BITE user comments - eelio
Comments by eelio
It's okay in here. Trendy but nice crowd, and friendly barstaff - even if (especially during the cheap cocktail part of the evening) - it's an absolute mare getting served, because they're going all out on preparing one drink and the bar's five people deep with people waiting.
18 May 2007 14:38
Ignore that bit about Magners in the previous post. Got my wires crossed - they WOULD serve you if you were inside, it's just that all the Magners was in the outside bar.
Or something.
Ignore me.
26 Jun 2006 12:33
Hmm. I used to like this pub, but Wednesday night's showing of the England Sweden match revealed a lot.
Here's what was expected: A massive, festival-esque screen in the massive beer garden, a barbecue, and a good night out.
Here's what we got:
Charged three quid to get in, I went to sit outside and wait for the rest of my mates. When they showed, we sat and watched a bit of the pre-match build up only for the much-boasted-about screen to fit and start, losing sound and picture every twenty seconds. By this point the people charging on the door had nicked off, presumably because they didn't want to refund any disgruntled punters. One of our group ordered a burger from the barbecue - for a pocket rattling �7.50. Still, it looked nice.
After a while watching the staff trying to get the screen working (using one of those aerial boosters you get in Argos) we gave up the ghost and went in to watch the match inside. Which was fun - save for a strange policy where they wouldn't serve Magners to you if you were sitting inside. Very odd.
Still - it's a nice place, but charging people to get in is a bit much. And the bar staff are inconsistent, one in particular getting stressed with US because we'd been waiting an age.
At least they've started accepting cards in there.
22 Jun 2006 10:17
Like a bar you find in Manchester City Centre. In other words, it was obviously once a shop - and a small shop at that. And a bit of a grubby one. That you can buy snuff in.
Still, it's good to have a bit of dirt to counteract the clinical 'designed by Guardian reader' pubs that form most of Lorship Lane's drinking establishments. The beer's okay, the music's better, and the staff must be employed solely from the pages of 'art student monthly'.
17 May 2006 10:52
Nice enough place, this, if a bit on the 'Observer Magazine'-pretentious side of things ('Horseradish creme fraiche' with your sunday roast, anyone?). Oh, and the sign on the men's toilets used to be Hank Williams, but they replaced him with Johnny Cash for some reason. Perhaps Hank wasn't fashionable enough.
Only Budvar on tap, lager-wise, but a decent range of bottles - and a nice decor, friendly enough staff and decent enough food. Child friendly early in the day on weekends, but it can get rammed on weekend-nights. And not just rammed - boiling hot, too. Come on, manager, stump up for some air conditioning, won't you?
17 May 2006 10:48
The George Canning, Denmark Hill
Nice enough pub, and good to sit outside in the warmer weather - but flipping heck - the bar staff are about as rapid as a just-salted-slug.
I've been in there a few times, and each time it's taken an age to get served. Frustrating.
16 May 2006 11:50
Great pub.
The bar staff are friendly, quick and good humoured - the pizzas are lovely and the whole place feels warm and welcoming.
And it feels like a pub 'should' feel, ie: it's not part of some dull 'pile em high, sell em cheap' chain, nor is it one of those antiseptic trendy pubs which all seem to follow the same tired formula (art on the walls, pomegranete risotto on the menu..)
And they do a cracking bloody mary.
16 May 2006 11:40
No atmosphere. Old blokes nursing the same pint of Spitfire for upwards of six hours. Beige food. All in a huge, echoing room.
Rubbish.
16 May 2006 11:29
Whoever said 'awful, The place to be if you want to mix with no good lowlifes' is way off.
It's an old fashioned, honest-to-goodness no frills pub that doesn't sit with modern ideas of what a pub should be. There's no 'gastro' element, no 'tastefully chosen' lighting, no obscure, trendy ales.
There is, however, good beer and the bar staff were nice and friendly. Me and a mate went to watch the football in there one afternoon, and we had a great time.
16 May 2006 11:27
The Dartmouth Arms, Forest Hill
It's *alright*, this pub. It promises a lot, but the bar staff are pretty slow and the beer's on the pricey side.
It's a restaurant masquerading as a pub, if anything, though if you catch in on the right day (say, a sunny day so you can take in the decked beer garden - or simply a day when you can get a seat in the 'pub' part) then it's nice.
Restaurant wise - only went once. No real vegge options and the place was ridiculously hot.
Now, I'm not trying to sound too negative here, it's just that - expectation wise - the place promises more than it delivers.
16 May 2006 11:22
The Forest Hill Tavern, Forest Hill
Went in recently, and after the refurbishment.
It's like going for a pint in an MFI Kitchen with Mr. Sheen as your drinking companion; everythings dark wood and each table and surface seems polished within an inch of its life. Even the games machine is chrome. I've got to be honest, it was a pretty soulless place.
We ordered food, too, and although the staff were friendly enough, our meals took an absolute age to arrive. We ordered dessert, too - an my rhubarb turned up served in a cup, with some custard in a seperate pot. Very odd and pretentious - and also not very nice.
5 Jul 2007 12:16