The Penny Farthing, Crayford

Well done. Its now the Bexley CAMRA pub of the year for 2016. 2 years running and well deserved.

15 Mar 2016 10:53

Golden Lion, Rochester

Obviously recently renovated. Clean bright interior. Didn't have any food but the beers were in perfect condition. The one thing that really sets this place apart is the beer fridge. La Chouffe, Kwak, Chimay?? Belgians in a Whetherspoons? As well as those, they had a very broad selection of craft and international beers. Flying Dog, Sierra Nevada, Einstock, Little Creatures. The list goes on. After the other comments here, this place was a pleasant surprise.

21 Feb 2016 12:31

The New Cross Turnpike, Welling

Rebuilt and reopened. 'spoons obviously spent a whack of insurance cash on the place. It looks great but very disappointing. A couple of visits now and a few things have become obvious.

1: beer selection and condition has gone down the pan. Once they had a good range of all types, cask, keg, and bottle. Now its the bare minimum corporate set of beers. On each visit only around 1/2 to 2/3 of the 12 hand pumps were on. What was on was in very poor condition. The bottle selection too is now minimal. Gone is the Flying Dog, Rogue, etc.

2: the layout of the bar area is idiotic. Too many tables stuffed up by the bar. Its not actually possible for someone in a wheel chair to get to the bar, disabled toilet, or the disabled lift. Most of these tables are of the high with stool variety. Again useless for a disabled person to use. Despite many complaints on their Facebook page, nothing has been done about it. "will let the architect know". Seriously, the manager can't move a couple of bloody tables around to make a clear passage.

3: staff. All new. All training. Massively slow queues for the bar. Little product knowledge. Not a clue as to serve in what order. An intelligent manager would have ensured at least 1 or 2 experienced staff would be kept around to bring the rookies up to speed, but no. Leave half a dozen kids with no experience and no manager behind the bar on a busy Thursday night. I really felt for those kids. In my case he messed up my change. It took him the best part of 5 minutes to find someone to override the till. That is unacceptable.

In the time it took to get served I could have walked down to the Plow & Harrow, ordered, drank, then stopped for a takeaway curry on the way back to the Turnpike with the bloke in front of me still trying to get served.

4: food. Usual 'spoons fare but with the bar not being able to handle the amount of customers, my last 2 meals had obviously sat under the heat lamp for quite some time. The curry developing a skin.

The most telling thing is that after 8 years I didn't recognise anyone in the bar last Thursday night. None of the old regulars have returned. They're all drinking down in the Furze Wren or the Wrong 'un, where many of the old Turnpike staff ended up.

Doubt it will make the next edition of the good beer guide.

21 Feb 2016 12:06