The newly refurbished premises, which did to go by the name of Palmers - The Golden Ball Tavern, had been closed for at least 3-4 years if not more.
Now called The Golden Ball, it's been spruced up and turned into a very impressive establishment indeed. The staff, of which there are many, are extremely polite and friendly. They are also dressed impeccably. I like a place that trains their staff as well as this place does.
The interior is really lovely. Out the back they have this super comfy looking lounge where I wouldn't mind spending an hour or two in one of the lovely couches reading a good novel and drinking a pint of Guinness. The amount of space out the back of the building suggests the potential for cool beer garden that would be great in the summer sun.
But I digress, today we were here for a bit of Sunday lunch, they had a menu of three different kinds of roasts and some other pub fare. Two of us went for the BLT and the third of our party the Cajun Chicken Burger. The BLT was fine. Although mine had what seemed like sliced boiled bacon, while the second BLT had rasher bacon. I would expect rasher bacon in a BLT, so mine was a bit odd and unexpected. While the bacon in mine was a bit fatty, it wasn't at all chewy as I had expecting it to be and turn out to be a nice enough sandwich. The string fries where grand.
I noticed their sign outside said they served craft beer. On tap I saw they had Smithwicks Blond Ale, a Guinness type of craft beer that I've seen before recently and another completely new one on me called Cute Hoor craft beer. A quick Google of that revealed it's made by Heineken. All big brewery craft beer. I didn't notice any familiar micro brewery craft beers, but they may have been out of sight.
All in all a very nice place. A-OK. read more