Bear Tavern, Smethwickback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Good pub, always a few well kept ales on, I'm a football fan so this place suits me, service is good even when busy. 7/10
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Less than a two minute stroll from real ale specialist The Midland, the Bear sports only half the number of handpulls that dispense mostly standard fare. However in terms of atmosphere the Bear beats The Midland into a cocked hat, which may have been due in part to two sets of competing football fans descending on to it at roughly the same time. This provided a boisterous, yet good humoured soundtrack to quaffing a well kept pint of Otter's ale. Despite the crush at the bar the service was brisk and courteous, and although screens were dotted all over this large pub I didn't find them at all intrusive, but then I don't generally. Probably not a pub to tick all the boxes for trad ale house purists but may fit the bill for those who like some Saturday night positivity with their grog. Not perfect but earns a 7/10.
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Decent place. Nice mix of customers , young and old, good buzz about the place
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It's been smartened up considerably and seems to be pulling in the punters. The well-kept real ales were a welcome addition.
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Typical large 'Spoons pub, and many may say it is rough and ready. Bearwood is aspiring to be Harborne or Selly Oak rather than Smethwick, but just under its middle class veneer lurks the Bear Tavern. And in a way, it is a good thing too.
The flip side is the clientele on most weekend evenings, although the 'PLace 2 B' across the Three Shires Oak road is much worse if you are wary of a ruck in my humble opinion.
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You can't complain about the clientele - bearwood is a once cosmopolitan area hemmed in by the sons and daughters of the white working class. They almost certainly still live at home and have large disposable incomes. They ARE going to start fights, sing football songs, and drink lager. The Bear is surviving financially by opening its arms to these wonderful people every weekend. You can always try going in the week instead, where there are less of them about, but be prepared for the apathetic staff to be calling last orders at 10.45, turning on the lights and sighing loudly.
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AHEM! mattyboy & beerboy28, i'll have you know i live in that "rubbish" "hole"!!!!! you OBVIOUSLY haven't been in there recently, they are doing real good recently, many come in, we have Dj Ken in there now and i haven't heard of any complaints to the manager about poor drink quality either!
I personally would give it a 9/10 (none biased considering i live there), the one missing out of ten is the fact that there is the occasional fight and or trouble maker in there.
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Very friendly girl served us,bombardier and s hen on draught,sbow & bombardier was only �4.45,nice large spacious pub with jukebox available too, would make a nice local i think, 8/10
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They're startted doing real ale again, but it's still a hole.
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rubbish, just rubbish.
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Ive lived in Bearwood for 10 years and the Bear whilst admittedly being a bit rough and ready was always a pleasant friendly multi bar local boozer. Skip 5 years to the dreaded 're fit' and extended weekend drinking hours and you have what can only be described as hell on earth. The pub is now 'open plan' (why do they do that??) resplendent with pool tables (why not just call them chav magnets) frequented by menacing looking baseball cap wearing morons (and thats the women) and serves beer that can only be described as toilet water. This once great local pub has nothing to commend it, the food is awfull, the bar staff are indifferent, the management are incompetant, there is constant trouble and to cap it all there are doormen during the weekend which kind of says it all. This place needs its license taking away, (which by all accounts as a result of all the trouble is a distinct possibility) and new life breathed into what as a local pub has limmitless potential. Whoever takes this place on could do worse than looking over the road at the uber cool Atticus Bar, and up the road at the recently re fitted Kings Head with its accent on good food in great surroundings, Bearwood needs and deserves it.
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Horrible and expensive pub. I think there are 'offers' on the usual Carling / wife beater / Tetleys but the Guinness was pricey and awful, I didn't even finish it, even at that price so I switched to Jack Daniels (atleast it comes from a bottle so you know it'll taste right) but that was wallet cripplingly expensive. Will benefit from the smoking ban immensly, although that will probably drive the prices up even higher (if thats possible)
Avoid this pub unless you want a crap night and to come out broke and smelling of fags, and with a little piece of your soul missing.
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this is not a trouble free pub never has been always fighting here
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Advertised as a trouble free pub! Ha! Se it every Saturday night, you can make your own mind up
anonymous - 2 Jan 2005 19:09 |
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