BITE user comments - thesaintsfan
Comments by thesaintsfan
Duke of Wellington, Southampton
Fantastic building, wide range of Wadworth beers but unbelievably expensive. It is particularly galling when, after paying nigh on £4 for a pint of very average beer, the Landlord doesn't even have the courtesy to reply when you look him in the eye to say goodbye, just looks at you and continues his conversation with 'the locals'.
29 Jun 2013 19:07
The Standing Order, Southampton
OK, the pub is large and suffers from the usual Wetherspoon's uninspiring fitments and layout but that is not an unsolvable problem here. My usual visits are when the Saints are playing at home on a Saturday and, not surprisingly, the place is packed with football fans vying for service with the usual suspects. This is where the staff differ from most other pubs in the chain. They are exceptionally well aware of the customers at the bar and rarely serve anyone out of turn. In addition the regular (?) Saturday lunchtime staff are a breath of fresh air; welcoming, happy, funny and a downright good advert for the pub. Well done the management and staff here; long may you serve we thirsty customers.
11 Dec 2010 01:01
Just because a bar is aimed at the student client�le doesn't mean that it has to be a pit, only suitable for lary youngsters. The bar area is just about OK; from there everything goes downhill. The 'smoking area' seems to be a screaming and swearing area as well, with the odd fight thrown in. It is, however, when you visit the toilets that you really reach the Winchester equivalent of Dante's inferno, only without the heat, actually without any heat at all. If you could imagine a pub toilet twinned with downtown Basra following a spate of insurgent bombings then you get the idea. The management started updating the facilities a few years ago and then seemingly thought 'f*** it why bother?'. The gents is an absolute disgrace, with broken tiles, unfinished ceilings and god-knows what else as I have never dared to enter the cubicles for fear of catching something incurable. With this attitude towards their customers this place deserves to be closed down, sorry burnt to the ground and rebuilt by someone more sympathetic and less greedy.
11 Dec 2010 00:31
A much-changed incarnation of this once basic city boozer, the new landlords are attempting to encourage the 30+somethings, with a fairly eclectic choice of wines and beers. The lighting is moody and dim; unfortunately so are a number of the customers who have gravitated here from the Wykeham. That aside, the beers are well kept (although pricey) and the atmosphere is of quiet, subdued comfort. Unless you happen to be sitting next to a table of solicitors' company staff on an evening out with many of them trying to out-ego everyone else. The staff are very pleasant and courteous and it is a pleasure to see what was once a very underused pub back to a semblance of its glory days.
11 Dec 2010 00:13
An atypical pub (for Winchester) a short walk uphill from the centre of town. Plenty to read, from the newspapers casually left on the tables to the eclectic mix of paperbacks to borrow on the windowsill. The beers are from the Marston's stable and kept pretty well. Prices for the Ringwood and Wychwood beers are a pocket-saving �2.35 a pint from Monday to Thursday. Other beers, and Thatcher's Gold cider, are just in excess of �3, including Jennings Cumberland.
The food however is sublime. The speciality here is grass-fed Hampshire beef, hung for 21 days or more and sold by weight so you can eat your fill whatever your appetite. It is cooked to perfection by Helen, the Landlady, and served absolutely " a point".
The conversation from the strange mix of locals can be very entertaining, (especially as you approach closing time), but you are always assured of a warm welcome.
30 Aug 2010 23:39
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The Butchers Hook, Southampton
A great idea, poorly expressed. The list of thirty-odd beers is impressive but all bar three are keg or bottled and virtually problem free, unfortunately when I was there, the three cask beers were in poor condition. They were too warm, despite cask coolers, cloudy and slightly off tasting. Regretfully, just opening a niche market outlet doesn't mean that the owners have sufficient ability to keep a good product.
In another issue, it seems that despite their self professed low overheads profit comes before everything. One of the bottled beers comes out at an eye-watering £9.50 a pint!
I don't know about anyone else but for that price I would expect the bottle to be opened by the Pope, served on a gold tray by the Queen and drip fed to me by Miss World. In addition a locally brewed cask beer bought at free trade prices from less than ten miles away and sold at £3.50 a pint. Sorry, Butcher's Hook, please sort out your problems or I can see your dream becoming another one of the 42 pub closures a day before long.
14 Jul 2014 09:44