BITE user comments - katerlina
Comments by katerlina
The Old Buttermarket, Canterbury
We drank here twice on a visit to Canterbury - mostly because I love Kronenbourg and fancied a cold pint immediately after our long drive to get to C-bury, and it was a pub with a large outdoor seating area on a sunny day!
It's great for people-watching, being just outside the Cathedral Gate, but it did seem like it needed a bit of tlc to get it up to scratch as a 'great' pub. The outdoor seating is a boon these days for those of us still foolish enough to partake of the evil weed, so I didn't really experience the inside enough to complain about it, but the loos were clean and had toilet roll in them, which can be a huge hazard for a girl.
We didn't eat here, but it seemed to have a reasonable selection of pub grub, and a few hopeful looking punters awaiting the fare... good for a pint in the sun - but go elsewhere for evening atmosphere...
6 May 2008 15:30
I had never seen a Wychwood pub before, and the ole man being a bit of a fan I dropped in whilst on a visit to Canterbury with a friend. She wasn't so impressed - muttering that she felt old (we are both 37) - but I had a lovely half of Abbot Ale and a smoke under the canopy (yes, a canopy - I like a pub that cares for it's smokers) before we headed back to the B&B to crash out for the night.
It was a Saturday night, and quite lively - but without being deafened by music or a TV, only by the increasingly drunken chatter and laughter of the clentele, who were a mixed bunch of chavvy girls, goth/metalists and olders who were obviously there for the ale!
The service was quick and friendly - absolutely no sideways looks at the two 'middle-aged ladies' - the beer tasty, and we found somewhere to sit. All I want from a pub really!
6 May 2008 15:21
Just moved to the area, and had a late lunch at the French Horn with a friend last Saturday. The only thing this pub lacks is customers, it suffers from an awkward location in Pewsey - being slightly on the outskirts - which is already served by two or three family/ sunday lunch/ quiet beer in the evening pubs. The ale is local (wadworth) and the food is excellent, and very good value - we were taken aback by the quantities! It is very near the Kennet and Avon canal, and we went for a walk along the towpath afterwards (to try and negate some of that lovely food).
The management are new, as is the chef and the pleasant bar man (who'd only worked there a week). I think the French horn deserves a chance, so if you're passing, pop in and enjoy the roast beef and horseradish mayonnaise baguette, you won't be disappointed!
21 Sep 2006 18:14
The Nellie was the post-work hang-out for my boyfriend's company, so have spent many a Friday night lurking within and without of this traditional london boozer. It's tiny inside - but always manages to maintain a friendly atmosphere - second bar upstairs, but you do have to negotiate the pool table taking up useful space in the centre of the room (pub too small for pool table - really!).
Summer is best - can lurk outside watching the Soho world go by - particularly entertaining watching the England team (the FA HQ is on Soho Sq.) Hummer Limo try to negotiate the corner of Dean into soho square - raucous laughter from the hundreds of amused punters watching.
21 Apr 2006 12:30
I like this bar. We've been using Oporto as a pre-club drinking spot for a couple of years, and the service is friendly and quick, and there is usually somewhere to sit, and the - generally chilled - music isn't at ear-beeding volume - a miracle on a Friday/ Saturday in central london. And when the downstairs bar isn't hired out - there is a pool table to amuse the boys.
It does need a bit of attention though - the ladies toilets are appalling (we don't like trailing our jeans in leaking toilet water - just so you know) and not checked (I hate having to ask for bog roll at the bar - just not cool). And a bit of an overall bar decor tidy up would help too, potentially a great bar - but will have to settle for 'handy' from me right now!
21 Apr 2006 12:24
Napiers, Ash Vale
We ended up at Napiers completely by accident... we were trying to find the Swan (any family pub with food would have done - having been kicked out of the Greyhound in Tongham for bringing a week old baby into a non-family pub) and stumbled across Napiers having failed to find the Swan.
We were the only people there to start with on a Friday lunchtime, and were welcomed with open arms. The beer kept my father and fiancee happy, and the food cheered up my Grandma and my Stepmum after our irritating experience in the Greyhound. I was also well looked after as a new mum, with no problem with breastfeeding or changing my little one... although we did have to do that on the floor of the ladies, but it is a pub after all!
All the food was lovely, I had ham egg and chips and no complaints at all about the food or the reasonable price, and they were happy to make cups of tea and cofffee for us in proper china teacups for my Gran.
Would heartily recommend this down-to-earth local pub, and suggest you have a bite to eat while you are there.
16 May 2009 18:22