BITE user comments - crunchysaviour
Comments by crunchysaviour
It is, indeed, time for the Vic to buck up its ideas. It's got an interesting layout beyond the main bar, and thus a lot of unrealised potential. It's got ales and darts. It's quite good, in fact. But it's not great.
11 Dec 2007 17:47
No discerning beer drinker should ever go here. Avoid.
11 Dec 2007 17:42
Every time I've been here (5 or 6 times), the Hobgoblin ale has been splendid. Best jukebox in Canterbury, as far as I'm concerned! Reasonably good scampi 'n' chips at lunchtime, as well.
Becomes busy and extremely smoky in the evenings.
13 Mar 2007 14:06
Wandered in here with my Dad one lunchtime, in search of a pint and some food, but they didn't have any ales available, so we went elsewhere.
Weeks previous to this, however, the beers were available and, indeed, good. A nice town-centre pub for "beer in the daytime". I won't rate as I haven't visited in the evening.
13 Mar 2007 14:03
The Beer Cart Arms, Canterbury
I've been here a couple of times on rock nights. The music is loud and the glasses - or rather plastics - are plastic.
There is no real beer. As far as I know the best they have is Guinness or maybe Worthington or similar, and I may recall seeing a bottle of Newcastle Brown.
I think there's a pool table at the back of the pub.
They have recently had a noise limiter fitted, set at a rather conservative 90dB, which has already prevented one band from performing (as seen in local newspapers).
On these rock nights, the few tables are always taken and most people have to stand.
This is probably not the sort of place you'd go to if you were to want a sit-down and a pint - however, I haven't been there in the daytime so I may be partially wrong!
13 Mar 2007 13:58
Lovely, cosy Shepherd Neame pub offering good food (very nice doorstep-cut sandwiches) and a splendid garden with Bat and Trap. The garden has a recently-added decking area which I think is very nice.
As can be expected from a Shepherd Neame pub, there are real ales available. I think there are 3 pumps offering Spitfire, Master Brew and a seasonal ale.
The Sunday roast beef is delicious, as is the chef's own salad dressing.
It seems to me that this pub is perhaps not as well-known in Canterbury as it deserves to be.
3 Mar 2007 21:35
I'll give this an 8. The beer is excellent and varied, and the live jazz is thoroughly enjoyable and conjures up a great atmosphere. However, on a Saturday night with live music the pub is crammed full to the point of ridiculum, and the beer is just too expensive for my budget. That being said, it's excellent for occasional visits... or frequent ones if you're rich!
1 Mar 2007 22:56
This pub has now closed- thank God. It was thoroughly unpleasant!
1 Mar 2007 22:53
This is a fine pub indeed. I have visited on two occasions: once to have a pint and a dessert, and the second to attend the weekly Monday night quiz.
The first time, the only available cask ale was Abbot, which seemed well-kept, although I think there were some bottled ales behind the bar as well. The dessert (chocolate brownie and ice cream) was delightful and actually rather filling at almost �5. Given this, I'd expect the rest of the food that they serve to be very good indeed.
On the second time I visited, there were two ales available out of the three hand pumps: the second was Landlord, which I thought was quite delicious.
There is a large non-smoking area at the back of the pub, which I think is mainly used as an eating area, but I may be wrong, as the whole pub is transformed into a quiz venue on Monday nights for the (rightfully) popular, free nine-round-with-joker "Goataliser" quiz.
This is one of the best quizzes I've experienced, and is very well-organised with a scoreboard updated after each round. My only gripes are that the questions are a little too quick-fire, and there's no picture round. The team next to mine on this occasion were very good-humoured about it all, and this gave me the impression of an atmosphere where I was actually welcome, unlike many other quizzes where the locals are in a clique with the quiz master and seem rather frosty to non-regulars: thankfully, this is not the case at the Dolphin! My team had a thoroughly enjoyable time despite finishing fourth-from-bottom.
It's all done with good humour as there's no prize money - but I admit that I did take it a little too seriously! The prize is a goat for someone in Africa, and the runners-up have the honour of naming it.
There is an extremely comprehensive stack of board games in the main bar area, including a variety of flavours of Trivial Pursuit and a number of sets of Scrabble, meaning that there are plenty of games for everyone in the pub to enjoy at once. Sadly, there was no Diplomacy as far as I could see. I plan to use this pub as a venue for a game of 1000 Blank White Cards at some point in the future.
Toilets are very clean and nice. There is also a beer garden, which I did not experience due to the darkness and coldness of February evenings.
In all, then: friendly and quite cosy atmosphere, friendly staff (as previously mentioned), good beer, plenty of games, excellent quiz. I see no reason to give this place anything less than a 9/10.
1 Mar 2007 22:46
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The Old Hunter's Lodge, Whipsnade
As Mr Croft says, good beer and good food. It's a lovely old building with fine gardens. There's bar food as well as the restaurant. The portions are indeed large, but I am of the opinion that as long as the quality doesn't suffer, too much is never a bad thing. I like to occasionally cycle up here for lunch on a nice day.
4 Mar 2010 20:27