please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
The Grove is a local boozer situated close to the station. It has a worn feel. The only ale was Hanlon''s Yellowhammer. There was no real cider. At the rear, there is a skittles room, another outbuilding with a pool table and an outdoor seating area, that is most probably favoured by smokers. A handful of locals were congregated around the bar.
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Previous snotty reviews leave me bemused. The Grove is a proper town/locals pub so not a wine bar or bistro, but the atmosphere is fine & the beers always excellent (recent 5/5 from Cask Marque). I've been on Cotleigh Jubilee & Worthington Red Shield recently. One of the best 3 or 4 pubs in Taunton. The food is good & the Wednesday quiz night extremely popular. I'm not big on music & comedy myself but that's available too
I've been drinking here for 5 years or so - and first got involved with CAMRA in the late 1970s - so feel I'm qualified to comment. Ignore the passing nay-sayers & give it a try
First class fee wi-fi too, if that matters to you (it does to me)
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We got lured here as its on the Somerset CAMRA pub trail. A poor choice of ales none of which were particularly drinkable. and the place was full of low life.
Cant imagine why CAMRA would promote this place as its a bit of a dump all round
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My girlfriend and i popped in this pub as we had an hour to kill waiting for
our train.
We walked through the front doors with our rucksacks on and to our horror it was totally packed out with young thugish looking men all watching Man united playing on sky!
Nothing against that sort of thing but as the telly was positioned near the door we could feel their eyes following around the room!
I have never felt so uncomfortable in all my life, we would never have gone in if we had known so 0/10 for that experience.
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This pub has now lost its cherry and is known as the plain "Grove".
Don't know about anyone else, but I like the bar staff to at least appear to have a basic knowledge of personel hygiene, The guy that serven me did not.
The place was empty on a friday lunchtime, with the said barman concentrating his efforts on his laptop.
Beer was OK; nothing more.
The place has had a recent refurb and looks preety stylish, but they are also advertising such events as "comedy night" and "Music night" @ �5. ticket, which I assume means you have to pay �5 whether or not you want to enjoy the comedy or music. Hence many (self included) will avoid this place.
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I know ,Dr_P, I know, but having never ventured in here before I thought I would give it a go. Big mistake, so I posted here to warn others, as you say, to avoid.
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Paris, I thought you would have known better than to go to a beer festival at a pub like this.
If they can't serve decent ale on a day to day basis, there is no reason to suppose they can at any other time.
Still, at least it will advertise to any ale drinkers that this is NOT the place to visit.
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I visited this pub on Saturday night as there was a beer festival advertised. The girl behind the bar was completely clueless and had to be shown how to pour a pint directly from the barrel. The Quantock Sunraker I ordered was a bit lively and after pouring several pints of froth and not knowing what to do next she asked an equally clueless barman what she should do. Equally cluless barman then decided the only thing to do was to pour said froth into one pint pot. Cloudy, short of a pint measure and obviously undrinkable to anyone who knows what they are doing, it was served it up to me. I politely declined and ordered a Teinworthy Scrumdown, which was far too warm; well it would be as it was being stored in the middle of the bar witout any attempt to keep it cool. I finished my pint and left.
Note to Landlord - if you wish to sell real ale, please instruct your staff on how to keep and serve it. If you don't please stick to the keg stuff that most of your customers seem to prefer.
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A great little pub, there seemed to be loads going on, we went for the Sunday Roast, which was great, especially the deserts! Had a well kept pint of Doom Bar, and the staff very friendly...apparently theres a website coming soon with all their info and offers on, landlord's a CAMRA member too, so much hope here!!! try it...
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NOW called THE GROVE this pub has definately up there with the best in town. I visit on a regular basis ( usually a weds for the brilliant Quiz and fish and chip night they hold and a FRI for the acoustic music night ). A great atmosphere combined with friendly staff and great ales and wines is meaning this pub is A MUST VISIT! The numptys have gone and there is a real good vibe in here now!
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full of numptys walking there from priorswood
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I had to lower my rating after the last visit. The ale was good enough, but they still have roaring drunks at the bar with consant angry conversation with every other fcuk or fcukin' or tawt or cnut punction by wha violent action he's going to take. Finally a cab came to take this sorry drunk away, but the staff just laughed it off.
The have a sign in pub telling you what to do ... no swearing etc.
It is that kind of place.
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The quality of the beers (I mean ales, not the fizz) is poor, and why oh why do they always have that bloody great telly on all of the time.
I like to go to a pub to get away from the t.v., but when I'm at home I can chose the channel I want to watch. Here it's always pop music videos.
And yes, the people unable to speakwithout swearing are still there.
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Great little pub. the owners really work hard and make you feel welcome.. really nice pint, sky sports aswell, really clean , well worth a visit......
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I tried this place again, on someone else's suggestion, and I've upped my rating slightly. The beer was better, the atmosphere a little more lively, and some normal human beings were having drinks friendly conversations. The place did have that big screen with dreadful music videos. If the landlords read this, don't think that means get better music videos. It means stop feeling obligated to have something on the TV all the time and focus on being a friendly local where people talk to each other.
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I stopped in here early one evening. The service was fine and the refurbishment is nice enough. They have cask ales, but they are seemingly kept at room temperature and as it was hot day day the beer was unpleasantly warm. Of the 4 other people at the bar, 3 of them couldn't make sentences without using f***ing in every phrase.
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Actually they have done a nice job of refurbishing this pub. It's not in the smartest part of town, so one doesn't know how long it stay like this.
Mostly a lager pub, which means the ale (Exmoor) is unlikely to be at its best, and it certainly wasn't when I was there.
I can never understand why pubs have a dirty great big telly showing a pop music channel, but with no volume, then they have different music playing on the hi fi. Makes no sense to me.
Bar staff seemed to know what they were supposed to do, but weren't prepared to actually do it.
Has yet to find its own identity; doubt if it ever will.
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I haven't seen the recent refurbishment, but the best improvement possible would have been to knock it down
anonymous - 27 Dec 2006 00:58 |
This pub has just completed a refurbishment.
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