Nags Head Inn, Uskback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Yes, it was closed at about 1530 this Saturday afternoon too. It had a variety of notices outside celebrating its menu, so that gives a few hints, maybe.
We did get inside to be told this though, and saw that it was offering Brains and Doom Bar, in a pleasant enough interior.
We crossed the square to the Castle, and so I'll leave this one with a provisional five.
Why, with Usk In Bloom, we fairly skipped across.
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The Nag's Head clearly displays opening times of 9:15-2:30 & 5-10:30 on a Sunday on their own website. So imagine my surprise to turn up on a Sunday evening at 9:45 to be told they are closed. This despite all of the lights being on. The one guy (presumably the landlord) presumably didn't like the look of me. When I told him I'd driven from London to visit his pub (albeit in addition to 10 others!), he repeated that the pub was closed and that he had to "do something upstairs". When I asked if I could just have a half, this request was also denied. This doesn't seem much of a way to run a pub, especially as they weren't supposed to close for another 45 minutes. It's no wonder that other pubs in Usk had plenty of trade, but this one didn't. This one gets a big fat zero out of ten for me as you cannot rely on them to sell you a beer in the evening. Note the Usk Conservative Club was also closed on this Sunday evening, again despite some websites (not their own) showing it as open. If you're looking for somewhere to drink in Usk, I recommend the New Court Hotel (not listed on here). It does actually open at its advertised times and it serves an excellent range of both ales and ciders. It wasn't particularly busy and those there were predominantly young. But at least it is reliable.
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Great Place, welcoming; good beer, excellent food and service.
Ideal for a lunch stop while cycling to the Black Mountains.
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The Nag's Head is a great pub for food. I've had some truly outstanding meals there. It's reasonably priced at around �8-9 for a main course, and the pub is in a great location. The only downside is that it is a very small pub, and the landlord is enormously fat. It sounds like a strange point to make, but seriously, he is the fattest man I have ever seen. He is the only unattractive feature in an otherwise excellent pub.
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We made a long detour to visit this pub, as it was so well reviewed in the Good Pub Guide. (Has been in same family for 40 years, really friendly and welcoming, excellent food etc. etc.) We were too late for food, but asked if we could have a sandwich -but nothing doing. This is what you expect in rural UK, so we weren't too unhappy. We then asked for a packet of crisps with our pint. The landlord seemed delighted to tell us that they didn't sell crisps (good heavens - how common!) Presumably if you aren't eating his food at his stipulated times, you deserve to starve. The beer (Rev James) wasn't as well kept as you might expect in a place that has had glowing reviews.
I think it was the complacency of the landlord that really irritated us and this was compounded by his handling of two respectable looking gents who walked in just before 2.45 and were told "Sorry! We're just shutting." Pardon me, but when a pub is supposed to close at 3.00 shouldn't it be welcoming to customers until then? Is 15 minutes too short a time to have a drink?
We downed our mediocre pints and left.
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a pub for quality food rather than drinking, right on usk town square a focal point for the local community
anonymous - 23 Sep 2005 14:52 |
Average town pub, heavy on meals, but a decent pint.
Jimbo Smith - 7 May 2004 22:28 |
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