BITE user comments - asnootyfox
Comments by asnootyfox
Dammit - it's closed?! I used to work next door for the cable tv company (and that's closed down as well). What's happening?!
25 Aug 2007 20:08
This pub is way off the beaten track situated opposite a council estate, and surrounded by an industrial estate.
It is, however, a what-it-says-on-the-box South London pub and is not tied to any chain so prices are realistic (Stella, Grolsch etc �2.50 and cheaper during Happy Hours).
Certainly not the most salubrious of Battersea pubs but good and honest with friendly staff (usually just the one!). This isn't a big place at all but it does have a pool table and a garden (of sorts).
There aren't many pubs in London left like this one.
They have interesting theme nights too on Saturdays but it's very much a local's pub, although still welcoming.
25 Aug 2007 20:04
Prior to the smoking ban this place used to be populated by Clapham's oldest boozehounds but it's not given way to a younger set and office workers. It's a Wetherspoons by any other name and the service is proof of that. Over 21 policy in evenings with gorillas on the door to enforce it - why I don't know, this is the wrong end of Clapham ffs...
25 Aug 2007 19:56
Gordon Bennett, Tooting Broadway
It's not called the Gordon Bennet anymore... Can't think what it's called now but it's a barn-sized nothing-special kinda place.
25 Aug 2007 19:52
The County Arms, Wandsworth Common
Classy place now it has decided to become more restaurant that the first bar people go to when released from Wandsworth Prison which is more-or-less next door. Nice little garden at the back too.
25 Aug 2007 08:53
Nice views over the common. Trouble with this place is it's been revamped and changed name and/or ownership so many times it doesn't know what the hell it is anymore. It's been The Faith, The Hope, The Hope and Faith and the Faith and Hope - and that's in the last 5 years I've known it!
Food was excellent (but pricey) last time I went but that was six months ago so it could have all changed by now - such is the nature of the place.
Not a good selection of beers though unless you're into white Barvarian beer at �4 a go.
25 Aug 2007 08:51
Looks can deceive. This place looks well dodgy inside and out but it's actually one of the most friendly places to drink in the whole Tooting Bec area. It won't win any awards for style or decoration though. Reasonably priced too - for example no charge for mixers with spirits.
25 Aug 2007 08:48
Good old Wheatsheaf... can't find an NHS dentist and need a tooth taken out? Go there on a Saturday night either spill someone's pint or look at their girlfriend - sorted...
Staff about as friendly as the average cornered rat, toilets that get cleaned about once a month...
Not somewhere to go for a nice quiet drink with a loved one though judging by the clientele late at night you could get "lucky" - or unlucky depending on how you look at it with one of the scraggly Tooting Totty...
25 Aug 2007 08:45
The Smoke Bar And Diner, Tooting
A paint-by-numbers bar with nothing original and the obligatory plasmas for sports. The back of the bar is cold and inhospitable and resembles a doctor's waiting room.
25 Aug 2007 08:40
Well a Wetherspoons is a Wetherspoons. There's certainly a latent menace in the place but it's changed completely since the smoking ban when you couldn't see from one end of it to the other.
Still, �2.50 for a pint of Stella and a really quite good English Breakfast for �2.10 - can't complain really.
I think in all the times I've ever been in there I've only seen about three females, this really is the denizen of the older Balham males. Go in there under about 30 and you will feel out of place.
25 Aug 2007 08:37
Not a bar at all. This is a restaurant that just happens to have a handful of bar stools and tables outside on Balham High Road - very nice...
It is closing down soon (it's been for sale for a while now) so it is wind-down mode...
25 Aug 2007 08:34
The Exhibit does indeed look like Irene House (the local dole office) only smaller. Doubt it was built to be a bar/restaurant.
It's not for me. You can sit outside and watch the Sainsbury's car park if that's your sort of thing. Inside get too loud, service is hit-and-miss (depends if the bar manager is around, in which case people fall over themselves to serve you - if she's not you can wait an age).
Bit of a case of nice pub, shame about the location.
25 Aug 2007 08:32
Great one-stop night-out-in-Balham as it has the separate concert room (free) where new bands try out especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays after - I think - about 9pm. Watch out for the talent scouts or do what I do, stand at the back looking interested in the band and wait for their "manager" to approach you!
25 Aug 2007 08:27
This is a barn of a pub with no redeeming features and so-so food if you have an hour or so to wait.
Sport's always on the plasmas, way louder than necessary - I mean who really needs snooker at full volume? Heaves with screaming football or rugby fans when that's on. Pretty inhospitable when curtains closed and the mob come in to howl at the screens. There are no quiet corners so this place resembles a staff canteen with a bar.
25 Aug 2007 08:23
The Windmill on the Common, Clapham Common
About the most snoooooty pub in all of Clapham. Even going to the loo makes you feel you're in someone's house and shouldn't really be doing it.
It's a hotel as well, so is better suited to business execs and their secretaries who are "away for the weekend on business".
23 Aug 2007 22:51
Standard depository for the Balham glitterati... Good cocktail mixing skills by staff but lacks soul. At least you can sit outside though and look at Irene House (the dole office).
23 Aug 2007 22:33
The Duke of Devonshire, Balham
Huge, without soul or spirit, a boozer's boozer in all senses with an ample garden out back too.
Whenever I go in there I half expect to see Vinnie Jones or Bob Hoskins behind the bar and the present landlord isn't far off. If the Mitchell Brothers from Eastenders ever opened a pub in Sarf London - this would be the one they'd 'ave.
23 Aug 2007 22:28
Budvar served properly and good staff. Fun menu. Dog Clarence is a sweety - owner aloof! OK middle-of-the-road pub with some interesting lighting...
23 Aug 2007 22:25
Yet another Balham pub where the plasma rules... lazy sofa atmosphere and then they ramp up the volume when World Tiddle-winks Championships are on. Pool tables for people to surround and scream at each other inbetween screaming at the plasmas... NOT a place for a quiet drink.
23 Aug 2007 22:21
Pompous staff who specialise in looking down their noses at you - warmer than acceptable beer - so-so food at West End gastropub prices (in Balham!?) and a claustrophobic feel.
Nice beer garden though but the overwhelming feeling is one of a club you don't belong to and can't afford to join.
23 Aug 2007 22:17
The Balham Kitchen and Bar, Balham
This place has been closed since beginning of August. It re-opens with new management in September. I can only hope it will be better than the mother's and baby club it became when I used to go there... Can't comment on evenings.
23 Aug 2007 22:06
The Dover Castle, Marylebone
Brilliant pub, well off the beaten track but worth finding as it's in a mews.
25 Aug 2007 20:12