BITE user comments - DerekDrinkforbrains
Comments by DerekDrinkforbrains
Fabulous ! A proper down-to-earth Victorian pub that hasn't been knocked through and made into an open plan nightmare. Live music is often on in the back room, but you can't hear it when the door closes so for those of us for whom it's all about the beer... The cellarman looks after his ales with the same kind of zeal you'd expect from a muslim beer janissary, and the locals are wierd. What more is there to say about The Grove ? A thing of great beauty and a joy forever !
5 Nov 2010 16:42
Tip top ! Excellent beer - very often from Saltaire Brewery :-) but other stuff also quality. The food is expensive but worth it.
2 Aug 2010 01:03
The Briton's Protection Hotel, Castlefield
A proper, old fasioned Victorian pub. With different rooms, and beer which is - well, generally good, though to be honest, it does vary slightly. But never mind... It's a proper pub ! Unlike the slightly variable quality of the beer the wild boar pie has always been uniformly spot on.
2 Aug 2010 00:56
This pub is not a bar. And that's the highest recommendation I can give it ! A pub - old style. Like what a pub should be, i.e. British ! Not American - not that I have anything against Americana - it has its place... But not here. For this is a proper pub ! And yeah, the beer's not brilliant. But this is still a pub. A proper British pub ! And there aren't too many of them left nowadays...
1 Aug 2010 00:43
The Grey Horse Inn, Manchester
Oh yes ! A proper pub. Proper people, proper beer, proper atmos. Nuff sed !
1 Aug 2010 00:33
The Mustard Pot, Chapel Allerton
�3.40 a pint ! At these prices 'The Mustard Pot' could well be renamed after the substance being taken along with your money. Not haviing eaten there though, I'm not sure whether 'The Piss Pot' would be an entirely apt name as the beer is perfectly decent.
27 Jul 2010 00:20
Fabulous ! A quiet, country Sam Smith's pub. Perfection itself !
27 Jul 2010 00:15
Oh my golly gosh - the landord's Indian/Pakistani ! - a very pleasnt bloke, actually. This is presumably why the upstairs restaurant has now turned into a curry house. The beer is decent but not brilliant. The proper British food downstairs was excellent though, and the staff seemed pleasnt and attentive.
Unfortunately this pub has already been discovered by chavs... If you're reading this on a mobile phone or laptop in the downstairs bar it may be politic to head for one of the priestholes...
27 Jul 2010 00:10
Some time ago this used to be a decent pub with quite decent beer. There used to be a fat pre-pubescent child behind the bar who posed as the landlord, but who would always refuse to serve beer by pulling contorted expressions and gesticulating towards the nearest adult bar-person. Disturbing ?
Well, cop a load'a this:- it's now been painted black, has the word 'showbar' displayed on its exterior, and a rainbow sign out front. Consequently I no longer go there. And nor should you unless you take it up the *&!!!$�!*
26 Jul 2010 23:59
It's been done up since anonymous was last here and has reinvented itself as 'The Sizzling True Briton'. Unfortunately the sizzling appears to have stopped - if it ever started. Insipid, unispired, unimaginative - about as enticing as a linoleum sandwich.
Still best avoided.
26 Jul 2010 23:50
Proper old fashioned carpets it's a pleasure to walk on, old black & white photos on the walls, some crap chipped china on a dusty window sill, a bit of peace & quiet, a bell on the bar, no-one in the pub who stinks of urine, cheap beer - it's a Sam Smith's pub after all - OOOooooohhhh.....fuc*in' lovely !
26 Jul 2010 23:30
Are you dressed up as a French Maid ? Do you have sexually suggestive (or even obscene) graffiti badly drawn on your outfit - or even your person -with a black marker pen ? Are you young, female and too drunk to know what you're doing ? You are ! Then why not come back to my place, instead of drinking fizzy electirc rubbish in one of the most pathetic excuses for a drinking establishment ever to disgrace the word 'pub' ?
25 Jul 2010 02:51
Going to this pub is now the closest approximation to actually visiting Bodh Gaya itself anywhere in Rawdon ! Try to make eye contact with the Buddha while waiting for a pint of quite reasonable beer... If a pint is poured in a pub and no-one wants to drink it, has it actaully been pulled ?
23 Jul 2010 04:42
This pub is too tall & doesn't have enough atmosphere. The beer is insipid. All in all, I'd rather the pub were flatter and the beer taller.
23 Jul 2010 04:33
These days the beer is of variable quality, but there is now a very pleasant beer-yard out the back where you can escape the traffic noise. But not, I fear the noise of Graham and Avril wibbling on - and on and on and on ! I'm not just saying this, saying this - I really, really mean it, mean it !
23 Jul 2010 04:12
Thia pub is protected by a cast iron Victorian railway bridge with 16 egos - each girder is, in fact, an ego. The view of the underside of this bridge from the font bar constitutes, in my opinion, the best view from any pub window in England ! And this, gentle reader, is why, if there ever is any trouble in the Duck & Drake, it only ever kicks off at the side of the pub, rather than out front ! And - furthermore - if the bogs are blocked you can always nip round the corner and piss on the Ice House. It's only yuppies after all... More importantly, the beer's back on form... Cheers !
23 Jul 2010 03:58
"I've always maintained that pint mugs with handles are for pooftahs and Southerners."
This pub seems to morph into a gay bar in the afternoons, depending on which bar staff are on. Can be slightly alarming if, like me, you'd rather it didn't... Hence I only come here occasionally in select company. To the great delight of my dearly beloved wife - fnarr, fnarr !
Apart from that, there are always plenty of guest ales to choose from. A few too many, though, given the lack of what our American cousins would call throughput.
23 Jul 2010 03:46
This pub, just as it was when I last came here about 20 years ago, is objectively rubbish. Nobody needs to return here. And that includes the regulars. And the landlord, come to that.
23 Jul 2010 03:31
This angelic inn is populated by the kind of people Charles Dickens would use as material for novels if he were still around today: - hopeless alcoholic pensioners, the almost destitute (who apparently never shop anywhere except Primark and down the market), posh students with few brains and even less money, families of which each member appears to come from an entirely different species, drinkers whose faces are so red they could scare away a proboscis monkey just by staring at them, and one bloke who somehow left his teeth embedded in the tarmac of Tesco's car park - REAL PEOPLE, in other words !!! And every-bloody-body smokes rollups !!! What a refreshing change from normality !!! In short, what an absolutely cracking little boozer ! Nice staff n'all.
21 Jul 2010 19:43
The decor is the kind that would probably impress an LA based producer of low budget porn movies as 'understated chic'. The Deer Park (aka The Treehorn Lounge) has about as much authenticity as something that hasn't yet been devised and never should be. Pleasant staff though, and the beer can be surprisingly good.
21 Jul 2010 19:27
This pub, with its various different rooms, is extant proof of the old Victorian adage - "Only a depraved people drink in open plan pubs." Was thriving 20 years ago. Now, sadly, head banging ing music and ropey beer (which would very probably give you a head banging hangover if you drank very much of it) are the only accompaniments that the locals and passing traffic (such as myself) have to remind themselves of former, happier days.
21 Jul 2010 19:19
The Nags Head, Chapel Allerton
The rotund bar staff can move surprisingly quickly if asked, but don't seem to realise that a pint of stout always needs topping up. The friendly customers are always half-caned, but don't seem to be able to handle as much beer as the spherical staff who serve them. All in all, a classic urban Sam Smith pub !
21 Jul 2010 18:58
Arcadia Ale and Wine Bar, Headingley
"Et in Arcadia Ego !" Usually on a Friday, actually. In spite of the weird queueing system at the bar, the echoing acoustics upstairs, and the sometimes lackadaisical serivice from the friendly staff, this pub would still be a veritable Earthly Paradise - even if Joseph Goebbels himself (aka 'The Poison Dwarf') drank here ! Especially now that the Leeds Brewery tap has been rededicated to Ilkley Brewery instead.
21 Jul 2010 12:44
Quite literally a Faberge Beer Egg ! Enter the Beer Tardis and discover just how much space is simply unnecessary ! This small and perfectly formed enclave also boasts the greatest light show in Leeds ! Deservedly expensive - but are you worth it ?? I know I am... There is a conveniently sited railing right outside for those of us who travel there by bicycle.
21 Jul 2010 12:31
Mr Foley's Cask Ale House, Leeds
York brewery pub which always has good beer, including the non-York guests. Often has stouts/porters. Two large-screen tv's dominate the split level front section :( and somehow it just doesn't really have a pub atmosphere. A bit like a waiting room with chesterfield sofas and large tvs. And good beer.'
21 Jul 2010 12:23
Surprisingly good food, surprisingly good ales. And less than �2.00 a pint ! So it's a Wetherspoons ? Well, if I may be allowed to quote from 'Donnie Brasco' - "F**kin' forget about it ! I like it a lot ! I like it big time !"
21 Jul 2010 12:20
Quite literally an architectural gem ! Even though it's a building. The beer used to taste like p*ss but this year it's improved so much it's quite drinkable. Actually quite nice actually. Sometimes. Free live Jazz from 9.30ish on Thursdays. There's a lottery for the band but they don't rig it even if you tell 'em it's your birthday. Bit mean I think. They're good but should vary their repetoire a bit more. It's now officially a crime to walk past this pub without popping in and having one !
21 Jul 2010 12:13
It's necessary to be possessed of a certain lithe sinuosity in order to be able to insinuate yourself up or down the yard and into this pub. I like the fact that I can never find the door either on entering or leaving ! 19th century decor, 21st century prices. Modern manners maketh man and woman. And both sexes, gentle reader, are seen to comport themselves in a seemly manner in this ancient hostelry.
21 Jul 2010 12:10
Leeds's third university ! It only possesses one faculty, viz. the Faculty of Beer. As you will agree if you go there, this is the only faculty it needs. Highly educated and experienced staff, dedicated with a selfless conscientiousness to the pouring, quaffing & serving of beer, have decanted their very soul essences into serving err... beer. And in case you're wondering - no, I'm not one of them ! Happy to sample the products though. My one quibble is the sticky floor. After a couple of strong Flemish ones I usually start hallucinating about having turned into a fly and think I'm walking on the ceiling. And no, I'm not a student either ! If you can actually remember leaving you haven't had enough yet... Go back !
21 Jul 2010 12:08
There are 4 valid reasons for visting this pub - Best, Golden Best, Landlord and Ram Tam. "Gennuflect when ye approach the altar of beer O ye heirophantic seekers of the nectar of truth ! For, hath it not been said, that if ye seek ye so shall ye find ye ? And thy reaward..."'
21 Jul 2010 12:05
High-tech meat-rack catering for the televisually deprived and/or obsessed - and for those of us who find honesty rather a difficult concept, but never-the-less appreciate a nice arse in a mini-skirt with viciously high heels ! There are so many televisions in this pub, the chances are that if you've had yours nicked you might just find it and the bloke who nicked it in here ! For those of us with the right pair of trainers, the wrong type of accent, a WKD side and far too many tattoos...
21 Jul 2010 11:48
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The Scarbrough Hotel, Leeds
Gawd bless the Scabby Taps! Because it has very good beer and perfectly decent food. And good service from the bar staff. Think very long and hard about excluding the Taps from any real ale crawl through the city centre. I'm afraid I must agree with Leeds Stew though, on the lack of atmosphere. If motorway service stations did real ale pubs - which they clearly ought to do - they would be like this: good beer, good food but a slightly unsettling feeling that everyone is in transit. Perhaps because the train station is just over the road?
28 Mar 2011 17:38