I popped into the Rover when we first moved to Southampton back in 2014, and I found it a decent old fashioned pub. It had a somewhat lived in feel, but it offered two local beers, and there were menus on the wall showing good value proper meals. I had this marked down as being an OK pub in what at that time appeared to me to be a town with few decent pubs. But I never went back, until late in 2016 when I wanted a pub with some food, and went to go inside, but another customer, who could see me looking at the menu outside, said that the pub was no longer doing food, so I went up the road to the Wetherspoon.
I notice that it has been smartened up since, and I am interested to see what has happened to the place, so shall be popping in shortly.
Date: March 2017
I just popped back in. They're not doing food any more. One cask offered, Horse Box, but it spluttered and died as the barmaid went to pull it. Place looks a little rough and run down. I moved on.
Date: April 2017 Score: 4
Pub is open, but just for drinks in the patio area at the front beside the road.
Date: April 2021 Score: N/A
Did a tramp around the pubs near Shirley shopping precinct looking for a pub that did food and a pint of cask beer, and (ignoring the Wetherspoon) ended up here, nearly a mile away. They do cask beer (three pumps offering Speckled Hen, Golden Hen, and Abbot), but no food.
The place had a good number of customers inside, and a funky awning outside, spoiled somewhat by the smokers standing by the door. So many people in Shirley still smoke - it is an unhealthy, somewhat scruffy and troublesome area. We wanted to live in Shirley when we were looking for a house in Southampton, but I'm so glad we ended up in Woolston. I don't want to enter the local supermarket past bouncers, drunks, vomit, smokers, and rubbish - and that's what I encountered on the day I was in Shirley. Anyway, rant about smokers aside, I quite like the Rover, but it's unlikely to be a pub I visit that often as it's not offering anything special - other than the covered street seating, which I couldn't use because of the smokers.
Date: Nov 2021 Score: 5
Now doing cooked breakfasts and Sunday roasts. Opens at 8am every day except Sunday when it opens at 10am. Unknown at what time they start serving beer.
Date: March 2023 Score: N/A
Came in for the breakfast on the day I had to return my glasses to my optician for the second time. Had a decent, well cooked veggie breakfast of my choice, an unsatisfactory Hobgoblin Session IPA which took half the morning to pour, and a good chat with the friendly and knowledgeable barman. I hadn't spotted that Summer Lightening was on cask or I'd have had that. Good, laid back, no frills, friendly local pub, handy for the breakfast. Kids allowed.
Date: July 2023. Score: 6
266 Shirley Road
Shirley
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