BITE user comments - City_Womble
Comments by City_Womble
The Golden Pheasant, Kirkintilloch
The Pheasant used to be a bit of a rough pub in the style that Scottish pubs pride themselves on. Fortunately for us several years back the owners realised that we were no longer in the 1950s and that there was not enough clientele (posh word for local punters) in Auchinloch to sustain the place. Now it is one of the better places to have a slurp locally, but that aint saying much. The lounge bar is OK and the food is fine.
11 Jan 2006 15:50
Dreadful. This place should have been closed down about the time the Romans abandoned the Antonine Wall. Kirkintilloch drives one to drink and then supplies nowhere decent to have a few, such is the crulety of the town. Avoid + plague.
11 Jan 2006 15:48
One has to hope that the flats to be constructed on the site of this pub do not resemble in any way the housing estate on the other side of the road. Not a bad estate as such, but given that this is real cashed-up Surrey, then the non-cashed-up stand out even more, and the cashed-up living in ex-councils even even more. This is the clientele of the pub. It is a quiet place and little surprise that the owner is selling up.
16 Nov 2005 14:33
John Terry of Chelsea and Engerlund infamy was mentioned in recent media dispatches in the same breath as this pub. That in itself is a good enough reason to never come here. This smarmy pub is all about the posturing and futility of overcashed muppet life in Esher. The pub is bland, the beer is not so good, the seating areas seem to be a mix of living rooms, as though some DIY geezer went mad, and the atmosphere is shoking, unless you are a Nokia coming to look for another tweedy Nokia to mate with. The pub gets even worse when Sandown Park racing is in operation, when it feels like it is trying to be a country type pub, and fails dismally. This part of the country is poorly served by quality boozers and you would be best advised to continue in London
16 Nov 2005 14:29
Good grief! You all like it! Let me provide a bit of balance. It would be an OK pub downstairs were it not for the fact that the weekday clientele are some of the more revolting elements of City of London culture. This is a pub for those office juniors who do not have the salaries or expense accounts of their elders and betters. However, it does not put off the photocopier crew from a-hooting and a-hollering about how great they all are and how maybe they can even afford a car - next year. It is too dark to tell if the girls are girls or some other sort of Bishopgate life. Perhaps this is the reason why so many fellow posters on this page have had so much trouble 'pulling'. Most drinkers aspire to be able to pull their braces at the next promotion. The only pulling not going on is the pulling of decent pints in a solid pub atmosphere, which you will not get here. Continue into Spittalfields and go searching there instead - it really does prove the old adage that no pub within 500m of a mainline railway station is worth the effort.
15 Feb 2005 15:38
The White Horse, Parsons Green
Many moons ago the White Horse won the London Standard pub of the year. That was a fatal blow, as what was once a pub with a few "I work in Farringdon" types, grew like a bacterial culture to be the place for failed applicants to the New Gloucester Young. If you spend most of the week at Highgrove or most of the week telling anyone bored enough to listen that working in the City is stressful, then this is the place to big it up in. In summer the hordes descend outside. In winter the wine glasses clink and the beautiful people scream, if you can manage to squeeze in. I am really not sure why this pub remains so popular.
15 Feb 2005 15:30
It is probably the best pub in Thames Ditton: though is that saying much? Nicer for lunch than in the evening. The bar area is a bit small and pokey and the whole place could do with being gutted and refitted.
14 Feb 2005 12:53
This pub is awful and is to be avoided at all costs. How it survives is beyond me. It has a dreadful atmosphere and is locally yokally beyond belief. I found it to be unfriendly, full of sad old men and greaseboy youth all wishing they were cockneys. I do admit that it has been a fair few years since I last had the displeasure to be here, but I cannot imagine that any one in Surby with more than 10 sovs in the Natwest would bother wasting their time in here. It is time this place was closed and a giant statue commerating The Good Life was placed there instead. Avoid - life is too short.
11 Feb 2005 15:31
This pub used to be a haunt for Wimbledon fans, which is a plus point. I am troubled to hear that Chelsea games can attract clientele to what a one of the better out-of-the-way boozers in the Big Smoke. Pleasant, friendly, boring: a true tuesday night boozer, and all the better for it.
11 Feb 2005 15:26
The Rose and Crown, Wimbledon Village
According to my friend, you have to have tweedy trousers to drink here. According to me, you have to be a psychobabble nutcase to drink here. This is truly one of the most boring pubs in the British Isles. It is the sort of place that drove someone mad enough to write stories about furry creatures on Wimbledon Common that collected garbage: the latter word being my summation of this place.
11 Feb 2005 15:23
The toilets are supposed to be listed, though last time I was there I would have thought it was listed for demolition. It all goes to show that if you go to a pub because of its toilet, then you are truly a person in need of 30 minutes with the good doctor. Nice pub - never that warm or welcoming - but a great example of yer gin type palace. You get the impression that there was more of a laugh to be had here in the 1905s than the 2005s. Still, it is a London boozer that should be on everyone's list, which is more than I can say for Samuel Smith ales, which are as close to Thames water than I care to think about as I seek to draw inspiration from the urinals.
11 Feb 2005 15:17
Probably the worst of the 4 pubs in Shepherd's Market. It draws you back because you are more likely to get a seat - however, I think that this is because the locals have decided that it is not worth the effort. My abiding impression of this pub was that the ales were bog-standard Irish rubbish that could be served up anywhere, and that the bar staff were hopeless, being more interested in hanging about the rear of the pub smoking fags and wishing they were back home in Mostar or wherever. Avoid.
11 Feb 2005 15:13
I came, I saw and I slurped ale, which was not as bad as the reviewers make out. Nice pub, but the trouble is that a whole subway load of nobodies who think their somebodies hang around here. It is small and cramped and a few too many egos can make it even more cramped. Go at the weekends when all the yuppies have taken the train home (cos they cannot afford cars ironically). I took a foreign friend here, and he thought it was the bees knees. The bar staff are a bit full of themselves; a bit like the pub of a Friday night - though the beauty of Shepherd Market is that there are another 3 boozers close by to try if your knowledge of derivatives aint what it used to be. Tally ho!
11 Feb 2005 14:55
The Sherlock Holmes, Charing Cross
For all its tack, this pub defies the reviewer and remains a fun place, if a bit too busy. There is really little to recommend it except its central location: expensive and poor ales, lots of tourists, not enough seats, sometimes a bouncer, etc. But I kept going back. There must be something about it, though that something is certainly not the booze. A true survivor and the tourists think it is very British. I'll drink to that. Cheers!
11 Feb 2005 14:50
I have a soft spot for this pub, but that is based on visits many years ago when (like a previous reviewer noted) this part of the Thames was loaded with character. Now the pub is being raped by the spillover of commercial interests and tourists. Handy profits for the owners, but a shell of what it used to be as an interesting pub. A recent visit revealed that the pub has doubled in size and the bar has been completely moved. It is now more of a bland, yuppy-type watering hole with little to recommend it. The staff here have always been a bit rude, and the influx of tourists will not solve that issue. I would still have one ale there out of sympathy for an old friend passed away.
11 Feb 2005 14:47
The Brook Green Hotel, Hammersmith
This pub is, as Ali G would say, "Massive". What a pleasant find. A warm, Victorian, wooden pub, with huge windows, lots of natural light and a great bar. The accomodation here is excellent value: super ensuite rooms. 50 sovs a night plus a good breakfast is hard to beat in the Big Smoke. Staff are friendly and seem to enjoy working there. Given that the area between the awful Hammersmith and Shepherds's Bush is bland and disappointing (witness the sad strip of Brook Green) across the road, it comes as a pleasant surprise to find this pub in fighting fit shape. The only downside would be the tendency for lots of hobbos to hang around the area bad-mouthing folks, but surely they would not be allowed in?
11 Feb 2005 14:42
The Hoop and Toy, South Kensington
Great pub! I can understnad why most folk would think it horrible, but with perserverance this pub is a vibrant, busy and attractive watering hole in a great part of London. There is a tendency for people ot complain about the price of ale: so they should leave the capital, cos nothing is going to change. The beer here is OK, the staff are usually working holiday visa holders and fun. It's just good to be able to slurp ales in South Ken without having a billion pound mortgage around your neck. The only downside is that the smoke lingers, and there seem to be a fair few smokers to boot. Great pub!
11 Feb 2005 14:35
The Stables, Glasgow
A decent pub, more of a food place. It occupies the No Man's Land on the Kirkintilloch Bishopbriggs badlands border. The place was trashed many years ago when it reopened and offered cut price drinks, only to find the whole of Central Scotland gagging for a cheap pint. Now it is the class establishment of East Dunbartonshire. You think I am joking?
11 Jan 2006 15:53