BITE user comments - anfieldjet
Comments by anfieldjet
The Crooked Chimney, Welwyn Garden City
Been here a number of times over the last year or two and it is a perefectly pleasant place to visit. Nicely laid out with comfortable furnishings, a decent if unspeactular set of real ales, a bit of old world charm etc.etc. But over the last couple of months or so me and my colleagues have visited twice for food (once at lunchtime and once in the evening) and both times the unpleasant, surly, aggressive attitudes of the manager and bar & kitchen staff has been appalling. This isn't the bext pub in the area even though it is generally OK, but I (my colleagues) will not be visiting it again. Ever.
1 Jul 2010 14:11
forgot to say - I returned one pint because the beer in the cask was on the turn - it was more Sarsons Malt Vinegar than beer - and it was replaced happily and without question by the bar maid which is lot better than you'd get in a lot of places.
24 Sep 2009 18:39
Watched the football here the other night. Beer was in reasonable nick (4 different real ales) and the football was viewable without being intrusive. Plenty of outside drinking/smoking space. Staff were alright, a few of the customers were a few sarnies short of the full picnic but this is Soho - i.e. about par for the course. An alright pub but one I'd probably not go to unless I was there for the match or meeting mates.
24 Sep 2009 18:37
How the mighty have fallen. This used to be Warrington's premier real ale watering hole. You could go in and drink 6 or 8 quality pints of ale, every one of em different to the last. I went in a few weeks back and there wasn't a single ale on sale. There were a couple of pump badges on show but I was told they were both off It was either lager or smoothflow, the sort of flavour-free rubbish you can get anywhere. This pub is a bit off the town centre so it needs to have something that pulls in people. It did have, now it doesn't. How to kill a great pub.
16 Sep 2009 11:21
THis could be a great pub. Lovely building in a great position near the station. Only serves horrible keg beer (although there is a mild on offer). And the clientel are a very odd bunch, I sat at the bar and the fella next to me spent the whole time I was in there arguing with himself. And he wasn't the oddest person in there. Could be great but as it is needs a serious overhaul of it's beer quality and range.
16 Sep 2009 11:16
I've posted about this pub before but I went in recently and it was under new management and I'm really pleased to say the beer quality was as good as it's ever been (well, in the 25 years or so I've been going in). There were 3 real ales on on the side of the bar I was in and the two I had were both in superb nick. The new landlord/manager came over and introduced himself which was a nice touch, both he and his staff were friendly and courteous - there's a degree of continuity here as well as the man himself was previously one of the staff working for the previous landlord. Well done the Angel!
16 Sep 2009 11:10
Like The Nook this place has a bit of a weird smell when you walk in the door, but that's about all there is to compain about - the beer quality is excellent and the beer range is a little different to a lot of other places which is good. Food is erved but I didn't have any so I can't comment on what it's like. The outside seating area is nice enough when the sun's shining although it is close to the road. It does feel more like a bar than a pub.
16 Sep 2009 11:05
The otheer reviews are fairly accurate - I've only visited once and can confirm, the real ale is in pretty good if not great nick by and large. Big, run down rooms but that's part of its proper drinking pub charm. A weird musty smell - half kitchen, half damp. There's a pool table, dart board, a garden of sorts, well, a yard really, where they were running a beer festival when I visited. There's a well stocked juke box. Food is served and is basic but decent quality and value for money.
16 Sep 2009 11:00
On the face of it this is quite a decent little bar. Comfortable and with really nice, friendly staff. The beer range is distinctly avearage (keg lager and very little else), the food is basic but reasonably priced and dished up well enough. But on a couple of times I've been here on a match night and it then seems to attract a gang of complete head the ball loons, blood vessels in yteoir over-developed necks on the verge of bursting over major decisions like, er, throw-ins, preferring to use the outside walls of the pub as a urinal instead of using the toilets, charging round screaming their heads off when a goal goes in. Very unpleasant and threatening. Pity, it'd be a decent enough, if unspectacular, bar otherwise.
8 Apr 2009 18:57
Just bobbed in here to check it out and enquire whether teh football woudl be shown later on this evening. What you need to know (1) yo have to pay to use teh car park and it's only refunable if yo ubuy a meal (2) the bar staff are rude and ignorant - I stodd at the bar when there were no other customers for a full two minutyes whilst there were 3 members of staff behind the bar. One of them came and started working in fonrt of me behind eth bar and without sayiong to me 'aorry aboyt this, we'll be with you in a minute' or something along those lines, caried on working with her back to me and then shouted across to one of the others 'can you sort this fella out'. (3) they had no idea if the football was gong to be on or not, and when they asked me what channel it was on, finally decided that it probably wouldn't be. (4) the outside smoking area seems to be the front door so to get through the main entrance you need to side step through a gang of smokers nad the whole entrance smelt horrible.
Now I don't care if they show football or not, but the rudeness and lack of basic decent customer-facing politeness and the lack of knoweldge about which services the pub actually provides is just ridiculoous.
I won't be going back.
8 Apr 2009 18:38
This is as near to a local as I've got. The range of beer has decreased depressingly over the yers (there was until fairly recently 3 or 4 hand-pulled beers, one of which was a real mild) but I think that is now down to one bitter only, everything else being a kakk-y keg beer. But it's still a decent boozer. Big bowling green round the back, with seating front and rear. Inside there are three separate rooms and the bar area on the lounge side and a smaller more down-to-earth bar side. If Warrington are playing a Rugby League game it is usually packed to the hilt as it is one of those pubs that attracts a big RL following (to watch the game on the TV) despite being nowhere near the new ground. When there is no match on it's a comfy, session beer type of pub, one where you can sit with your mates and have a good long natter.
13 Jun 2008 14:06
Lived nearby this place for 20 years and only ever been in a handful of times and every time I've been amazed at how poor the food is. As the last time was only within recent months I think it's worth posting. There is plenty nearby that is a lot better.
13 Jun 2008 13:59
Large and rambling pub that specialises in food and real ale (usually 3 or 4 on at any given time). Capitalises on the local Lewis Carroll links with plenty of Victoriana and a few features restored/retained from the building's days as a coaching inn. We eat here maybe a couple of times a year and I always feel like the food is OK but a bit disappointing but as it's not overly pricey I don't mind that too much. Big outdoor area with plenty of seating for the summer.
13 Jun 2008 13:57
Walked into here a couple of weeks back and walked straight out again. No beer on, no other customers, looked horrible. Eeuch!
13 Jun 2008 13:50
Weird little set up this - the Ubiquitous Chip is more of a bistro/restaurant (with the most exorbitantly priced wine list I've seen outside London). But there are at least two bars attached to the dining area that, at a push, you could describe as 'pubs'. One is 'the wee bar' and the other is, er, not. The wee bar is exactly what it says, very small but does feel something like a pub, the other bar has more of the feel of an add-on to the dining set up. They usually have a single real ale on (their own brew) and a bottle-conditioned beer which is also their own (called 74.9 or something daft like that - it probably means something but I have no idea what). So, not bad for a quick snifter before or after your meal but not the sort of bar you would spend a full evening in.
13 Jun 2008 13:48
Splendid range of Belgian beers and, shout it loud!, Martin Miller gin behind the bar. The bar is longish and narrow so it's a but of a pain standing in a group as half of you are being barged around a lot of the time to let people pass, but it's OK. Tried sitting in the eating area one night and was virtually attacked by on of the staff for eth sheer cheek of the idea, but when we pointed out that they had stoped serving food so we wouldn't disturb anyone, they relented. We shouldn't have needed to go through that converstation though. Live music on a regualr basis - some interesting sounding acts as well, proper musicians, not just local X Factor wannabees.
13 Jun 2008 13:42
A few real ales on offer - big tick in the box there - which are kept reasonably well without being brialliant. There must be about 8 TVs in here which considering that it is not THAT big a bar is a bit over top. The bar is usually busy/buzzy but is not overly friendly.
13 Jun 2008 13:37
Eaten here but not drunk in the bar - food in the downstairs restaurant is pricey but good, and the wine list has a few rare and unusual finds on it (Verdicchio Castelli de Jesi for example). I am told that the best place to eat here is in the upstairs area. The bar is the standard '48 varieties of flavour-free lagers and not nuch else'.
13 Jun 2008 13:34
A rare real ale oasis in a very barren land. In an area where most pubs are student oriented or catering for the bistro crowd, this feels a lot different - a local's pub, friendly, not over-crowded but with a steady stream of business that seemed to be real peopel having rela conversations! The night I went there were three real ales on, a TV showing Euro 2008 football and not a lot else happening. Tope marks for having a price list on the wall that was one of those black plastic boards full of holes that the names and prices of the drinks are pinned to in whote and yellow numbers and letters. Not seen one of those for years.
13 Jun 2008 13:31
I've only ever visited this place late on a Friday evening (so I've probably not seen it at its best) but each time I've been in I've felt that the beer was pretty badly kept and that there was an atmosphere in the room like a fight was about to kick off. As I say, it might just be that it was late Friday, near to kicking out time, but then again, I can only go off my own experience of it - not somewhere I enjoy going to.
26 Nov 2007 14:55
This place always looks a bit messy and dilapidated to me but I love going in. The beer quality is fantastic and the range better than anywhere else that I know of locally. It's a one-stop pub crawl.
26 Nov 2007 14:51
Great looking place with plenty of space - I used to have a biot of a love/hate relationship with the place because it was one of the smokiest pubs I knew, and though there were one or two non-smoking areas they were always so over-crowded that it was ridiculous. That's not an issue anymore though, obviously. Beer range is limited but there are usually a few real ales on.
26 Nov 2007 14:49
Stunning interior and bery friendly staff. Decent range of beers on that are always well-kept. A little of the beaten track as well so it doesn't get too crowded. the only downside is that due to the impressive size and scope of the bar, standing in a group of more than about 4 can be bit of a pain.
26 Nov 2007 14:45
One of Liverpool's little gems, this place. Beer is always well-kept. The place is very old-fashioned, in a way that seems to be just left over from the first time round, rather than re-done to look old, if you know what I mean, but I don't see that as a problem. The only problem I have with it is that it is pretty small and snug so if there are more than half a dozen of you you struggle to be able to sit or stand in a group.
26 Nov 2007 14:43
The Fly in the Loaf, Liverpool
Excellent range of beers. Unusually for a real ale pub it is usually full on a weekend, mainly with a younger crowd. It is a very spacious pub but you don't get that impression due to the sheer number of people in most of the time.
26 Nov 2007 14:40
The Everyman Bistro, Liverpool
Unexpectedly brilliant bar that despite its setting (the basement of the Everyman Theatre) is an unpretentious welcoming bar that attracts one of the most wide-ranging clinetele of all the pubs and bars in the city. Great range of real ales that regularly change (though Taylor's Landlord seems to be on everytime I go in there). I seem to remember Hoegaarden on tap as well. Never eaten in here but the menu looks more appetising and hearty than most.
26 Nov 2007 14:38
Cavernous city centre boozer with a great range of Cains that is always well served and kept and as it's only about 2 minutes walk from Lime Street station it's usually my first stopping off place whenever I go into the city on train. As has already been mentioned, the tiled room is one of real aledom's great hidden treasures. The only downside I know of here is the 'beer garden' a flagged area about 6 feet square that has a couple of rickety benches installed in it. It doesn't quite live up to the rest of the pub's ecellent quality. But so what? I'd much rather be in a cosy corner inside.
26 Nov 2007 14:34
Always worth popping in here - proper old style pub with dark wood bar, planety of space and a raised seating area towards the back. Usually more of an older crowd in attendance, but that's alright, it'll usually mean there's a better, friendlier atmosphere than certain other pubs not far from here. I've been coming here off and on for about 10 years or so now and I've never once had a bad (real ale) beer in here.
26 Nov 2007 14:28
The address of this pub is wrong, The area that the pub is in is called Culcheth, not Culchem.
26 Nov 2007 14:19
I think this bar has now closed and a new establishment has opened in the same premises.
31 Oct 2007 15:54
Ramshackle and meandering country pub set in a little chicance just off the A49 a few miles south of Warrington. It does decent food and has real ales. Outside there is a large garaden and bowling green, but the pub really comes into its own in the winter nonths whne its cosy little nooks and crannies transofmr it into a classic English country pub.
25 Oct 2007 17:15
rogang's view is pretty accurate. Lovely looking little pub, two or three real ales, fine sounding menu. The delivery is a little different though. I went with four colleagues and after putting in our order waited two hours for our food to arrive. The food was nice but for the price and the wait it really wasn't worth it. And there was a dog in the bar which appeared to be owned by the landlady which barked through most of the evening.
25 Sep 2007 13:54
as with many of the pubs in and around this area it has reasonably well kept real ale, has a standard pub menu that is over-priced and cooked and served to a standard that really doesn't merit its price. But is OK in an inoffensive kind of way. Nothing to go out of your way for.
25 Sep 2007 12:36
have to agree with the other reviews on here - an interestingly modernised old pub in a lovely setting that really doesn't live up to its own idea of itself. There is a decent range of beer on (including one or two real ales) but it is hideously over-priced and the food is uniformly underwhelming and shoddy - from tuna steaks that come so over-cooked and so thin that it's more like a dried out chamois leather, to meat that is gristly and greasy... whatever you choose from the menu is going to be far too expensive for the sub-standard fayre you're actually dished up with. Pity - it could be great, as it is, it's just very disappointing.
25 Sep 2007 12:34
excellent little session boozer with a decent range of real ales on (Taylor's Landlord is almost a constant fixture). The crowd is mixed - after work, students, lads about town, real ale pub-crawlers - I've seen it get a bit volatile once or twice, but generally a decent pub to spend a few hours in.
23 Sep 2007 20:59
The most back-street and run-down of all the back-street run-down oubs I've been to. And it's a gem. Great quality beer, a fantastically knackered football table and (much as it galls me to say so as Liverpool fan) some great Mau.U photos on the wall from way back when.
23 Sep 2007 20:53
In a small village on the edge of Warrington, the Thorn Inn is one of two decent watering holes in a very short distance from each other (the Village Hall is the other). The Thorn Inn is a big pub, kitted out in reclaimed wood and comforatble furniture, which does decent if not spectacular food. There is a small selection of real ale available which is well enough kept but both the real ale (and the rest of the beer selection) is the predictable run of the pub chain mill. There is an outdoor (s)eating area.
23 Sep 2007 20:43
Not eaten in here since the refurb (well, never if I'm honest) but since the modernisation and the addition of a decent range of real ale it has become a drinker's haven as well as a place favoured by a trendier but more mature crowd... not something that normally goes hand in hand with real ale pubs. So well done The London Bridge. One of very the few pub overhauls I've seen that has actually improved the place.
18 Jul 2007 13:56
agree with most things posted here already. Tne Angel is a rare proper pub, serving real ale, in Warrington town centre, amongst a sea (perhaps descration might be the more correct collective noun) of keg beer and kak lager pubs and grab a granny 'night clubs'. It's only small and its range of beers may have shrunk over the years but it's still there and for that we should be thankful.
18 Jul 2007 13:40
The Crown and Garter, Inkpen Common
Very pretty little country pub. The food is excellent quality but pricey. The real ale is very well kept and there is a decent selection of wine too. The rooms are very comfortable and well appointed - much better than they look from the outside.
18 Jul 2007 13:19
Always quiet at least dutring the week (don't quite know how it stays open unless it very differnet at weekends) but the beer (the real ale anyway) is great, with some not-too-well-known beers available. The food is largely centred on the produce of the owner's farm (I believe) which means that the menu is a little limited (you get the impression that there is beef with everything), but is good quality and with generous portions. It's cooked well enough but is not what I would call great food. The place is friendly and has plenty of seating, inside and out, and there is a dart board, quiz night etc.
18 Jul 2007 13:16
The Brocket Arms, Ayot St. Lawrence
A belting pub this. Beautiful old buildng in a lovely setting with a large garden at the rear. Great range of beers. Staff all very friendly. The food, given the prices, is much better than average. The restaurant can be a bit souless when it is quiet but a larger crowd of diners can make it come alive quickly. Is a lot busier generally in the summer months and on the folk night (which I think is the first Tuesday of each month but I may be wrong). The big open fires in the winter are fantastic.
A quick word about the accommodation as well - lovely, well appointed, clean rooms - great value for money.
1 Jul 2010 14:20