please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Typical 'spoons pub .... a huge open space with tables dotted around.
An interesting building clearly with a lot of history and for all 'Spoons faults it has at least bought and conserved this bit of Bristol history. Decent range of beers on offer at time of visit although ordering them at the bar can be tricky if you are short as the bar is very high!
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Good Evening All, just to let you know of a situation that happened a couple of weeks ago here. Below is a copy of my email to our local CAMRA branch. My girlfriend contacted Wetherspoon and just got a non apologetic response literally "blaming our party"
The fact it was two of us having a quiet after-work drink this made me pretty angry, so just to let you all know if you want a quick beer in the last hour of opening expect some abuse from the "heavies"..... OR DON'T BOTHER!!
I have to advise you all of an incident last night at The Commercial Rooms, Corn Street
Myself and my girlfriend were having afterwork drinks in the place, which has opening hours until 0100.
At 0020 the bouncers came round and told my girlfriend to "hurry up" her drink as they were closing. This being at the same time as I was being served drinks at the bar!
After bringing drinks back to our table I then questioned their actions at the bar, and was told by the bar staff they are "a law unto themselves"
In the meantime they selectively let some customers( usually women wearing very little) in and physically "pushed" others back out through the pubs swing doors.
They also carried on aggressively telling people to drink up and "get out" while they let people in and the bar staff carried on serving!
My girlfriend was very shook up and when I went in to try and find the manager I was physically pushed by a bouncer back out of the pub.
We spoke to the door staff next door who work for a separate company and they said they are always hearing complaints from customers who have experienced similar.
This has been a re-occurring problem for years now at this one particular JDW establishment, and the "heavies" that they employ really let down the good efforts put in from the majority of the staff that work there...
Needless to say I shall never return
We even spoke to police who were on patrol and almost laughed it off saying that it's private property and up to the pub how they run it
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As others have said, this is an very impressive building with a high ceiling topped off with a glass dome surrounded by statues. The colours are a bit garish, but overall its a pleasant enough pub.
There`s one very large central room, plus a smaller bar off to the rear. This is pretty nondescript and does n`t really have much in the way of an ambience. There`s also a small rectangular room behind the bar, but its quite narrow and is used as a corridor for people on their way to the loos. It was here that we had our Fish Friday Special. Our party of four had fish,chips, peas, 2 soft drinks, 2 alcoholic (mine, a decent pint of Abbott). The bill was £23, which can `t be faulted, although the fish was over-cooked. The main room was really noisy, and it was only 6:30, which was why we moved. Staff were friendly and efficient, although it was early and the hens and stags had n`t moved in yet.!!!
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Nice enough building but found it lacked a little atmosphere in here.
Cheap as it always is, but getting served was hard even though it was quiet, and is it just me or is the bar just damn high! (I'm 6'1!)
6/10
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They need to get their deliveries sorted out. On the last two occasions I visited, my first choices of both meal and drink were out of stock.
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Large, cavernous spoons with a very good range of ales on offer. The day I was in they were off loading ciders from the recent cider festival at £1.79 a pint, naturally your humble narrator indulged himself.
In fact all the three spoons in central Bristol are pretty decent, you can't say that about many other cities in the UK.
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Typical Spoons, large, loud and cheap. Nice building and very busy on a Saturday afternoon. Well kept beers as usual, Great Western-Edwins Ruby Porter, £2.20
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As most reviewers say..it is a Wetherspoon's so that will put it into it's own category, lacking any real depth of soul or spirit of individuality. It is however, a beautiful building. The staff are friendly enough, choice of beer good and on my visit well-kept.
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TypicaL Wetherspoons, reasonable for beer and food, avoid on a saturday night though if your in a hurry to get served.
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Swift pint of Port Stout while we collected our Briz Beer Fest Tickets. Nice drop of beer, nice price in a grand old building. McSpoons though - so good but not great. 7/10
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One of the 1st Wetherspoon's pubs I ever visited back in the 1990's. Beer range was good with a few beers left from the Beer Festival and the 1st of the Christmas beers appearing. Beer quality was good.
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Lovely beers from Plain ales today, and the place is back in the GBG. Aesthetically not the best which you have to expect from a 'spoons, but beer top notch today and that's what I was here for.....
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I avoid this place after 12:30 on the weekend because I know that the bar will sell you a pint at one minute to one and the bouncers will hassle you to drink up at one minute past one. Last Saturday 21st the bouncers were asking people to finish their drinks at quarter to one - when the bar was still serving!
MrKiA - 26 Apr 2012 19:45 |
architecturally lovely, but still basically a big JDW barn. Very good range of ales - 12 when we were in there, mainly micro brewery
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Rather interesting that JDW seem to be barring customers from here for posting reviews on this site. Do people think that this is still a suitable place to sell the March beer festival tickets from, if certain customers are excluded for such petty reasons ? Personally I don't mind if I was barred from here, as I can't stand the places and Tim Martin is barred from my pub.
On another topic, I used to work for Brake Brothers, who certainly used to supply JDW's with all of their food, and all I can say is that I wouldn't eat there personally.
Camra's prolonged love-in with Wetherspoons adds nothing to their integrity.
LukeD - 29 Sep 2011 12:02 |
further to my last comment i have contacted wetherspoon who unfortunately took the side of their thuggish door staff,i have been told that i am "unwelcome and that i am a troublemaker" for posting these reviews and am now barred from here,sad times but if you are new to bristol and fancy a spoons pint all the other establishments are fine,especially the knights templar which never disappoints and is bang on with great staff and perfect beer,com rooms rip
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Not to be trusted on their opening hours.Although they advertise being open until 1am on fridays and saturdays the door staff don't let people in after half twelve even if the place is dead!
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I was in here last , and there was a quite a lot of the crowd you'd expect to see in BSB , which I had walked past ,and was absolutely empty.
Good range of beers had deep shaft ,from a forest of Dean brewery.
Quality was excellent.
Interior not bad but lavortaries could do with a bit of tlc.
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Easily the best choice for beers ala weatherspoon in central bristol ,food- have eaten in here a few times recently ok maybe i've been lucky yeh but i have to say food was alright . Service alright as long as you accept it is wetherspoons i.e can be a bit slow.
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Easily the best choice for beers ala weatherspoon in central bristol ,food- have eaten in here a few times recently ok maybe i've been lucky yeh but i have to say food was alright . Service alright as long as you accept it is wetherspoons i.e can be a bit slow.
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If you go here on the weekend make sure you leave for somewhere else well before closing time. The door staff will harass you to drink up ten minutes before they stop serving!
MrKiA - 29 Nov 2010 17:27 |
popped in yesterday for some beer festival ticks and was totally disgusted at the state of the place,presuming its supposed to be managed by a "new and improved" manageress i have doubts that she would could actually manage a branch of subway.The totally un-motivated bloke behind the bar finally decided to pour me a pint only after having made himself a drink at a leisurly pace and also letting a woman push in and order a coffee even though the bar was empty,and so after the ten minute wait he poured me a pint of water with a light yellow tinge which he asked me if it looked right!!so after a very quick decision that it obv wasnt the pint of delicious blonde ambition that i ordered he changed it for one of the few ales actually left which were far and few between. The bar area and tables throughout the pub were piled high with plates and glasses and left over food the table next to me hadnt been cleared in almost two hours,and the toilets had not been checked on their check sheet since eleven a m,only six and a half hours earlier! What can i say a lovely lookin bristol spoons bein run into the ground by incompetance and on compassion that the place truly deserves! 5/10 only for the building!
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As others have said, this is an very impressive building with a high ceiling topped off with a glass dome surrounded by statues. The colours are a bit garish, but overall it�s a pleasant enough pub, although this was the first �Spoons to open in Bristol and it is starting to show it�s age a bit.
There�s one very large central room, plus a smaller bar off to the rear. This is pretty nondescript and doesn�t really have much in the way of an ambience. There�s also a small rectangular room behind the bar, but it�s quite narrow and is used as a corridor for people on their way to the loos.
Usual impressive selection of beers on tap, which on this occasion were Headless Huntsman, Rudgate Brewery�s Battle Axe, Ruddles Best, Yachtsman, Wickwar�s BOB, Directors, Abbot and Otter�s Head. Ciders were Old Rascal, Thatcher�s Gold, Blackthorn and Strongbow.
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Spacious Wetherpoons located on a particularly busy street in Bristol. Sadly therefore, this place attracts plenty of muppets on a Friday night, and it was rammed. The bouncer demanded ID from me and my associate, interesting considering we are both 22. Anyway, once inside we swept past the cretins enjoying their bog-standard lagers and woeful cocktails and I sampled the Warwickshire Churchyard Bob, which didn't exactly blow me away. There was plenty of choice for the discerning drinker, however it was getting late and we wanted to catch last orders in the Bag o Nails.
Sharp - 21 Mar 2010 20:08 |
Really fine building with a high domed ceiling and boards bearing the names of past Bristol worthies. Plenty of room, as you'd expect from a Wetherspoons and the beers were of a quite good standard, though even on a quite quiet Sunday evening, the bar was understaffed. Again, as is often the case for 'Spoons, the toliets were remote and upstairs, but sadly in this pub, they stank (despite the regulation nortice assuring us they'd been recenly checked - maybe by someone with anosmia!)
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a vast improvement from last couple of visits , found a beer that was really excellent , seemed to be a few more staff around than usual , as said a vast improvement .
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What a great interior with about 6 ales on from Weymouth (Harbour Master), GK (Flankers Tackle), Cotleigh, Courage, Caledonian (Deuchars) and Arbor Oyster Stout - very nice. Good filling WS food.
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was grntlemen's club & the architecture is probably lost on 90% of the clientele, beer was very good as well, of course it's full of the usual JDW chavs, prices are cheap so don't complain!
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The beer was so bad , i couldn't even remember the name of it
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Called in a couple of times this visit to Bristol and had no problems with the ale. In fact the choice was the best I have seen so far this spoons festival and we picked up 4 new ones first visit and a couple on the second visit. Really need more staff to man the horseshoe shaped bar as out of sight seems to be out of mind, but the regulars were fair in letting them know who was next to be served. Wish that politeness extended to more pubs! Enjoyed the breakfast too, they even redid it as the white of my egg was a bit too runny for me.
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Poor beer ,poor service , remarkably the barmans personality ALICE transformed himself when then pretty brunette turned up , but that said missed the most Gorgeshead redhead i've ever seen , he didnt get off with the brunette , but still ala luck next time .time for a trip to specsvers me thinks,by the way the brunetes boyfriend turned up a few seconds later .going d/hill rapidly
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Strange building this, the front bar had a 70�s orange and yellow colour scheme a bit out of keeping with the usual JDW d�cor. It was only when we got to the back rooms that it felt like a Spoons, albeit a rather tired and beaten up one.
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A fine old building, but it looks very tatty inside (including some of the customers). Very busy, but surely they could employ a few more staff to deal with the queues on each side of the horseshoe-shaped bar and the stuff lying about everywhere on uncleared tables? My original intention had been to get a curry and a pint with the good-value Thursday night offer, but on the basis that the kitchin might operate with a similar level of customer 'care' I decided to give that a miss and try my luck elsewhere after a quick pint of Black Pearl (a decent-enough dark stout from the Wooden Hand Brewery in Cornwall).
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Had a couple of decent ales here today, Brains Merlins Oak and Moor 5 Bridge Bitter, and the place was an improvement on my last visit in December.
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Been in a couple of times recently I've found the ale to be in excellent nick. They've had some interesting ones on too, the Vale Ale from Pewsey was simply sublime yesterday as was the Titanic Iceberg. Nothing special about the pub itself - a cavernous hall lacking in atmosphere, but very impressed with the beer.
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A stunning Wetherspoons by the historic Corn Exchange. Serves up a wide variety of ales - the two I had were pretty good last visit. The interior, which once was spick-and-span is now in serious need of some TLC. Has also started to attract some dubious punters - there was a scrap outside on a Saturday afternoon a couple of months back when I was last there - never what you want to see, especially in a big tourist area. Still worth a visit for a beer but needs stronger management to get back to where it was a couple of years back. There are a number of quality pubs nearby now which have overtaken the place.
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The problem is with this place is that is there is not such a thing as a bad ships crew , just a bad ships captain ,don't blame the staff , this place has no organisation at all ,50 people x1 bar staff member , whemn i worked in this insdustry you worker 1x staff - 30 people if you had 31 customers you had two members of staff , that said catering staff good , but no staff seemed all that concerned about serving drinks . is wetherspoons being managed by central Govt .
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Another town another Spoons, cold and badly served ale, dirty toilets and sticky carpets and tables. The girl we shared a table with was offered a plate of food, She said that she hadn't ordered anything, but they insisted. 10 minutes later, when she was picking over what left was slightly edible, the Manager came along and told her She hadn't ordered food, it was for table 19, we were on table 16! She replied that is what I said to the chap that brought it. The Manager said that she should pay for it, to which she told him that he could have it back and by the way it was horrible. Hilarious at the time and well managed by the girl.
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After an exile of 2 months and 12 days I returned,to say farewell to (another) member of staff leaving. Not much had changed,the chosen ale was hazy but in fairness the duty manager was as exasperated by it as I was. The urinal was full to within a half an inch of the top,and the staff preferred to argue over who was going to try unblock it tahn get on with the job. During which time it reached its capacity and poured out on the floor(ugh!) and then they had a bigger job to do. Drifting rudderlessly it seems. Again I say,a shame.
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filthy and rapidly going down hill
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Called in here recently direct from Bristol Airport after a long period of self imposed exile. Not much had changed I have to say. Still bursting at the seams with an interesting collection of drinkers from couples to gangs of roughs. The ale we had was sublime but the service was terrible. To a man (and woman) they all looked bored and disinterested and gave the impression that they were doing you a favour just by consenting to serve you. But the ale more than made up for it...... if only I can remember what it was called.
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Despite being a stalwart supporter and defender of this place I am so sorry to announce that the Commie is now officially rubbish. The contrast from say 12 or 18 months ago is massive. The beer is usually hazy,the good staff are leaving or have left,most of the remaining staff are just misfits who don't care,the place is falling down and the friendly clientelle have been replaced by dirtbags in for cheap beer or kids getting tanked up on stupid cocktails. It was great entertainment for the staff on a recent visit when idiots were "torpedoing" 500ml bottles of cider,but not for the other punters who had to endure their subsequent antics. A sad demise. Oh well.
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Gill,an excellent contributor I must say,has it right about the place needing a good hosing. But the beer is usually good,and there is still an attention to quality issues from the staff. But yeah come on JDW,the trade here is phenomenal and long may it last if you put something back in!!!!
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Visited last month but did not like it much. Beer was not in good condition and the floor felt sticky to walk on. The ladies toilets looked like a severe overhaul was needed.
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Huge, cavenous place. Despite the favourable comments of the previous posters I've always found this a bog standard Spoons, no better no worse. Seems to attract it's fare share of fist faces. At 9.30 one Sunday morning a juiced up guy weaving about on the smoking porch outside offered to entertain me with a punch-up just for having the temerity to walk past and mind my own business. It was lucky for him I'm such a cowardly weakling who'd get outpointed at shadow boxing otherwise I'd have murdered him.
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not bad , good choice of real ales , one of the better jdw's ,much preferrable than say walkabout opposite.
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I agree with most of the comments about this Wetherspoons. It's one of their better ones (along with the Knights Temple around the back of Temple Meads station).
If you want an awful Wetherspoons go to the King of Wessex in Bath!
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Not updated for a while so here goes. Range tonight was Hooky Gold,Brewsters Hop-a-doodle-do,Duchy Organic(made by Wychwood I believe),Triple FFF Alton Pride,Outlaw Wrangler,Ringwood Old Thumper,Woods Wonderful,along with 4 cooking ales. Place was mad busy but top manager was working so service was bearable. Rest of servants were generally at least competent. Serious drinking was going on. Still it was well worth enduring the throng.Overall by value,service and selection still one of the best-if not THE best-in Bristol city centre.
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Not updated for a while so here goes. Range tonight was Hooky Gold,Brewsters Hop-a-doodle-do,Duchy Organic(made by Wychwood I believe),Triple FFF Alton Pride,Outlaw Wrangler,Ringwood Old Thumper,Woods Wonderful,along with 4 cooking ales. Place was mad busy but top manager was working so service was bearable. Rest of servants were generally at least competent. Serious drinking was going on. Still it was well worth enduring the throng.Overall by value,service and selection still one of the best-if not THE best-in Bristol city centre.
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Very ornate, and not as bland as most JDW's. Beer choice and quality was absolutely excellent, the usual good quality breakfast, and very friendly service. A good quality pub.
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always look forward to comin in here on my visits to bristol..lovely architecture..never had a bad pint in here and always had a good scran.can get very busy..not keen on the high bar though..but good all the same.
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One of the best Wetherspoons you will find
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Biermiester you know little about pubs or ale!
This pub is an excellent ale house, great range of ale, good food and good service - worth a visit on any day of the week!
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Why?
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I can't believe it's beer!! Typical Wetherspoons cavern with usual selection of weirdos, DSS claimants and drunks.
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"spoons pub of the year" is hardly a reason to visit; more likely an indication of being a pub to avoid.
A bit like "macdonalds restaurant of the year".
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Great Selection Of Well Kept Festive Ales when visited last week, quite slow service but then such good beer at such good prices deff deserves a 9/10
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WETHERSPOONS REAL ALE PUB OF THE YEAR 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sold 8900 pints of ale at the recent beer festival-6th best in the UK,5th was the Imperial in Exeter which is about 3 times the size and only sold a few hundred pints more.
To quote a scots lady visiting Bristol recently-"I can't believe I'm in a Wetherspoons...........!"
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Highly successful beer festival,even the most hardened whingers and complainers were finding it difficult to fault the beer. Evidently had a double order of everything,and also mopped up any spares left over in the other Spoons pubs in vicinity.
Festival ales will probably be around for a few days more,but goodies like Exmoor and Cotleigh are returning now. (Beats the "cooking" ales GK IPA etc they insist on having in the Shites Templar hands down!)
A faultless performance. Well done again.
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Deservedly in the new Good Beer Guide,probably the best range of ale in the centre of Bristol nowadays,and the quality is consistent. MILES above the majority of the rest of the Spoons in Bristol. The staff,though hard worked,make a decent effort. I would find it difficult to criticise anything about the place. A job well done folks. Keep it up.
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Very good selection of well kept beer, including a lovely Porter. One of the best Wetherspoons I have been to.
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Excellent architecture. Good range of beers.
anonymous - 21 May 2007 12:25 |
back again this week, food and beer fantastic!
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excellent beer and food. Great range of real ales and realy clean pub.
would recommend to all
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Place has been good lately,great range of ale,served and kept well. Started getting better when they got rid of the obnoxious weekday pot man/weekend bouncer. And banned the cancer.
Steve manager is a good bloke,but his mini-me needs to brush up though!!!
BIG Wesley has gone to Temple Meads spoons recently,hope standards here don't fall as a result of his promotion.
Probably close between Fishponds and here for best spoons in Bristhole.
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Always a bit of a mixed bag clientele-wise, as is the case with numerous JDW offerings, and that hasn't really changed in over 12 years. However, the Commercial Rooms are by far not the worst of the 6 Wethy's in the city, and is worth a visit for the ale-lover as an antidote to the ever-encroaching bar culture of the immediate area.
Most impressive is the architecture: they spent a vast amount of money on converting this grandiose fomer gentlemen's club and with considerable sensitivity. The result was an arresting, well-designed drinking and eating space which retains the character of the old building with the function of the new occupier.
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Seems to change management every few months and the beer range and quality lurches from the fantastic to the dire. But it's currently as good as it's been for years (mind you, all things are relative and we're talking 'Spoons here) and the "urine soaked wretches" seem to be on the decline. Natural wastage I suppose.
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Went there on an evening out with my finnish girlfriend. Staying in bristol for the weekend at the local motel. Went early bought two dinners for cheap and a great bottle of wine! What a difference a totally non-smoking environment made! all pubs should go that way. The air smelt fresh and the beer and wine tasted great. Def 10 rating.
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Big barn of a place, was a businessmans club but very run down untill Weatherspoons got hold of it. It has its drawbacks, being central it gets racked out with kids thur fri sat evenings getting tanked up before going on to clubs and there are a good smattering of unsavoury characters. All down to Weatherspoons more than reasonable prices. Food is cheap and cheerful but it can take a lifetime to get served at busy times. One more point, the bar staff can be ultra keen to enforce the limits on drinking up and chucking out.
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The pub is smoke free. Got friendly staff. Best Value food and drink in the city centre. Nice building. And a large variety of drinks and food menu.
I love it. :-)
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Great place to either have a good value lunch or get absolutely plastered and roll out the door and down the hill towards Evo. Like a labyrynth to et to the loo's from the bar - quite a cool dome-building thing towards the back. Standard Wetherspoons really
Tom - 4 Apr 2004 21:25 |
Aww, I dunno about that Rufus. I thought it was a pretty cool place for a drink. I was backpacking from Australia and hung out in the commercial rooms for a night. Every pub in Australia sucks so i guess i think every pub in the UK rocks. BTW, your words on the pub were great....good laff.
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Brutally real description by Rufus. Nice building compared to many other Spoons
Gareth - 3 Dec 2003 15:48 |
This pub is a favourite haunt of local alcoholics, beggars and the mentally disturbed, due primarily to its cheapness in relation to the other city centre bars.
It also seems to be the place where yellow-eyed hollow-faced old men go to just before they die. Perhaps this is why it's easy to imagine that you're in purgatory as you watch another of the urine-soaked wretches totters past frantically fighting against their palsied hands as they battle against spilling any of the rough cider they're carrying slowly from the bar.
The other reviewer is right though. It was a nice building.
Rufus - 10 Nov 2003 16:00 |
Nice Wetherspoons use of a historic building.
What were the "Commercial rooms" and who were the presidents on the boards, anyone?
Vindaloo - 27 Aug 2003 13:24 |
