BITE user comments - boozerbill
Comments by boozerbill
It's fine. Some of the surliest barmaids outside of London but beer is okay and it's relatively untroubled by tracksuits.
21 Oct 2012 18:14
The landlord who looked like a dodgy second-hand car salesman seems to have departed. The new regime may actually care about beer quality so I think I may visit more often.
21 Oct 2012 18:11
Really bad. Was casually threatened by a slack-jawed local at the bar and there was a turd in the urinal.
21 Oct 2012 17:39
Visited here a few weeks ago on a Sunday evening. Was being run by a solitary barman who was happy to ignore the pissed up regular (Benson?) who was going from table to table harassing people who were eating and trying to talk. Beer was average and food was actually quite good (after a 30 minute wait), but we certainly won't be back.
8 Sep 2012 12:16
The Sir Loin Of Beef, Southsea
What a strange road this is: only a few yards away from the aggro-crazy loudmouths in the 3 Marines (a real bunch of hard men when it's 5 against 1), and the EDL-friendly Alma there is this gem of a pub. Loads of quality beer, great staff and a relaxed atmos. PLEASE keep it up otherwise there is just no point in coming to this part of town...
2 Sep 2012 21:37
Anyone else remember when this place had wooden boards instead of windows? Good business plan lads.
2 Sep 2012 21:30
More incarnations than Dr Who over the years. Was VERY popular with the youngsters at one point but they seem to have moved on. These days there is little to recommend it and I would think its days are numbered. Were it not for the fact it is right on the common it would have shut yonks ago.
2 Sep 2012 21:11
This seems to be a pretty contraversial pub (perhaps there is little else to do in Oving) so I'll offer you my impressions from having visited there roughly half a dozen times a year for the past 5 or 6 years.
Walk in - 3 or 4 florid locals at and around the bar eye you up and then continue their slurred conversation.
Approach bar - a very young barmaid looking slightly haggard from all the regulars' jokes and leers tries to force a smile.
Select drink - this pub has many beers. Frankly too many. All have 'humorous' titles. I generally pick one at random as there is little difference in taste, merely alcohol content.
Sit down - either in the cramped interior or the pleasant garden and wonder how such a beautiful spot can have generated such an average pub...
2 Sep 2012 20:30
Pricey and massively variable service. A curious combination of carvery-crazed diners in one room, rowdy footy boys in the next and the local deadbeats at the bar.
2 Sep 2012 20:14
Dead. No idea how this place survives. It's certainly not on account of the staff or the prices...
2 Sep 2012 19:53
Like a lot of pubs in the Sussex sticks this place hasn't really changed since Thatcher was PM. It's fine though. Beer's ok and popular with the over 70s...
2 Sep 2012 19:51
The Crown and Anchor, Chichester
Lots of queues, lots of deep-fried food and �3.80 a pint. Just buy a 4 pack and sit on the beach. You'll get the same experience and wil save at least a tenner...
2 Sep 2012 19:48
Seafront restaurant. probably not worth it if you just fancy a pint or two as the queues can be biblical.
2 Sep 2012 19:41
Not bad - pretty much just a restaurant with a bar attached but they do some decent beer. Staff are very good. However, I know this is fox hunting territory but dogs in the bar? No need for that...
2 Sep 2012 19:26
Emsworth must be a safe place. Mainly because most of the crims are in here of a weekend. Pretty much what you'd expect from the exterior: bland, rough and best avoided.
1 Sep 2012 01:04
Pretty boisterous when I was in there on a Friday night but not aggressively so. Beer was ok and fine for Emsworth.
1 Sep 2012 01:00
The Fifth Hants Volunteer Arms, Southsea
All right but not great. Loads of middle-aged men very much the worse for wear. If that's your thing then enjoy.
31 Aug 2012 22:08
Converted to flats. Troubled with thugs over the years and pretty unremarkable. Surprising it lasted as long as it did.
31 Aug 2012 21:17
If this bland, unfriendly boozer was located anywhere other than next door to a busy railway station it would have shutdown years ago. Do yourself a favour and take a 1 or 2 minute walk in just about any direction and try a decent pub while you wait for your train.
31 Aug 2012 20:47
The George and Dragon Inn, Chichester
Another name change doesn't disguise the fact this is an overpriced, wannabe wine bar with more than its fair share of thugs. It has a cash point in the corner that charges you �1.75 to access your own money. Like a lot of pubs round here it feels like it should be a lot better but just, well, isn't.
31 Aug 2012 20:41
Another name change doesn't disguise the fact this is an overpriced, wannabe wine bar with more than its fair share of thugs. It has a cash point in the corner that charges you �1.75 to access your own money. Like a lot of pubs round here it feels like it should be a lot better but just, well, isn't.
31 Aug 2012 20:40
Not great. Feels like it should be a nice place but there were the usual omnipresent gaggle of loudmouth yobbos when I called in. Neither fish nor foul and a bit pricey. Pointless.
31 Aug 2012 20:33
A really nice Havant pub. Good beer and feels safe and friendly. Not something that can be said for any other pub round here.
31 Aug 2012 20:10
If you fancy crossing paths with slack-jawed wankers, overweight middle-aged men desparate for sex and the occasional punchy teenager high on Stella, then this is the place for you. Also, London prices for drinks and 'security staff' who've read one too many Andy McNab books.
31 Aug 2012 19:13
Went in here dressed as Hitler. Was thrown out for being a 'leftie'. You get the idea...
31 Aug 2012 18:54
Pretty horrible. Usual collection of bland beer, disinterested bar staff (I had one who was texting while pulling my pint), deep fried food and miserable looking overweight families. Next time I go to the cinema here, I'll neck a pint of bitter in my lavatory. It'll be a more pleasant drinking experience.
31 Aug 2012 18:48
The Old House at Home, Chichester
Nice garden. Average beer. Staff only really interested if you're eating. In other words like 90% of British pubs.
31 Aug 2012 18:38
Not worth the wear on your brake pads to pull in quite frankly. They have beer, they have some chairs. Just carry on driving. That's your best bet.
31 Aug 2012 18:34
This pub is what happens when a focus team in Basingstoke brainstorm a great night out.
31 Aug 2012 18:16
A great spot to watch fat parents shout at their fat kids. The mention of a tv screen in the smoking area in the comment below pretty much says it all...
31 Aug 2012 18:11
Pretty much the McDonalds of the pub world. Deep fried treats and tatooed lager louts aplenty. Fun can be had sitting outside and watching all the modified Saxos trying to negotiate their way out of the packed car park...
31 Aug 2012 18:07
Nice spot but be prepared to wait if you fancy a pint. Diners are very much the priority here. Also, call me old fashioned but when did it become okay for screaming babies to be allowed into pubs?
31 Aug 2012 18:03
One of those pubs that's very much run for the regulars. Bar staff are okayish and the beer is all right but if this pub was in a less pretty location it would have died years ago.
31 Aug 2012 17:58
Man this place is expensive! Beer is okay, food pretty good but we're talking London prices. They've also adopted the mulitplex policy of only employing teenagers and there are certainly some training issues to be addressed. Also, my friend ordered a coffee (at lunchtime on a Sunday) and got a cup of tea with the teabag left in. I'll go elsewhere and and save a few bob I think...
31 Aug 2012 17:53
A real sacred cow of a boozer, but maybe resting on its laurels? Beer is still great but the smell of cleaning products is ever present and this is not a comfortable pub. But when you have this much acclaim why change?
31 Aug 2012 17:49
The Horse And Groom, East Ashling
A loud South African was playing the role of landlord/alpha male/bar comedian when I dropped in a couple of weeks ago. He was happy to let the overworked barmaid (age: maybe 18?) do all the heavy lifting while he chewed the fat with some red-faced locals. However, I can forgive a lot for a decent pint of Hophead...
31 Aug 2012 17:46
Not so much a pub, more a ruthless money-making machine.
The staff are keen to let you know what a favour they are doing you by giving you food. Any problems and they are not interested.
I just spotted the metal staple in my food before it entered my mouth. I pointed this out to a man who appeared to be the landlord (judging by the way he was playing the alpha male role at and behind the bar). He said:
"Oh, it must have fallen off one of the notices in the kitchen."
And with that he was gone, on to the next mug.
Expensive too. Avoid.
18 Dec 2007 11:12
Dreadful beyond all words.
Please someone do us all a favour and burn this pit down.
7 Jun 2007 12:04
Not sure about pleasant! The couple of occasions I've been in here fights have broken out, and one of those was at 3 in the afternoon!
Reminds me of a communal area in a prison. Not great.
Also, wasn't someone murdered in here a couple of years back?
16 May 2007 16:49
Small and charming. No irritating music, no fruitie, no pool table just good beers and company.
Lovely little pub for a pint and a read of the paper.
14 May 2007 14:16
A decent enough little pub but not as good as it used to be 7 or 8 years ago.
Last time I was in the HSB was pretty lifeless (despite the barrels behind the bar the chap disappeared through a side door and returned with my pint a few minutes later, strange!) and the piped music was way too loud for a tea time drink.
Apart from the Old House this is the only Havant pub I would contemplate going in but I can't help feeling it's running the risk of becoming one more characterless town centre boozer...
14 May 2007 11:10
Used to be bearable of a Friday night after they employed the bouncers. Decent range of beer and you can't argue with those prices. Waiting at the bar was always interesting, surrounded as you were by various 'colourful' characters.
Prior to this you were taking a physical risk entering the premises.
Not visited for a while but I imagine the closure of the alcohol-serving youth club known as The Dolphin has not done much to improve the clientele.
14 May 2007 10:36
I agree 100% with mothola - as nasty as they come.
My one and only visit to this genuinely awful small town boozer was greeted with a pause in conversations and unfriendly stares.
Laughable.
14 May 2007 10:22
Not bad at all - beer is still pretty decent and the quiet lounge bar is pleasant enough.
Nice garden too.
14 May 2007 10:19
As bland as they come, even for gunwharf; no real beer and guilty of numerous crimes against soft furnishings.
I've waited for several minutes to be served by the solitary barman before, and then swiftly wished I hadn't bothered when I realise what they charge.
I'm told that it is something of a (male and female) posers paradise of a weekend evening...
14 May 2007 09:07
A great pub. Drinking here is a real pleasure with several interesting nooks and crannies adding to the experience.
Some eccentric student types add to the atmosphere - one of the few pubs in Britain where under 25 year olds can be seen smoking a pipe!
Not a big fan of Greene King but the beers are perfectly good and seem to be well kept.
14 May 2007 08:58
A lesson in what a decent pub should be - the first non-smoking pub I'd ever been in (and that was over 10 years ago), no fruit machine or pool table, no pointless piped music.
Conversation, good beer and a bit of atmos.
Revisited a few months ago after an absence of several years and was very relieved to find nothing had changed.
Damn near perfect.
14 May 2007 08:50
One of the most overrated pubs I've been in. This used to be an idyllic spot with great HSB and a lovely low-beamed interior. Now it's little more than a restaurant with a bar attached.
Food is average and it is not unknown for it to be scalding on the outside and cold on the inside. Decent Gales beers are now a distant memory replaced by the monolithic Greene King selection.
It's also an idea to bring some reading material - you will need it during the long wait to be served a drink on any remotely sunny day. Most frustrating to see one or two overworked bar staff serving the drinkers while several others loiter nearby ready to service the more lucrative eaters.
It's still a nice spot (road noise notwithstanding) but the decision to let small children into the bar area was the final nail in the coffin for me. Pleasant enough for a late drink on a cold winter's night but for the rest of the time you're much better off heading to the Old House in Havant.
11 May 2007 16:45
The Perseverance, Havant
Shutdown and has steel shutters over the downstairs windows. Not sure who would want to break into this place but there you go.
21 Oct 2012 18:17