BITE user comments - captain_ralph
Comments by captain_ralph
Pearsons Arms, Crab And Oyster House, Whitstable
It don't look like the picture any more that's for sure!
Primarily a restaurant nowadays...but it's a good one, with locally sourced food and a varied menu. Friendly staff are efficient. Usually some "foreign" guest beers on- Timmy Taylor when I visited, plus Whitstable Bay and Sharp's Atlantic (at least it wasn't the ubiquitously awful and bland Doom).
Probably the poshest boozer in Whitstable so don't go if you don't like tourists who listen to Just A Minute.
6 Jun 2016 20:47
Splendid looking pub and I love it out of the tourist season (if that exists in Whitstable...), very quirky with its sloping floor.
Harveys Best, Whitstable Bay PA and, bizarrely, Sam Adams beers on handpump.
The food is pretty good and sitting on the tables outside is nice next to the beach.
Always worth the visit in my book.
6 Jun 2016 20:43
Been to this pub a few times in recent years...it's had a make over in the last year and is now leaning towards food.
Ales on three handpumps (two working) at time of visit were SN Master Brew and Whitstable Bay Pale Ale. Can't stand SN beers and the Whitstable Bay was OK. Thatcher's Gold cider plus usual premium and other lagers.
Spanking new pizza oven looked good and there is a new decked area in the garden with seaviews and train noises.
Staff friendly (always have been), atmos' poss a bit sterile. Good if you're passing.
6 Jun 2016 20:37
Pleasantly surprised by this pub as we'd been told day before that it was a shocker. Quite the reverse; arrived to the sounds of live guitar music (Sabbath's Paranoid on solo acoustic anyone?). Well kept Harvey's Best, friendly locals and staff...free bowl of toasties at the end of their lunchtime service was a nice touch. Welcomed dog on premises and bowls of water on terrace wereally appreciated by our hound on a hot day.
29 May 2016 20:59
Only called by on a cycle ride. Pleased to see wide range of beers Inc local Long Man brewery "Long Blonde". Beers £2.45 pint and Ruddles Best only £1.99! Mind you you'd need to pay me to drink that!
Late afternoon and some of the clientele were pretty far gonew. So language was fairly loose and some views were controversial. Seemed as of there were two different outside areas with totally different atmospheres...we were in the wrong one I think.
Reinforces my computer concerns that Wetherspoon pricing policy is to the detriment of other local pubs
29 May 2016 20:55
Found this pub to be very agreeable on an evening visit on Friday of Whitson BH.
Booked a table in advance and when we were late arriving the first concern of landlady was for our welfare not our lateness.
Happy to have child and dog in bar...good Harvey's Best and Mild, Thatchers Gold cider.
Perused menu, and when chatting to chef he offered fresh cod not chips...the fish was delicious.
Good chat was had with the locals, regarding other local pubs, local history, dogs in pubs. All in all a lovely evening, wish the patrons all the best in keeping up a "proper" local pub- seemingly a rare commodity these days.
29 May 2016 20:49
Two visits while on holiday just recently.
We'll, one year on there have been changes here, pretty much all good!
The pub has had a lick of paint outside and some changes within. First thing beer-wise was disappointment...the ubiquitous and, for me, unbibable Doom Bar was the only hand pumped beer available. So cider for me. The turned round clip was Flying Scotsman and some Butcombe beer mats hinted at better things on another day.
Food service was being flagged up as busy and around 1/2 hour wait. Sandwiches though were produced and were of doorstep proportions.
Above all staff were friendly and helpful, and on second visit a very tasty (apparently) home-prepared burger was produced for my daughter.
Given its location and position on the West Somerset Railway it deserves to be busy and successful, so good luck to the new incumbents, hope to visit again later in the year.
4 Jan 2016 10:42
Good pub the Welly, been run by the same people for years and years and their children now seem to be the barstaff!
Good selection of ales, usually a Tring beer, Pride and another. Prices are keen for a southern pub.
Busy on match days and rugby is popular here. Food and B&B accomodation available and one of the best in town nowadays.
19 May 2015 21:05
Visited recently on the bank holiday weekend.
Impressed to see Palmers ales on the bar, one of my favourite brewers.
Clientele appeared to be very much related to the proximity of the country house (NT crowd), and they appeared mainly to be there for the food, which looked good- largish portions for those that judge simply on that. We had starter-sized meals, and these were good.
Our dog was welcome, as was our three-year old daughter and the staff were friendly.
19 May 2015 21:01
The Masons Arms, Lower Odcombe
Great pub. Ale brewed on the premises, there were three choices when I visited. Local cider available too (it is Somerset after all!).
Welcome very friendly and the food is excellent. Breakfast is available and they have a campsite in the back garden, this is very well appointed with clean facilities.
You can stay in rooms in the rear extension and the microbrewery is visible through a window down that corridor.
Well worth a diversion to sample the wares of the owners and a good base to stay in to explore the area.
19 May 2015 20:57
A real one off of a place this. Located right next to Watchet Harbour.
It was a quiet place when we visited, but two decent handpumped ales were in good nick and the cider was nice.
Folks inside were friendly and it was (very) dog friendly.
Lots of old pictures of Watchet and its maritime history, in the gents some fairly pornographic, but well painted murals.
It's obviously a place patronised by the locals and it was banging on NY eve.
There are plans afoot for an apartment development on the harbourside so no doubt if that goes ahead some twat will try to gentrify the whole area, and the bars around it. Nothing changes.
2 Jan 2015 20:24
This pub was closed (as in totally boarded up) when we visited Watchet in Dec/ January 2014-15.
2 Jan 2015 20:20
Visited this pub on a late afternoon in January.
It was fairly quiet, but those there gave a friendly welcome to me and the family and the dog.
There was a fire in the grate but the pub was very low lit. From the outside one might not have thought that it was open.
Two ales on handpump, Bays Brewery "Jingle" ale, which was a typical malty Christmas brew...not too bad. The other was Doom Bar, so the less said about that the better.
There was a pretty sizeable menu available but we weren't eating (see my reivew of the Washford Inn elsewhere on BITE).
I've seen some really variable reviews of this place, but it strikes me that it's decent enough, it just looks a bit like the Overlook Hotel in the Shining...ie underattended. We went to the Smugglers pub down the road the day before and that lacked any atmosphere whatsoever. I can imagine that the Blue Anchor can get pretty busy in summer, but no doubt it is a bit hamstrung by the encroaching Bristol Channel which must throw doubt on the continued occupation of this site.
2 Jan 2015 20:19
Just one word sums this place up in 2015- shocking.
Sign says under offer for a new lessee, and everything said that no one is interested in this pub right now.
1 ale on out of four pumps. Flying Scotsman by Caledonian. Why this when loads of good local beers around? Cider was OK though.
Asked for a sandwich, told that they had no chips to accompany, but they did have mash or jackets. Sarnies came in stale-bound white bread, and as they were running out of bread they gave my wife the heel to complete it.
Had TV on some music channel or other, then we were confronted by an unholy mash up whenever the PA music perked up, making it a very uneasy experience to sit in.
Hope someone can turn this around as it's in such a wonderful tourist area, and I expect the locals too wouldn't mind a decent boozer.
2 Jan 2015 18:00
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The Champions Bar, Watford
Still the Prince George but changed hands again. A visit will have you thinking of Queens as well as princes!
Newly refurbed and very welcoming. 2 handpumps (only one dispensing on last visit). Wells Bombardier "Burning Gold". Also Moretti, Symonds cider and the usual fizzy things.
Food very good, way beyond normal for Watford. Had a burger which at £9 was good enough value. Child's meal was £6 for nice Mac' cheese.
Good to have a pub that's making an effort to welcome all-comers- very unusual in Watford.
11 Jun 2016 16:34