The Great Western Hotel, Exeter - pub details
Address: St. Davids Station Approach, Red Cow Village, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4NU [map] [gmap]
Tel: 0871 951 1000 (ref 4942) - calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras
Exeter St. Davids (0.1 miles), Exeter Central (0.5 miles), St James' Park (0.9 miles)
Pub facilities/features:
- Food served, Real ale
- Accommodation available
Pub suggested by Tim (CAMRA) on 16 Oct 2003
Are you the Licensee? Click here.
> Current user rating: 7.2/10 (rated by 46 users)
> Hotels nearby: Search
other pubs nearby:
Jolly Porter, Exeter (0.1 miles), Imperial, Exeter (0.1 miles), Village Inn, Exwick (0.3 miles), Farmers Union, Exeter (0.3 miles), Farmers Union, Exeter (0.3 miles) - see more nearby pubs
user reviews of the Great Western Hotel, Exeter
please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
5 most recent reviews of 47 shown - see all reviews
| The Great Western, although a hotel, is a good old fashioned boozer. Seven pumps on the bar were dispensing ales from, among others, Bays, Branscombe and Dartmoor. I had two pints of RCH Pitchfork which were excellent. The pub sits next to Exeter Station and is a good place to end a crawl of the city. I'll be back. holbornboy - 22 Nov 2011 22:54 |
| This is a scruffy establishment full of old men. It does however retain a rough and ready atmoshere, almost like a pub for the hardened drinker. It stays open extremely late being a hotel (i would'nt want to stay here though) and has a good selection of ales. 6/10 montie49 - 24 Aug 2011 18:35 |
| The Great Western follows the trend of the other remaining pub in the Red Cow area of Exeter, i.e. near St Davids Station, by being distinctly shabby. At one time this was excusable to the committed drinker, as there was a decent selection of ever-changing beers, but whoever does the ordering now has a serious lack of imagination and the range of beers has now been reduced to around 7. As an example, over Easter they had O'Hanlons Yellowhammer and Port Stout, Brannoc, RCH PG Steam and Pitchfork, Courage Best and Dartmoor Dragons Breath. A few days later the Dragons Breath was changed to Dartmoor Jail Ale, and that seems to be the trend recently - 6 or so regulars and alternating 2 from Dartmoor. Sometimes they have one guest beer. There are 9 handpumps on the top bar and another 9 down in the Loco Bar, but it's many years since I've seem those in the Loco Bar used and they're purely for decoration now. The carpet in the areas around the kitchen entrance, gent's toilet and at the top of the stairs to the Loco Bar is in serious need of a good clean, and the toilets are distinctly scruffy, too - missing tiles where the paper dispenser once was, wobbly taps, missing soap dispenser. I cannot deny that the beer is always very good, and the food when I've eaten there is OK too, but I just wish that there were a bit more variety in the beers and better surroundings in which to drink them. Trequites - 6 May 2011 20:34 |
| A proper Pub (OK it's a Hotel, but you know what I mean) with a top class range of beer served in pristine condition. hillsidepaul - 22 Feb 2011 19:21 |
| Stay here quite a bit and the bar is very nice and welcoming with a great railway theme attached.. Had a nice little stay behind a couple of weeks ago on the friday with a friendly barman and friendly other hotel guests. The ale is pretty good and I enjoyed quite a few pints of the lovely Symonds Cider. alan508 - 24 Oct 2010 18:11 |
see more reviews |
