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

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