BITE user comments - kidpaprika
Comments by kidpaprika
I could never make my mind up about this place when I lived in Kensal Green. It always seemed a bit vapid to me, although it's inoffensive enough and the staff are reasonably friendly. It is expensive, though, and the Mason's Arms has a much better vibe. Average, I'd say - not bad, but not great either.
13 Sep 2007 12:54
This pub has long since closed and is now a chain cafe outlet.
8 Sep 2007 19:29
The Lively Lady, Bracklesham Bay
I must admit that this was about 5 years ago, but I once popped in here when I was in the area and thought it was pretty much the worst pub I'd ever been too. I was served a very bad-tasting pint of Guinness, and when I told the barman the beer was off and asked for something else, he looked at the long-haired, middle-aged, ageing rocker bar manager (think Saxondale, but more so) who was incredibly rude and effectively told me to "f off". Unless the management's changed, I'd avoid this place like the plague.
8 Sep 2007 09:23
Pretty overrated. They don't keep a good pint and it's full of trendy youngsters trying desperately to imitate Russel Gland and comPlETE Cockerty with their stupid skinny jeans, long hair and white trainers. Up it's own rectum. Avoid.
8 Sep 2007 09:16
A good, solid, reliable pub. You can always rely on the Tap & Spile for a decent pint and a friendly atmosphere. I haven't been in Hexham since the smoking ban, but I suspect this will have done the Tap the world of good as it was never very well ventilated and I always used to come out stinking of tabs. There are a few real ale tw@ts in here, but it's definitely worth a visit.
8 Sep 2007 09:12
The best pub in Hexham and, quite possibly, the world. Jeff, the manager, is an absolute diamond, as is his wife (she's even given my friends and me lifts back to Hexham at last orders before), the beer is good, the location beautiful and the atmosphere second to none. Makes me pine for Hexham whenever I think about it.
8 Sep 2007 09:09
Definitely my favourite bar in London. Friendly, great people, excellent music, unpretentious, lovely staff. If they started selling some draught beers rather than bottles, it would be almost perfect.
7 Sep 2007 12:13
The Prince of Wales, Kennington
Not a bad pub, a bit pricy and often haunted by snobby home counties types with silly curly blond hair, jackets and jeans (I suspect "azazello", who has left a comment below, is one of them), but it's pleasant enough. The bar staff are what makes the place, though - really friendly and helpful. Whenever I've been in there's been a girl and bloke, both of whom come from Poland and are a lot friendlier than the majority of British/Australian bar staff in London. Definitely worth a visit.
7 Sep 2007 12:08
Clapham tends to have a very tacky, parochial, drunken British high-street type feel that's at odds with the rest of London. It's like a slightly posher version of any provincial British town centre at the weekend and for that reason I tend to avoid it like the plague. I have friends there, however, so I do sometimes end up going and this is the pub we always seem to go to.
The Goat is essentially a microcosm to Clapham as a whole. Braying city boys getting wretchedly drunk on overpriced, appalling lager/vodka. Men in sunglasses, shirts and shoes grabbing girls'behinds (including that of my friends' girlfriend). Bleached-blonde girls desperately bearing their cleavage in too-short skirts.
Both times I've been there it's been hideously overcrowded and an unutterably miserable experience. The staff are unfriendly, the service is abysmal and the clientele beggars belief. If you came to London to hang around with other insipid English people in an overpriced, unfriendly, trashy, tacky place like this then you're welcome to it. Perhaps this really is all these people require in life - to get completely ratted in a place as uninspiring as this after a week rotting away in their pointless office jobs. Enjoy.
6 Sep 2007 20:17
An absolute hole, made all the worse by the miserable people who run the place. They treat their customers like dirt and their staff even worse. They do have a good assortment of (expensive) German bottled beers, but why pay through the teeth to be treated like scum? Go somewhere else - I certainly will do.
5 Sep 2007 13:33
I had a pretty dismal experience in here last night. I was at the bar waiting for a few minutes (it was ridiculously busy, as always) when one of the barmen - a studenty, trendy, skinny, stubbly guy with long greasy dark hair - raised his eyebrows at me in a decidedly hostile manner. I took this as a signal that he was ready to serve me and went ahead and ordered 4 drinks, which he nonchalantly poured/pulled for me.
I handed over �15 in cash. He then muttered that this wasn't enough, so I asked him how much it was. He grunted, rather more aggressively this time, that he didn't know. He then barely-coherently reeled off the prices off the four (different) drinks and expected me to perform the mental arithmetic. As I hadn't even heard him properly, I was unable to do so.
Again, I asked him politely how much I owed him. To this he even more aggressively said "Just give me twenty". I didn't actually have twenty pounds with me, which I explained. He then muttered some expletive and sauntered off to the cash register to perform the calculation electronically. Whilst doing so he turned to me and shouted something at me in an extremely nasty manner whilst pointing his finger in my direction.
He then came back over and told me that I owed him twenty pence, which I handed over whilst he eyeballed me. I walked away from the bar, and whilst doing so turned round and noticed that he was still staring at me.
Quite what I'd done wrong and how I'd managed to offend this person so much I've no idea. I certainly shan't be spending hard-earned cash to be treated like excrement in this over-rated sweat-box ever again.
10 Jun 2007 12:39
B@1 (Be At One), Battersea
Awful. I was in here last night and the place was horrendously busy with Clapham stereotypes (posh public schoolboys trying to look cool, "street" and "with it" but failing miserably) and the music far too loud.
I'm quite hard of hearing and had to ask the bar staff to repeat themselves a couple of times. Both members of staff who served me were really rude and unhelpful.
I'm never going in here again - why pay good money to be treated like excrement?
22 Mar 2008 09:42