The City Gate Hotel, Exeter

Well. Used to be fond of this place but have recently had a few very bad experiences there. For example, Christmas eve... A pleasant enough drink evening was ruined at the end by the bar staff trying to force us to leave by turning the air conditioning onto "Siberian" mode. The "sod off right now you're not welcome" attitude is not what I would have expected from a Youngs pub at all.

More recently I vistited the place, only to be subjected to exactly the same treatment. The difference this time was that only my party was subjected to the air-con treatment, two other couples were left alone. Now perhaps these others were hotel guests (entitled to late drinks). Perhaps the management have adopted this policy in light of their new opening hours. Whatever the reason, I was made to feel extremely unwelcome in my local pub (I live 20 metres away) and my friends and I could hardly be described as troublemakers!

I used to live in London once and was pleased when Young's opened this pub in Exeter a few years back, but I really believe the brewery should think long and hard about whether the current licensee should be in the job.

30 Dec 2005 00:47