The Daniel Gooch, Bayswater

Umm� It�s a cellar and not a very nice one. They have football, they have a dartboard, they have a pool table and they have the sort of clientele that wouldn�t look out of place in a post apocalyptic horror film, all tattoos, shaven heads and knuckles dragging in the dust. You can literally smell the testosterone mingling in the air along with the smell from the toilets and the aroma of deep-fried something in batter � possibly one of the customers, who knows?

Didn�t hang around long; hate the sound of duelling banjo�s. Possibly the only place I know besides the Eagle in Ladbroke Grove that should have a sign over the door that says: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

6 Jan 2009 22:51

The Chepstow, Bayswater

This is one of those sterile venues that suffer from schizophrenia. Is it a pub? Is it a restaurant? To be honest I can�t tell and strangely enough nor can the staff. This is the sort of horrendous manifestation you get when people sit around a boardroom and decide that they know how to run a pub, after all its just about selling beer and food and stuff like that, how hard can it be? Well for the pointless lot who own this place, it�s very hard indeed. The last company, Massive pubs, were bad enough (fortunately they went bust) but the new company seems to have sucked the very life from the place and it didn�t have a lot to begin with.
As for the beers, well it�s a place for tourists and people called Nathan so I won�t waste your time discussing the poorly kept and poorly served dross they serve up, suffices to say they would prefer it if you drank wine. In fact by the demeanour of the surly face staff I assume they would prefer it if you drank wine somewhere else.

To add to the feeling of being in a morgue, they have a jazz singer on Sunday night (apparently only knows three songs), whose dour melancholic tones literally drain the will to live from your poorly hydrated body.
Save your money and your soul and drink somewhere else, anywhere will do.

6 Jan 2009 22:42