BITE user comments - Billycheer
Comments by Billycheer
Went in recently and the beer was excellent. Bombardier is not a favourite but this was on top form. It would have been a great improvement if one of the customers hadn't muttered "f***s sake" when I asked to be excused whilst trying to get past to the bar. I apologize to that customer for using his public house.
21 Oct 2010 18:26
It is totally unacceptable, in this day and age, for a hotel of this size and centrality to not sell real ale.
21 Oct 2010 18:18
This was one of the first Irish theme pubs I ever encountered. Though the name remains, the pub interior, thankfully, has mellowed back into one fitting of a good back street pub. Service is friendly, whether you are a regular or just passing. Regulars are friendly and don't make it awkward for you to get to the bar. Beer is always in top condition.
3 Oct 2010 18:49
I moved back to this part of the world in September 2009. On the run up to Christmas 2009 and for a few months beyond the beer was excellent here but from late spring and summer it had gone right down hill. I rarely get a pint that is not vinegar on the first attempt and when I return it there is no attempt made to check the beer, take it off until it has been checked, nothing; the beer remains for sale with pump clip on display. The service is also poor. Staff seem to congregate at one end of the bar and are too lazy to move away from the till by the coffee machine where food orders are taken. When people waiting for beer ask for service, usually after seeing several people served before them, they are rudely informed that the "queue is here mate". This is actually a problem at few Wetherspoons establishments I have visited so let me reiterate this well known quirk of British culture. In Britain we queue in shops and at bus stops but not at the bar. The pub bar is designed so that the bar staff move to the customer and not the other way round but then you know this, you're just being lazy and rude.
3 Oct 2010 18:03
I used to really like this pub six or seven years ago, or so. It had good cheap food and excellent pint of Banks's Mild; A friendly pub that took a healthy advantage of men avoiding shopping at the local Sainsbury's, and lorry drivers from the local Lorry park. These days? well it's a Good Beer Guide pub, supposedly with a good reputation but whenever I go in it seems very clicky and unwelcoming. Access to the bar is awkward because of the regulars perched there. The bar maid was loud and foul mouthed to the point of irritation. My pint was less than good, I have not had a perfect pint in here for a couple of years now. Good Beer Guide? or a case of who you know?
3 Oct 2010 14:36
How not to run a good pub to the wall! Don't take a pub on the outskirts of town, one with a good reputation for quality of its steak and try to turn it into an upmarket restaurant. Don't refurbish the pub in a "modern" so called "contemporary" style, as such style quickly becomes dated in a very uncharming way. Don't refurbish the pub in a so called "contemporary" style that was on its way out ten years ago. Don't discourage your drinking customers as they are the ones that may be eating later, next week, next month, telling friends, keeping your business afloat when you're quite etc. Don't constantly serve vinegar for beer, and certainly don't keep the beer on sale when you have been alerted to it; how can you be trusted to advise me on what I might like to eat if you don't know what vinegar tastes like. Don't charge higher prices than a classy bistro when you are not in a prime location. Don't charge high prices for your food and then put meal photograph advertisments on the outside of your pub that make your pub look like you are a "two for one" "bottom end of the market" food pub. Don't keep buying signs, it is not the lack of signs that is stopping people coming in. Haven't been in for ages, isn't it a Greek restaurant now. Sad! but probably better than a juvenile delinquents idea of a gastly gastropub.
3 Oct 2010 14:01
The beer has improved slightly but the pub was dead on a Friday night, not good for a pub like this, which used to be full. This pub could be so much more, if! and that seems a big if! for most publicans these days, if! it was run as a good, unpretentious English pub. Good beer, simple food of the ploughmans, beef and gravy school of though, check out Whitelocks in Leeds for a good example, and this could be a really successful pub.
3 Oct 2010 13:23
Conistant estate local, well regarded and unpretentious. The food is good value and well cooked and the beer is always in good condition. Always friendly the manager obviously demands a high standard from his staff, which is refreshing in an age of poor customer service. Children are allowed in the back lounge and garden. Very family friendly without the need for excessive child entertainment, you don't feel like you are drinking in a play area or mother and toddler group. The trifle is excellent.
3 Oct 2010 13:09
Looking a the charming exterior of this canalside pub I would have expected, in this day and age, to see the ripped out interior, replaced with a sterile, misguided concept of contemporary. Inside they have managed to preserve much of the core and charm of this pub, and it was all the better for it, the lower bar and snug being the most charming parts. I have heard bad reviews about the food and service at this pub but whilst the bar service was a little lacking, the beer was in fine condition. I couldn't comment on the food as I did not eat. More could be made of the gardens and exterior, which seem to have a look of post smoking ban utility than canalside charm but it is a lovelly place to watch narrowboats going through the lock whilst drinking a pint or two of Bank's Mild.
3 Oct 2010 12:46
An absolute gem of a building outside. This beautiful thatched pub will lead you to wondering what amazing old world charms are on offer inside. The answer to the latter is a great big disapointment. The inside looks like a Students' Union refrectory or one of those trendy cafes, the type that are not very trendy anymore, not since 2000 anyway. Totally ripped out and replaced with a charmless sterile interior. The lighting was awful, didn't stop for food but it would have to be good for you to want to sit more than five minutes in this place. Crimes like this should be a hanging offence.
3 Oct 2010 12:25
An absolute gem of a building outside. This beautiful thatched pub will lead you to wondering what amazing old world charms are on offer inside. The answer to the latter is a great big disapointment. The inside looks like a Students' Union refrectory or one of those trendy cafes, the type that are not very trendy anymore, not since 2000 anyway. Totally ripped out and replaced with a charmless sterile interior. The lighting was awful, didn't stop for food but it would have to be good for you to want to sit more than five minutes in this place. Crimes like this should be a hanging offence.
3 Oct 2010 12:23
The Square Peg, Birmingham
I was between buses, with half an hour to wait last Monday, and so I went to get last orders at the Square Peg. It's a very large premises with several entrances, and at ten to eleven, the near Bull Street door was locked. I walked to the next door and that was open. Inside, staff were busy clearing away behind the bar. I waited sometime before a barmaid stopped cleaning to give me some service. "Sorry! these tills aren't on, you will have to go to the other end". It's a very long bar but I did as she asked.
I have encountered this problem before at Wetherspoons and it is really bad service. A bar is designed so that the bar staff can move to meet the customer and not the other way round, It is the bar staff that have to do the walking. It's not a supermarket, I don't have to make my way to the open till with the light on. At the very least the bar maid should have asked me if I minded moving. She was polite in her tone but the service was wrong.
Arriving at the other end of the bar she didn't come to meet me. Instead I had to wait and be ignored by the other bar staff busy cleaning. I waited for a good few minutes and then we encounter the next reoccurring problem I find with Wetherspoons. Finally getting some service I point to the beer that I want. "Sorry that one isn't on". receiving no advice about which beers are on, I remember that Wetherspoons don't turn their pump-clips round when a beer isn't on but instead put silly little "not available" signs on the clip. At a glance these signs are indistinguishable from any other point of sale advertising, and, whilst moving to order another beer I notice a sign on that. I look at my watch, decide that we have waisted enough time already, politely decline the service and leave.
19 Dec 2010 18:40