This is a tricky one. Years ago this was a smashing, traditional, stone-flagged, multi-roomed pub, serving great hand-pulled beer. The good news is that the beer is still top quality, albeit pricey (£3.50 a pint), and the roaring open fire was very welcome on a grungy day like today. Sadly though, the interior designers have been hard at work, and turned this place into a somewhat sterile experience with the emphasis more on food (expensive) and coffee than beer.
I guess a lot of people will love this restaurpub, but to me it's mock tudor, and not the real thing. It's the sort of pub that foreign tourists go in because the real pubs look a bit too intimidating. The stone flags remain, but the soul has gone.
Having said all that, and call me a hypocrite if you want, I'd probably go here again at some point as the beer was good.....but not before I'd been to a few other pubs in the area first. read more