BITE user comments - dreake
Comments by dreake
It's just all a bit barmy really.
(But barmy in a completely endearing way)
4 Sep 2007 14:34
The Picture Palace, Ponders End
I actually like the Picture Palace, if for no other reason than that it's the strangest damned pub I've ever been to.
It's like a sanitised, civilised, silent, de-vikingised Viking feasting hall.
It scares me a little.
It's a lovely building - an old cinema (hence the name)with a great high roof, white walls and obsessively neat rows and rows of tables and chairs with a long aisle running down the middle from the entrance to the bar.
And the place really is silent.
Like a church.
You can see people looking around nervously to make sure that they're not speaking too loudly.
This Palace literally could be anywhere in any time and any time. As soon as you go in there you loose all perspective. On everything.
You're haunted by the silence. Your thoughts disappear up into the rafters. You're enraptured by �2 bottles of Holsten Pills for hours on end.
Because there�s something hermetic and closed about the Palace
And then...
And then eventually you leave
And you step outside and you realise that this is the real world.
You're hit by the noise and the feel of the wind on your face and you realise that you might as well have just spent a couple of hours in the TARDIS.
Because there's something strange about the Palace.
Something unnatural.
And you swear you'll never go back again.
And for a few months you don't. For a few months you don't even think of the place.
But you always go back, because you realise that no matter how strange and unnatural it may be, it's a benign strangeness.
21 Jun 2007 15:31
The Pitcher and Piano, Holborn
It's a Pitcher and Piano.
Is there actually anything else to say?
14 May 2007 16:42
I actually quite like this pub - but to be honest there's no getting around the fact that it's full of inbred yokels.
If you're the barfly type who likes your pubs old fashioned and slightly seedy though, I'd recommend it.
A pub isn't a real pub without that special air of hopelessness and desperation.
3 May 2007 17:16
Alright, let's get serious here.
Taps has issues - like any other pub - but let's at least be rational about it.
The toilets are a health hazard because you have to walk down stairs?
You've got to be kidding me.
Walking is now a hazard?
(Seriously, walking?)
There's trouble most nights?
That's just patent nonsense. I'm in there most nights of the week (well alright, pretty much every nights of the week) and I can count the number of incidents I've seen on one hand. Either it's a flat out lie or the poster of that comment defines trouble as grown up men and women watching football, sharing a bottle of wine with friends after work, or just generally putting the world to rights over a couple of pints.
During the week Taps is a great pub. There are lots of plasma screens dotted around (and the staff are always happy to flick through the channels to find a particular sporting event for you if you ask nicely), comfortable seats and tables, a fire in the corner, a grown up friendly over 25s local clientele and welcoming and competent staff.
I'd say the beer's probably the best in Enfield as well. Some real ales would be nice, but otherwise it's a good selection. Slightly pricey maybe - but I think it's worth the little extra you pay over the prices of say the King's Head - and the quite a lot you pay over the George.
I like the King's Head, Form is always perfectly pleasant - and the George is always useful for a cheap drink - but the Taps is the best pub in town because it encapsulates all the easy civility, friendliness and comfort of a grown up pub.
The Manager and the Assistant Manager both clearly know the trade very well and are great on both sides of the bar.
Now, all that said, Taps does have issues.
The place is too narrow - there's no getting around that fact - and not much anyone can do about it. But given those spatial issues, there are just clearly too many people let in on a Friday and Saturday night.
To such an extent that, at the peak of the night, it occasionally becomes an unpleasant place to be.
Equally, with that many people in, it's inevitable that some of them are going to be from the more chavtastic end of the social spectrum.
I know it's stingy of me to say it, but I also just don't like the price increase after 11pm. I think it's unfair and while it's by no means deliberately underhanded there's something about it that doesn't quite sit right with me.
It seems slightly counterintuitive, to me, to risk alienating your punters for the sake of 10p.
However, as I said, all in all, and warts and all, I think Taps is the best pub in Enfield by some margin.
16 Feb 2007 15:50
There's no way that this is the most expensive pub in Enfield.
In fact with the exception of the George it's probably cheaper than anywhere apart from the Old Wheatsheaf.
�2.35 for a pint of Stella compared to �2.70 in Taps or �3 for a pint of export in Bar Form and �2.80 in the cricketers?
It's a nice pub with quite a few of the displaced refugees from the Arms in there.
After Taps it's the best pub in Enfield. I only wish they'd try a bit harder with it.
With a bit of effort it could be so much more.
25 Nov 2005 14:50
Perfect pub if you like drinking Smirnoff Ices and still think Aftershock is cool.
And you can't spell your own name.
And you're 17.
And think Sovereign rings are classy.
Well that or you're really really REALLY old.
Like 'it can only be a miracle that you're not dead old.'
13 Oct 2005 16:07
The Beef and Barrel, Ponders End
Surprisingly expensive for what is essentially a student pub.
But decent enough atmosphere I suppose.
13 Oct 2005 15:54
The beer's good and they have bar stools.
What more do you want?
The Enfield Arms?
29 Sep 2005 12:29
The Knights Templar, Chancery Lane
So what we're basically saying then is that the toilets are quite nice.
1 Apr 2008 17:32