The Black Castle, Arno's Vale - pub details
Address: St. Philips Causeway, Bristol, Bristol, BS4 3BD [map] [gmap]
Tel: 0871 951 1000 (ref 23761) - calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras
Bristol Temple Meads (1 mile), Lawrence Hill (1.1 miles), Stapleton Road (1.8 miles)
> Current user rating: 5.0/10 (rated by 9 users)
other pubs nearby:
Bocabar, Bristol (0.2 miles), Sandringham, Arno's Vale (0.3 miles), Bloomfield Inn, Arno's Vale (0.3 miles), Brislington and St. Annes Conservative Club, Brislington (0.5 miles), George Inn, Knowle (0.6 miles) - see more nearby pubs
user reviews of the Black Castle, Arno's Vale
please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
5 most recent reviews of 23 shown - see all reviews
| Now advertising on Social Media that there's Disco and Karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights. TalbotHill - 7 Jan 2014 22:07 |
| A very unusual pub, looking exactly like a black castle as it’s name suggests. I believe that it was built originally as a folly by the local Lord of the manor when this was still part of the countryside outside of Bristol. Unfortunately despite it’s interesting appearance from the outside, it is now located in the middle of a supermarket car park and inside it’s a very bland, corporate affair with no interesting features whatsoever other than a couple of arched doorways and windows. It’s a large, U-shape building, and the courtyard in the centre of the “U” is still pleasant enough, although not quite as attractive as I remember it from my youth when there was a pond and fountains illuminated by coloured underwater lighting. Once you’re inside though, you might as well be in a Brewer’s Fayre, Premier Inn or any of the other bland chain pubs that blight our landscape. The left hand leg of the “U” is more the bar area and this had rather cheap looking laminate flooring, whilst most of the rest of the pub was carpeted and taken up by diners. The bar area has a couple of (orange?) pool tables at one end as well as a pinball machine. Paintwork was a mixture of khaki green, cream and mustard which actually looked better than it sounds. A number of old black and white prints of Bristol were on the walls, as well as some arty black and white close-up photo’s of golf, darts and pool. There were also a couple of plasma’s dotted about which I think may have been showing sports of some sort. Service at the bar was somewhat slow with only one person serving initially and a number of people ordering food and paying by card. A pile of at least a hundred empty glasses at the end of the bar indicated that they are either understaffed or disorganised. I didn’t inspect the menu, but it appeared to be very much the cheap and cheerful sizzling variety, and there were a number of meal deals on every single day of the week such a steak nights, burger night, great big combo nights and even pudding nights. As might be expected, beer choice was not extensive with Bombardier being the sole offering. Ciders were Blackthorn and Strongbow. Blackthorn - 24 May 2013 16:27 |
| After the refreshment, they re-named it to "The Castle". It's now reverted to Black Castle, but no improvement in the speed of service or indeed the number of staff actually serving. We waited for nearly ten minutes until eventually getting served, during which time the two bar staff disappeared, two more passed through without stopping until the two original returned. it was only when someone waiting threatened to start singing "Go Compare" that the bar queue started moving! TalbotHill - 20 Oct 2012 13:10 |
| Went in for a drink and meal last night and was well pleased. The Wells Bombardier was OK and the steak option we chose was cooked as we ordered. TalbotHill - 1 Feb 2012 14:13 |
| It's now open and had a fairly good workover. there is now REAL ALE, albeit the Wells Bombardier had just run out when I arrived. Food smells good, even over the smell of fresh paint! Well worth a visit. TalbotHill - 9 Dec 2011 20:48 |
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