BITE user comments - Air.Guitar.Maestro
Comments by Air.Guitar.Maestro
All the previous comments seem to be spot on with this place.
Youngs took a great, traditional local pub, bursting with history and character, gave it the regulation gastro-pub makeover and left us with this bland, over-priced monstrosity.
Staff are at best slow and miserable, at worst surly and rude. The food is totally average and doesn't come within a mile of justifying it's price tag. Bar prices something else. The best part of �6 for a pint and half of beer. Rip off.
Do yourself a favour and go somewhere else. This place is an over-blown, over-priced, under-performing shadow of its former self.
5 Aug 2010 16:10
This place is different to your usual boozer, It's quirky, individual and atmospheric. This is turn makes it popular with the locals and it's always pretty busy. BUT, it could be a whole lot better.
You see, whilst the staff are perfectly friendly, they're not the most efficient and there rarely seem to be enough of them. Beers are forever off (I've lost count of the times Guinness has been unavailable) and the glasses are invariably filthy. It's also quite expensive, which given the state of the place isn't really acceptable. There are weeds growing above the front door, furniture is broken, sofas are missing cushions and the whole place just has an air of being on the wrong side of "rough round the edges". OK, so it's shabby/your own front room/slice of the 1970s. Yes, it's a time warp, but it's looking tired, needs a bloody good clean and a lick of paint.
All in all, it's still a place I like, and go to often. It's got a great laid back atmosphere and it's not your run of the mill indentikit London pub. However, with a little more TLC it could move from A pub in Balham to THE pub in Balham. Must try harder.
5 Aug 2010 15:57
What an absolute cracker this one is.
Sam Smiths pubs can be a bit hit and miss in central London (think Glasshouse Stores, Duke of York, etc) but this is a real gem. With its ales still from the cask, itself becoming a rarity is London's Sam Smiths pubs, the pub itself is cosy and welcoming, with a friendly landlord and those low prices to match.
If you can find this place, then go.
13 Sep 2009 22:17
The Devonshire Arms, Marylebone
I'm amazed at how mixed the reviews for this place are. The staff are always friendly, the beer is always good (if a little pricey, but Christ, this is Marylebone) and the pub attracts a good enough crowd. It's also a beautiful building, with a lovely, purpose built, wooden interior.
There are umpteen pubs round here, but most of them aren't worth a visit. This one is, along with the Tudor Rose and the Gunmakers, to name just two. The Golden Eagle is a proper old school boozer that's also worth a visit.
13 Sep 2009 22:06
I like the Builders and I like what Gemma has done to the place. I love the building itself and I like (most of) the bar staff.
But the TV...the TV has either got to go or be used in a way that's considerate to all the pub's users. Sometimes people go to the pub to get away from the TV, not be dominated by it. When it's on it's at full volume. And it's always on.
Secondly, the beer. That needs sorting. Often it's too cold, cloudy and off. Nick, for all the criticism levelled at him, kept a much better pint.
The pub is undoubtedly better, but it could be better still.
13 Sep 2009 21:47
Was in here again last night after an absence of about 6 months and was absolutely amazed how quiet it was. Criminally so.
Okay, it's the back end of the school holidays and a few people might still be away, but there can't have been more than 20 people in the place (garden included, where I was sat).
The Clockhouse, on the other hand, was packed. I wonder if that place (much as I think it's a good addition to the Teddington 'scene') has taken some trade from the good old Adelaide.
It's a pity, because the Adelaide is as good as ever, the beer as excellent as ever and Dermot as welcoming as ever. Still the best in Teddington, although it's a shame the distinctive pub sign on the post on the pavement has gone.
It's no good people just raving on wesbites how good this place is, we need to use it.
13 Sep 2009 21:32
Can somebody remove this place from the website - it's a restaurant.
13 Sep 2009 20:27
The Fox and Goose, Hebden Bridge
I love real ale as much as the next man, but I don't expect to be sneered at when I reply "something a bit like Tim Taylors" when asked what I'd like to drink - on my visit it stocked predominantly Pennine Brewery beers with which I am unfamiliar. The pint I then received looked and tasted like it'd been sat in an old boot for the last month. I chewed my way through that and left.
I admire free houses and I respect the role they fulfil, but stock a product that's palatable and don't sneer and the uninitiated.
16 Dec 2008 15:12
Not sure what planet Zod is from, but bar staff apart, this place is THE worst pub in Teddington. Bar none.
The apes who frequent the place are often to be seen top off (on a warm day) out the front, having a fag, lager in hand, sat on a chair from indside, ogling the passers by. At 11.30 on a Saturday morning. Why can't you use the beer garde at the back?
The front windows have been put through at least twice in the last few years. It's now closed for refurbishment. It's not often I like to see a pub go to the wall, but this would be one of them.
Do yourself a favour and stay at home and stick pins in your eyes instead. You'd enjoy it more.
6 Oct 2008 23:35
The Bloated Mallard, Teddington
I can only think that maybe the new owners have rated this place as 10/10 because it's awful on several levels.
On the night I was last in I struggled to hear myself above the hooray at the bar trying to impress some girls and the real ale was off (it was about 9.30pm on a Friday night, hardly off-peak).
To top it all off the loos are now virtually in the pub, squeezed into the ground floor area to one side of the bar, and the place looks like it was decorated by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on acid.
Teddington has far more and far better to offer.
6 Oct 2008 22:51
The best pub in Teddington by a long chalk. Lovely landlord (place even better since he arrived), lovely beer garden and best pint of Spitfire for miles.
29 Jul 2007 16:54
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The Nightingale, Balham
Great local pub that Youngs have thankfully spared the refit so many of their other places have suffered. Let's hope they leave it that way.
Nice atmosphere. Relaxed and friendly. Decent pint of Ordinary.
Highly recommended. Wish there were more like this one.
5 Aug 2010 16:15