in a dining room style. The rear two sections are separated by a large chimney breast. I fear the barman, dressed in full St George crusader outfit before the rugby, may have taken some mighty stick from his kilted chums Sat night.

A better showing with two Shalford Essex Ales available. Hyde and Stoneley Bitter were available together with Suffolk County and Forresters Ale. Still sparklers on with tight swan necks, however the beer quality was much improved from the last visit. Oh dear! why has this current GBG entry started to use sparklers and also has a swan neck hand pump. The landlord may think he is going to get more profit from each barrel.

I for one do not like my real ale to taste like its a cream flow keg beer!

You better think again as I am not in a hurry to return again soon from this showing. Whats the point in serving real ale if you are peeing off the people you should be encouraging to your pub? Beware, this pub doesn't bear much resemblance to the cosy descrition in CAMRA's new 'Good Beer Guide'; it's actually quite run-down. There are two entrance doors, marked 'bar' and 'saloon' but they actually both lead into the same compact room, partially divided by an archway. The green and cream paintwork would suggest this was once a Greene King pub, but the paintwork is peeling and discoloured and crying out for a makeover. Bar staff not very friendly. 4 beers on offer- again the Good Beer Guide gives the impression there are more- and the one I had was served much too cold. We had thought about eating here, but the general air of neglect in the place, plus the fact that the menu featured things served 'in a basket' (thought this had disappeared with the 1970s) put us off and we went elsewhere. Very few customers, unsurprisingly.

brill pub, one of the cheapest places in town for a drink, its a good meeting up place, gets busy but still a top pubI have been coming to The Playhouse for 5years and its the BEST!!!Cheap drinks, friendly bar staff, fairly good atmosphere but that`s because no music. I recomended this pub to all my mates and they love it too.Quite an eerie pub, not music and large open spaces, but I love this place! The food is, well, alright, but drinks are cheap, lots of seating (booths, tables, stools), huge bar (though when busy, still takes ages to get served). It is a student hot spot where you are likely to run into everyone you know. Not the greatest range of beers and ales, but enough to please most.

Used to be a great real ale pub, until it changed to Greedy King.The food is good, but the ale is not up to much. Used to be a great real ale pub, until it changed to Greedy King.The food is good, but the ale is not up to much. Some of my non ale drinking friends talked me into visiting as a band was performing. I had previously not visited since the old 'Hogs Head' days. It was always good outside in those days in the large seated courtyard.
Unfortunately only GK beer available here now. 'IPA','Speckled Hen' and 'Morland Original'.
The band did not seem up to much.
We ended up outside as the pub was pretty busy and 3 of my mates are smokers. The atmosphere outside on a cold night seemed better than inside the pub.

Been in here recently, has to be the gayest straight bar anyone could imagine. Has to be one of a kind with the crass pics of The King and Marilyn everywhere. Bottles of lager are priced at a pound a pop, strangley bizarre and glad to be moving on to real ale pub up the road. Great pub, wiked atmosphere, and the barman on a thurs is gorgeous ! Waffles wine bar, a bit like colchester zoo. Karaoke run by a panda with attitude, genorous viewing of ladies using the toilet, ( no blinds on the windows ) a window licker who thinks hes a bar manager, and a landlady who doesnt allow the occasional swear word otherwise you are oot ! laughable now the place is so desperate she is advertising for punters in the paper.

ate again on mothers day.............superb, restaurant quality food at reasonable prices............well done.quickly getting a reputation for great food using all local ingredients, game etc............best meat in essex by miles, choc pud and bread and butter pud superb, getting very busy, at the moment nobody doing it better.Oh what a night! We have just been on a Halloween evening for the children, everybody had such fun, the atmosphere was electric, I lost count of the times I heard 'wow' coming from people. The evening finished with spectacular fireworks, THANK YOU! The children in the village and surrounding villages haven't had so much fun. Brilliant party bags were given out as well. Oh, and the food was as good as ever! Despite being busy the staff were still smiling & friendly. Well done Karen & Mark many congratulations for turning the pub around.

I am still a bit undecided on the Hospital Arms. Yes, it does always have a good selection of ale. It does have a great rear outside area. The wall around the outside of this area has recently had a very Adnams paint job on it. It follows the coastal theme with the covered beach hut area to the right of the garden. I have visited a few times recently and the beer quality is definitely better than when I commented last September. It still could be better and at those prices you expect the best tasting ale. I think this is part of the reason why anonymous reviews have now been banned from BITE.

I assume the last review was a biased one from the current Land Lord/Lady or one of their staff!

2 years ago this pub was fantastic!

I will visit again soon to give a fair update. Went to this pub for the first time in two years with a group of friends in a scepticle mood after last time (2 years ago was a total disaster, bad vibes from surly bar staff and the beer wasn't much better!). We were meant to be on a crawl but ended up staying all night, really good atmosphere, the staff (and landlord and landlady) were cheerful and efficient and happy to talk to you, the beer especially the Adnams Yuletide was top notch (7 ales to choose from!) and the pub clean and tidy, add to this the smoking area outside and you have a first rate pub with first rate staff, it's definately worth a look. I for one will definately be returning!

I dont know what the other people are going on about saying this is a rough pub yes it has had a few problems which you always get when a new landlord takes over but that has been sorted by getting rid of the idiots. The fact that all the bad comments are written by anon says enough takings are better than they have been for years and now there is a nice atmosphere in the pub. great pub, good entertainment - landlord and landlady have really turned this pub around - something for everyone the foundryarms have been taken over by a loverly couple mark and michelle a friendly warm pub the nastie comments on this web site are very untrue and can asume that the people who have written such rubbish are unemployed dead heads who need to use there writting skills to get a job and learn to sign there name after there lies all i can finish with is COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF ITS A PLEASURE TO VISIT THE FOUNDRY ARMS KEEP UP THE GOODWORK MARK AND MICHELLE

Mmm!!, I also found this new pricing tonight at The Bricklayers. The beer quality was not also at it's best tonight. Again I found a barrel of Adnams 'Oyster' tonight, this time at full price. Is this not a February/March beer? Indeed it is, now I have double checked on Adnams web site. Recently I have found this in both the Odd One Out in Colchester and The Lord Nelson in Ipswich. The L/Lord of The Oddie stated that he had aquired for a very good price but it still tasted superb. The Lord Nelson in Ipswich stated that they had over ordered the beer and were only charging £2.00 a pint this Friday. I believe it was £3.10 tonight and not a patch on either of the other two that I had tried recently. My second pint of Woodfordes Wherry £2.75 also was not up to scratch tonight.

I am also reducing my previously high BITE rating for this pub. The fact its now £3.10 for a pint of broadside has made me review my previous high score, although its still a decent enough placeHaving recently moved to Colchester I use the Bricklayers as my local. I havn't been often enough to really work out the lie of the land but as a CAMRA member I cannot fault the beer quality and choice. A good pint of Adnams is like an oasis in this GK dominated part of the country. The Landlady seems friendly enough although some of the casual bar staff are a bit wooden. It gets very busy at times.

I love this pub! It used to be tatty and full of scary pervy old men but it's now bright, with great decor and music, not-stupidly-pricey drinks, plenty of seating.

Excellent.what a disaster! changed what was a lively town pub into yet ANOTHER wine bar/restaurant.........yawn, no character, expensive microwaved food, thats why its always half empty............i mean 'the purple dog'?!?!, come on...........This has got to be the best pub in town. Anyone know any better?