BITE user comments - che_ze_one
Comments by che_ze_one
The Old Manse Hotel, Bourton-on-the-Water
The pint of Abbot I was served here yesterday was colder than the coldest lager I've ever had. Wtf?
Very average pub. The Kingsbridge down the road is a lot better.
23 Mar 2008 14:06
Friendly staff, well kept ale (now including Landlord), delicious & fairly priced food, unpretentious atmosphere... combine to make this one of the best pubs in London, nevermind Canary Wharf (where it has no rival).
8 Jan 2008 15:07
Great pub. And as regards the 'warm beer' issue... in my experience, beer that should be served at room temperature, the Landor serves... at room temperature! Maybe Carling Cold drinkers would get more joy elsewhere?
8 Jan 2008 10:16
Good Sunday roast. However the comments about the miserable staff are spot on. What's wrong with them? Don't they check out this website?
10 Dec 2007 07:42
Brilliant authentic east-end boozer. Friendly people serving well-kept, reasonably-priced (for London) ale. It's the only place worth going in about a 3 mile radius... except don't, cos my only reservation is how hard it is to get a seat for lunch at Friday lunchtime... Still, this place deserves to succeed.
31 Mar 2006 16:55
Feels like an airport lounge. Even the toilets are big enough to play tennis in - you can hear the echo of your own splash. Ghastly.
23 Sep 2005 12:59
This is my local pub, and it's fantastic - a real 'pillar of the community' boozer... There seems to be something going on every night of the week, the beer's always good and a convivial atmosphere usually prevails.
The only downside is this stony-faced yank barman who is sometimes there - he always looks at me like I'm something the cat vomitted onto the floor. I'm not sure what his problem is - but at least it's nothing personal - cos he seems to adopt a similarly hostile manner to everyone else too!
The rest of the staff are great - friendly and professional.
18 Aug 2005 13:21
Highly recommended. A warm, comfy place to sink a few ales. Everyone there (staff and punters) seems relaxed and friendly - and you can't say that about a lot of pubs around the centre of London.
16 Nov 2004 13:43
This is a great pub with tons of character, but try to get there early enough to get a seat. We were standing around (in front of the fire, at least) for a good hour or so, before we finally managed to manouevre ourselves onto a table. That was on a Sunday afternoon. I haven't been on weeknights - maybe they're more comfortable?
Overall - a great building, nice beer, good bar-staff (even if we did have to make our transactions over the heads of people eating at the bar! What's up with that?!)...added up to an excellent venue for a good boozy session. No wonder it attracts the crowds.
12 Nov 2004 15:19
Ghastly & expensive dive with less atmosphere than the moon.
And what's worse, when I asked for a Becks, the slack-jawed Antipodean barman served me a Budweiser! He said it was "about the same"... Wtf?
Apart from the fact it's situated next to the Common, I find it fiendishly difficult to understand how Oblivion attracts the crowds...
But then again, Village Idiot Dubya Bush just got elected again, so what do I know?
10 Nov 2004 11:34
The Crutched Friar, Tower Hill
I went there a few weeks ago. The decor was a tad 'chainish', but, in terms of scenery, the two delightful barmaids who served me more than made up for it... One blonde and one brunette... Both friendly, with exotic foreign accents... Very nice.
9 Nov 2004 16:39
Yes, the staff here are terrible. My first (and last) visit to the Founder's Arms was last night...
It's fair enough having a 'No Smoking at the Bar' rule, but there must be better ways of enforcing it than having an aggressive little tart point airily at a sign above the bar and barking "No smoking!" as she backed away fearfully, as if I was packing an AK or something...
My cigarette safely extinguished, I gamely returned to the bar, where a gormless mouth-breather slouching back against the sink was just looking at me...
For at least 10 seconds...
It was like one of those Mexican stand-off scenes in 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly'...
Who's going to blink first?...
I eventually decided that my thirst was more important to me (at that point) than my pride, so I opted for speech...
"Hello", I said perkily, trying to alert him to the fact that I did actually want serving, and wasn't standing at the bar with a tenner in my hand as some kind of surreal modern-artistic statement about capitalism and/or alienation (a feeling, co-incidentally, I was rapidly starting to actually experience)...
Looking around however, I noticed that all of the others 'working' at the Founder's Arms seemed to adopt the same slumped demeanour. They all gave a thoroughly convincing impression of not giving a toss about the customer.
However, you'll be glad to hear that I did eventually get served... a tad grudgingly, but by that stage I'd have accepted a beer pulled by George Bush.
The beer was actually OK, by the way. And the views are fantastic.
Shame about the single-celled life forms who work there.
8 Nov 2004 09:54
The Effra Hall Tavern, Brixton
The Good - the punters, the music, the big screens, the overall vibe
The Bad - the lack of proper ale, the always unsmiling staff
The Ugly - the toilets
27 Jan 2010 10:08