BITE user comments - BongoJoe
Comments by BongoJoe
Great pub. And a very interesting choice of brewery; that of Rock in Cornwall. The Doomsbar is well worth having.
The thursday night semi-acoustic evening is usually very good.
If it's a non-music night the place seems over large but it's certainly worth going there when the bands are on.
One small complaint; they close far too early.
21 Apr 2007 01:33
Good pub. Good beers. Good staff.
Not much more to say really that I've always been made welcome on the few times that I find my way on St Mark's Hill.
21 Apr 2007 01:30
The Waggon and Horses, Surbiton
I'm slowly falling out with this place. The staff are great however it's fast turning into a Derby And Joan outfit.
The afternoons, when there's about three people in there, are the most interesting as some of these chaps will come over for a natter. Basically, they're other lost souls in a pub which is becoming soulless.
In the evenings I dread this place unless I am with someone with whom I can have a natter with. Otherwise it's a bleak experience.
The beers are good, yes. In fact I would say that the Youngs here are the best kept in the area by a mile. The cellarman, Chalkie, knows his stuff and is a great asset.
The problem is that it's too huge and there's no focal point. If there were a fireplace or a smaller bar to gather around then it would be a great place to go and natter to a local. As it is, however, it's almost like a Wetherspoons. Come in a group or to meet known friends and you're fine, otherwise you're left on your tod.
The evenings are really poor for the sole drinker despite the great staff.
21 Apr 2007 01:16
The Albion, Kingston Upon Thames
Much maligned I see. However it's a good little pub in an oasis even though it's Yet Another Greene King pub.
Locals are decent enough and I would most certainly go again if I am ever spilling over the Surbiton/Kingston border.
21 Apr 2007 01:05
The Grey Horse, Kingston Upon Thames
This is what pubs should be like. I'm not a regular by a long chalk (perhaps once a year) but each time I go here I am made to feel welcome by the staff and the locals.
The beer is good but the fact that the pub has always good live music makes it extra special for me.
13 Jan 2007 17:22
Incredibly this pub is worse than the neighbouring Ship And Castle despite the fact that it's cleaner and there's an infinitely lower chance of being infected by an ebola virus. But that's the end of the positive points.
The Australia is a large lump of a place selling nothing but fizzy beers and bottled stuff. Its main clientele are either too young to buy alcopops elsewhere or have come down the valley to have a punch up with the locals.
The police and local magistrates do their bit for the local community by closing it down now and then.
It's a complete waste of space and needs to be sorted out. It has the possibility to a decent pub and being one of two pubs on the high street I am amazed that nothing better has been done with the place.
It gets one point for being closed down half the time. If it were open full time then it wouldn't get this many.
Follow the example of the sensible minded locals and avoid this pub.
13 Jan 2007 12:37
Despite going here on an occasional basis I just can't work this place out.
The range of beers are excellent though they do seem to come from the same mini-microbrewery which does pale after a while. But there are some really good gems now and then. But at least the pub manager is making a good effort and for the real ale aspect alone it should score highly.
Where the pub fails is that the place effectively is tacked onto the Ffestiniog railway's cafe. The place looks and feels like it's been designed by the set designers for ITV's Crossroads motel. There just isn't a pub feel about it at all and this is where it loses a couple of points.
Another couple of points lost is due to the fact that the latrines are down the other end of the railway platform. Now, the views as one walks down the platform, it has to be said, are fantastic however at night in winter when one is getting the full benefit of a Welsh downfall blown at Mach 3 into one's face the hike to the dunny is less than appealing.
On the other side of the coin in the summer when it's not raining (usually the second thursday in July between one and three in the afternoon) and the tables are outside the views across the Glaslyn esturry and over into the mountains over Harlech are nothing short of breathtaking and then this is simply the best pub in the world and there's nothing to interrupt the view other than an occasional steam locomotive chuffing past.
If they could just get rid of the cafeteria feel to the pub then it would score a nine for me. There's rumours that the pub is open at 9.30 in the mornngs. If so, then it could be worth an extra point for its contribution to the community.
13 Jan 2007 11:05
The Y Llong (The Ship), Porthmadog
Situated on the West side of the park this is a low double fronted slate slabbed pub which immediately looks inviting.
Two rooms; the left hand one is (currently) the smoking bar and the larger right hand one is non-smoking with a little area at the back.
As its name suggests the pub, a free house, has a nautical theme and has interesting pictures of maritime life in and around Porthmadog, especially during the height of the slate quarrying years.
There's always a range of real ales on and are always well kept. The range of these beers are never anything exciting or exotic but they do the job well.
The staff are wonderfully friendly and the management make sure that everyone is made to feel welcome here.
In the winter evenings when the wood fire blazes it's especially cosy and is one of the few pubs in town where one can feel relaxed.
They offer a decent, but pricey, pub food menu.
13 Jan 2007 10:48
I'm giving this grim and fetid pub two points just for being there. This could be the nicest pub in the world but it's run down and decrepid. It's owned by S&N and so the range of beers is less than wonderful and only has one barely drinkable real ale on tap.
The place is cheap and attracts the usual motley collection of professional jobseekers and permanent doleites.
The brewery has been trying to get rid of the pub for years and it shows. The place is run down, filthy and it's gone past any form of interesting seediness into something that's downright miserable and depressing.
The roof leaks by the mens' toilets and has been known to resemble Niagra Falls when the rain really gets going.
This pub could only be improved with a half hundredweight of semtex. A shame as the long suffering staff are really decent people and are pleasant company. Shame the environment which they are working in isn't that good.
13 Jan 2007 10:34
The Spooner's Bar, Porthmadog
Disaster! The patio part is being closed down due to, um, improvements. Because of the new extension to the drug-riddled town of Caernarfon then it means that we can no longer sit on what is currently the best beer serving patio in the Principality.
This pub could easily lose half a dozen points for me for their diseased thinking.
2 May 2008 13:56