please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Disappointing Fullers clone pub with average microwaved food from a central kitchen somewhere. When I was there the bar staff were inefficient, but pleasant enough. Good beer though, but it should be at these prices.
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Recently revamped in the corporate style that Fullers have come to favour in recent times and which is evident in some of their waterside pubs in London. It's Ok but lacks the earthiness of the nearby Crystal Palace, let alone the incomparable Rising Sun, both also on the Grand Union canal. That guest ales including the excellent Side Pocket for a Toad were on is a plus point and the food looked good but it's one for the Hackett shirts and sunglasses perched on heads brigade.
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A popular pub that has just been revamped. A Fullers house with a good selection of beers and wines and food that looks okay, but I've never eaten there. They have spent a fair amount on revamping the interior and extending the canal side terrace and have removed the sky-sports screens after Fullers' decision to dump Sky altogether. It's quite nice inside, but they've made the bar smaller. I was warned before I went that service is a problem and sure enough, the now smaller bar was lined with disgruntled customers. The bar staff were friendly, young and polite, but had no awareness of who was waiting.
I'm not sure they've actually improved the pub. For some reason, I never really liked the pub, but enjoyed meeting up with friends there to watch an important game. So I have no real reason to go there now. They also have young mums with children and buggies in the bar, which puts me off too. I hope they sort the service etc out and are successful. It's not a bad pub, just not for me.
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Nice pub. Superb service. I walked from hemel to here and was made to feel like an all conquering hero. This is an excellent pub and we should cherish it.
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For some reason �The Boat� has it�s critics, but I rate it one of my favourite pubs. The food is 7/10 although the menu can be a bit limited. The beer range is typical of a Fullers pub and the staff are terrific if not slightly overworked at times. It can get very busy and it is common for people to reserve a table then fail to show.
Over summer they have the occasional Sunday BBQ which is well worth a try.
A note should be made about the sport they show. Berkhamsted has a large community of people who support Rugby and The Boat will give Rugby preference over Football on some occasions.
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Four of us popped in for a drink, a bite, and a warm-up after strolling up the canal path from Hemel in the rain. Excellent food, nice beer - Fullers - and very helpful and pleasant staff, even helping us get our wet clothes dry on the radiators on the flat upstairs. They even popped by and asked if it was OK to change the TV over for the Rugby. Either ThristyDrinker was very unlucky, or his comments have had the desired effect. We'll be back.
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I visited this pub last Sunday. My friend had pre-booked a table in front of one of the screens, so we (six of us) could watch a Sky football match over Sunday lunch. Everything was great until 15 mins left in the football when - without consultation - the screen was switched over to preamble of a rugby match involving Ireland and France (with the sound switched off).
Given that we had chosen the pub (and the table) with the express purpose of watching the football (which the pub had said would be shown), this was channel-switching of the most rude and bizarre kind, especially as i) we had spent about �100 in the pub on food and drink; ii) no-one apparently had any interest in watching mute interviews involving foreign rugby-players 30 minutes before the rugby match had started; iii) the football had just 15 minutes left; iv) the channel was switched without consultation despite us having sat watching intently for 75 minutes.
Upon us all asking for the football to be put back on, the manageress (?) reluctantly and rudely agreed "as a goodwill gesture". Christ! "Goodwill"!? Almost unbelievable business management. Apart from this, the food was OK, (other) staff competent, decor lovely, and beers good.
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Fullers pub, with Honeydew etc. at the bar. A good all round pub really, nicely situated beer terrace overlooking the Grand Union canal, which gets ultra-busy when the sun comes out. Inside a pleasant, but unfancy decor. Good venue to watch sports on the big screen; but also a decent place to grab a bite to eat, albeit that the fayre is fairly hit & miss - e.g. the burgers come from a brilliant butchers, Eastwoods, over the road and are great, but some of the other things on the menu are lacking.
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As said below modern style Fullers House with a canal side location with a nice outside patio area to watch the passing boats from. One bar pub inside with a central bar area, pleasant seating at one end and a flat screen for the sport at the other. Nicely decorated in wood paneling style. Usual range of fullers ales on offer of which I tried the Pride.
Ate here as well, although I thought the menu was a bit pricey (was like being back in North London). Wife was disappointed with her mussels which were a bit bland but I couldn't fault the Steak and Ale pie which had the biggest puff pastry crust on it I have ever seen and cemented my view that food is only truly edible when cooked with beer... :-)
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Fullers House with a canal side location and a nice outside patio area. Inside is nicely decorated with comfortable furnishings. One corner of the pub is given over in memory of Berkhamsted�s favourite son novelist Graham Greene. Friendly and efficient service, usual Fullers beers including bottled ESB and London Porter. They could be a bit more creative with the pub sign, it�s a bit like Clarice Cliff trying her hand at boating scenes.
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Agree with comments about it being a good boozer.
Nice range of Fuller's beers, good food.
Lets dogs in. All in all very welcoming.
By the way it's canalside so you can watch boats going up and down the locks.
The nearby butchers is one of the best on the planet.
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Went all the way from London to visit here, wasn't let down - great food, excellent choice of Fullers' beers, nice canalside beer patio too.
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probably the best pub in Berko, decent food and drink, good bar staff and within staggering distance of my house
Paul Hanna - 18 Nov 2004 22:40 |
Good food, popular at the weekend and the place to go to see sport on the TV
Dee - 27 Oct 2004 19:07 |
Weekends are great - full of 30/40 somethings who tend to work in London, great decor, great range of beers and wines, nice ratio of ladies to guys - tend to be relatively affluent people.
Jules - 22 Jul 2004 12:33 |
