BITE user comments - Gordonferry
Comments by Gordonferry
This is an excellent Wetherspoons, mostly I think, because the manager and his wife seem always to be on site and are always working at whatever needs to be done. Clean and the beers are excellent.
8 Jun 2007 14:39
The Moon Under Water, Cheltenham
My wife and I visited last week on a two day trip to Cheltenham. We have probably been in 50 Wetherspoons over the past 8 years and this is certainly among the very worst. The beer was adequate, the place was dirty and those in the smoking section in the rear seemed as they would fit comfortably in the opium den scene in Edwin Drood. It seems as if it is now a Lloyds which might account for its deterioration since we were last there about four years ago. Go to The Swan (on Albion) -- an excellent place.
20 May 2007 12:26
Metropolitan Bar, Baker Street
Re: Sunday Chicken Roast at the Metropolitan
The Metropolitan is consistently good as to the quality of the beer and I find the staff attentive and helpful. The place is rather large and impersonal and it can be quite noisy when the mix of students and tourists press the noise level to the upper strata. But my wife and I have visited the place six times in the past two weeks and each was a pleasurable experience.
My wife, however, complained that on two successive Sundays when we arrived between four and five in the afternoon, that the Chicken Sunday Roast was no longer available. On inquiring, she found out from the manager that the Metropolitan receives a certain �Chicken allocation� every Sunday and obviously in the past two weeks that allocation was exceeded at 4:00. (The Sunday menu indicates the meals are available from Noon to 9:00 pm.)
The Manager was quite helpful but someone at the corporate level might look into adjusting the allocation levels. I think she will give up on the Sunday Roast.
7 May 2007 13:08
Re: White Swan Manager Sighting
Highbury, London is a good distance from Loch Ness � but the locals at the White Swan take their sightings with equal seriousness. Two reports have been received this past week of White Swan Manager sightings, a rare occurrence in these precincts.
Some long time White Swan patrons doubted his existence.
The Manager, wearing a badge, clearly designating him as such, was sighted twice in one week. He was seen on May 1 or 2, in the evening, in the company of a well accoutred executive type. The nature of the meeting is unknown to us, but the Manager seemed to be experiencing some discomfort as the meeting progressed.
The Manager was seen again on Friday May 4, energetically bussing and wiping tables, removing old plates and serving food. He approached these tasks with some vigour. One cannot help but believe that the regular hard working staff appreciates his efforts. And the White Swan was certainly tidier for his presence.
The White Swan has its troubles; particularly with the havoc brought about on Arsenal match days and the toll such days take on the infrastructure. But the place usually has a friendly ambience, the food is decent -- particularly the new Curry Club menu -- and the staff are hard working and helpful. The continued presence of a Manager would be a welcome asset.
The watch is on � further sightings will be reported once received and verified.
5 May 2007 12:45
I notice a consistent theme of antagonism toward the elderly from the apparent younger persons who assess pubs on your website. And I find a particular hostility toward the Wetherspoon�s chain. Perhaps a view from the elderly side of the circle is in order. I am 72 years old, my wife is 68. We are citizens of the United States. We spend each spring working at the British Library and, at day�s end, attend Wetherspoon pubs regularly. We ordinarily use those in the surrounding area: Shakespeare�s Head, The Metropolitan, The Angel, and mostly, The White Swan.
We do not go to Wetherspoon pubs because they are inexpensive � we would not be in England for 3 months a year if expense was a factor. We go to Wetherspoon pubs because the quality of beer is consistently good, the absence of loud music allows us to converse civilly, and the loos are clean. (Important when one is in his eighth decade.) We treat the staff politely and find them to be generally friendly and efficient.
For every shabby elderly person I see, I encounter an equally shabby, disreputable and poorly behaved younger person. And I doubt that the graffiti on the men's room walls at the White Swan was applied by the elderly.
My wife and I ascribe to reasonably acceptable hygienic standards. I suspect that is not the case among some of the young that I come across. My wife and I behave politely while in pubs. I have not always found that to be the case among some younger persons.
And when I feel a need to make a comment on a website I try to construct that comment using the tools of criticism, the most important being a basic understanding of the language. Some of your critics understand this. Others alas, do not. As a general rule I find that the more negative the comment, the less grasp the writer has of the rudimentary use of the language and a descent into profanity invariably occurs.
A rallying cry of the 1960s was �never trust anyone over thirty.� Now, the Mick Jaggers of the world are prancing geriatrics. Let the young be aware that in thirty or forty years time, I will be ashes and they might be one of the old men in the corner of a Wetherpoons -- thinking of times past.
But that would require reflection.
8 Apr 2007 14:46
The Barking Dog, Barking
My wife and I, who are partial to Wetherspoons, paid a vist to The Barking Dog on a rainy Saturday in June. We normally frequent Highbury and Hammersmith and not East London. The men's toilet was crammed and dirty and the overall place had a shabby look. My wife said the ladies' room was very shabby, very unusual for this chain. The one thing that one can count on in most outlets is that the beer is almost invariably good. A Heinekin and a Fosters were both off or perhaps the glasses were dirty for there was no lacing, a sure sign. Back to Highbury and Hammersmith.
17 Jun 2007 12:22