please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
If you are looking for that mysterious something that makes a pub great, I suggest you visit The Fortescue Hotel as soon as possible. As I entered the pub I immediately felt a great sense of well-being.
The interior is a long, single room with the bar running along the left hand side. There is also a Cellar Bar, which I did not see.
There are ten handpumps, nine for real ale and one for cider. Among the offerings on my visit were Spingo Special, Hanlons Port Stout, Firebrand The Dead Elvis, Tavy Solstice, Skinners Porthleven and Cornish Crown Porter. I sampled these two latter beers and they were not great. I also tried the Dead Elvis, which is based on The King's favourite sandwich of bacon, peanut butter and banana. I was not impressed. I had two pints of the Port Stout, which were excellent.
You will get a discount if you hold a CAMRA card or Spoons vouchers.
On the wall near me a flyer advertised a forthcoming event in the Cellar Bar called Weirdos - 'all things punky, retro'n'rocking' which sounds right up my street.
Despite the absence of a good pale ale or IPA on my visit, this was still the best pub I've drank in for a very long time and I shall be back. I wish it was my local!
|
This place was rammed when I went in for a quick pint on Sunday lunchtime - and deservedly so.
Seemed to be more people there for the booze than the reputedly huge Sunday roasts.
Decent selection of eight or nine ales on, including a couple from Hunters, one from Summerskills, and further afield including Jennings and Old Peculiar. I went for a pint of Skinners' Lushingtons, which cost £2.69 including a CAMRA discount.
The Fortescue also takes CAMRA vouchers, if you want 50p off a pint and a reason not to go to the Wetherspoon's pub just up the way.
Beer was excellently kept and had I wanted, could also have had it in a handled glass.
Friendly staff, tasters available and the only quibble that the music would have been a bit too loud if you were trying to have a conversation rather than read the paper, as I was.
|
Still a great pub, but lost a little of its soul when it lost its long-running music night down in the basement.
Does have regular music events and a popular quiz. Very nice bar staff and good beer, usually something unusual and interesting. Very nice little beer 'terrace' out the back.
|
I was probably a bit unlucky wth the beer choice. I've had better in a wetherspoons. 2 Skinners, Green King, Directors, Hobgoblin and two by local Hunters. Most of the beers except the last I see time and time again and had expected this place as the premier ale pub of Plymouth to be a bit more adventurous on style and brewery. Having said that, great pub, loads of atmosphere, just a vital ingredient missing for me.
|
Agree with all the good comments already written on here.
A different class of pub compared with all the other trouble hotspots on the plain.
Great for ales and good prices too.
10/10
|
Good to see Summerskills beers on, rarely see them in London.
Decent enough pub, efficient bar staff.
|
In here on 2 May before a Saints game. Good selection of real ale including Bays, South Hams and Blue Anchor. Cracking atmosphere, excellent service.
|
8 or 9 beers plus cider on offer this weekend. Beers from RCH, Everards, Tim Taylor, Skinners. St Austell, Sharps. Green King, Morlands (Green King). Prices quite reasonable from about �2.60.
Often has music or other events in the downstairs room.
Service and beer quality were fine in the early evening on Saturday.
|
Cracking boozer with Jail Ale on tap - no other reason to mark it down! Usual quality pint from an eclectic boozer - still not full of townie mungwits, just full of characters....yay.
|
Plymouth's CAMRA pub of the year and well deserved, nearly always has 8 beers on tap at any one time, usually from local as well as National brewers, the beer is always on good form and they do a scrumpy on tap from Thatchers called Manglehead (usually called Chaddar Valley in other pubs) and yes it certainly does!! as a high street city centre boozer this is probably one of the best around and deserves it's title from CAMRA.
I was in the pub Saturday just gone at 11am, there were a few happy locals and teh landlord was just about to put extra beers on the menu, we still had 5 to choose from, i had the Triple FFF, Moondance, at 4.2 % it was a very nice pint and at a very reasonable price for Plymouth, i believe it's the cheapest pub in Plymouth for ale outside of Wetherspoon pubs. Keep up the good work.
|
Visited pub recently prior to Plymouth v Norwich City match at Home Park. Tried both the Caledonian beers which were in excellent condition. Will definitely be back the next time Norwich are in Plymouth.
|
Cracking Spingo & Black Sheep and Skinners and Sharps and well the list goes on. If the pint isn't nice they will change it - just ask rather than scowl in a corner sulking. It heaves on Saturday nights with short-sleeved "buys" and crusty locals tolerating each other but I have honestly not witnessed an issue in the 15 years I have spent in it. Please please get the toilets sorted out - detergent and bleach are normally on offer at Wilkinsons so no excuse. I resorted to nipping into the KFC to use theirs - now that is bad! But, the Sunday roast is bang on as is the beer and the majority of the locals...
|
I'd heard this place described on more than once occasion as 'good old-fashioned'. Perhaps 'plain shoddy' comes closer. Creaking floorboards, diffident staff, unfunny and slightly unsettling "life and soul of the place" regulars, poorly kept ale. If this is the spirit of the tavern made flesh, you can keep it
|
When you visit this pub make sure you ask for a pint of Spingbite and black. Spingo is on from a Sunday until the barrel (or sometimes two barrels) run out - mix it with cider and black!!
|
My review meant to say the Hyde Park, not the Mutley Plain where both the Fortescue and the Hyde Park are!
It was a blonde moment, I apologise, and I'm a brunette;)
J1985 - 16 May 2006 19:43 |
The Fortescue is my favourite pub on the Plain. There is normally a good selection of ales, and on Sunday Spingo if you can dare to try it.
I also like the Mutley Plain, but find this pub just edges it in my estimations(there is a huge rivalry cricket team wise between the 'Fort' and the Mutley Plain) because of the greater ale selection.
There is also a good quiz on Sunday nights, and a surprisingly good jukebox too.
J1985 - 16 May 2006 19:41 |
An excellent pub for a proper pint. The clientele may be from a very broad cross-section of local society but that just adds to its charm.
anonymous - 30 Apr 2005 21:30 |
The Fort.... the first palce I ever got drunk on 8% cider, on a Saturday night, there was 16 in the national lottery and I was home being sick before Match of the Day had even started! Looking back on it now a decade later it seems like the start of a beautiful friendship with Lucifer's Liquid!
I still go back when I return to my home town and find it friendly and relaxed all the time. And also a decent slection of ales and plenty of seating and a reasonable beer garden for the summer comedowns after a night out!
|
Cracking boozer, good crowd. Probably the best pub on Mutley. p*sses all over the Mannamead anyway. I've got to behave in there though as my dad plays for the cricket team.
Dan - 19 Oct 2004 23:42 |
Even when the other pubs in Mutley Plain are empty, there is always a fair number of the regulars in the bar. Its very good on Friday evening as they have a basement bar where they have a DJ at least once a month.
Kevin - 21 Sep 2004 14:18 |
Blinding little boozer, with a good mix of local and student clientele. Nevder fails to please for the quality of it's ales and pleasant good time atmosphere.
Keith - 7 Jun 2004 15:38 |
If you have to drink on Mutley Plain then this is the place to do it. Good beer but they occasionally crank up the music a bit too loud. Suppose its a by-product of me being an old codger but it "dos ma 'ead in" as they say locally
|
The original student hangout where locals and Polytechnic goes used to freely mix to the sounds of the quality tunes provided by the duke box. And it's still probably the best pub in Mutley to this day.
Good for: the first of many
|
Best drinking establishment on the Plain. Good ales. Stands out as an authentic local in the midst of the tacky formulaic student bars that surround it. Has many regulars who are all very relaxed types. All round a chilled place except Saturday nights get a bit hectic with invading Mutley Plain pub crawlers.
60sPornoBird - 2 Feb 2004 00:45 |
