Wow, totally unrecognisable! I had been once before, only once, and at that time the bar was depressingly faded and almost empty - though ridiculously loud - with the gambling machines competing against each other in their unmusical cacophony, and with the nasally, whiny tones of a certain sports presenter booming interminably from the tv. The boring menu and appalling surroundings were such that, even though we'd come miles to eat lunch we left after my quickest ever pint to find somewhere half decent.
This time I couldn't actually believe it was the same place at first glance. An almost miraculous improvement in both look and feel. Externally it's magnificent now. It should be, it sits beside the river in the affluent suburban village of Busby. Outside there used to be two picnic tables, now they have proper seating and more of it. I can't recall if you can see the river from here, but at least you're no longer sitting in the car park! The conservatory frontage is a huge, brightly lit view into the spanking new bar-restaurant inside. I couldn't wait to get in there.
The fit-out internally is quite impressive too. It looks like a hotel bar, but a very good one. Eclectic fixtures and fittings effectively break up the space and make the place interesting to look at. Retro vintage light bulbs shine out from old plumbing, and clusters of light shades hang upside-down like the flowers pulled from a magician's cuff. The central bar itself is a shiny, gleaming altar to the beer. It stocks American craft on tap and in bottles, but better than that it stocks local craft beer from Drygate, Williams and West. They do wine too, not sure about cocktails though.
We did have to wait a few minutes to get seated, but it was an extremely busy first Monday night. We were shown to our table and it did feel a bit on the periphery, but we were close to the kitchen pass so there was plenty of action - the front-of-house staff were rushed off their feet, but when we did get served after a further few minutes they were great. I went for the Squid & Tiger Prawn Duo to start and a Diavola Pizza.
I wasn't really a fan of squid, but I thought I'd give it another go, I'm still not really a fan of squid. I think it was cooked well though, it wasn't rubbery - the first test - and it was slightly chewy. I think that is how it is meant to be (?) so fair play. The prawns had the same thin breadcrumb on them as the squid, they were nice, but really the mayo was a bit stingy for the portion size. A pretty good first course though. My Diavola came out next. It wasn't huge, I would have liked a bit bigger, but it would be enough for most appetites. I liked the spicing on it, so often you get a diavola and it's a bit insipid, this had a nice kick. The bread was a bit dry though, more cheesy oiliness and/or a more evenly spread tomato base would have taken it to a higher plane.
In summary then a good three for the food, but for the whole package I'll give it a four. read more