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Interior ambience in 2019
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Slightly smelly and run down place. No food during the day. One cask pump, Ubu, was not available. Cards need a minimum £5 spend. Not impressive. I suggest the
Blue Keys Hotel round the corner (now closed).
Date: Sept 2019. Score: 3
Place has a new owner, and has been totally refurbished. All old reviews on TripAdvisor have been removed (understandably, as the place had acquired a bad reputation). Returning this Thursday to check it out.
Date: April 20 2021
Currently (April 2021) drinking and eating is outside only. We did step into the bar area and noted that it had been cleaned up, and is no longer smelly. Cask beer not currently available, so I was given a pint of keg
Lagunitas IPA, without being told it was 6.2%. Ouch! It was light and drinkable, and certainly didn't feel like 6.2%. Good job I only had the one pint. I did feel the impact when I was home, and felt a little tired...
The seating area outside is very pleasant. It's an L-shaped grassy area - with one end the car park, and the other end a child's play area - a path dissects the two areas where they join on the corner. Even though the areas comfortably separate into two, and there is a child's area in one of them, people are allowed to smoke wherever they want. We are making such an effort to stop people from breathing in Covid, yet pubs like this don't seem to give any thought to protecting non-smokers and children from breathing in the poisons like
tar, carbon monoxide and arsenic from cigarette smoke. 1% of all deaths in the world are non-smokers breathing in the fumes from smokers -
165,000 children die every year from passive smoking. I mentioned it to the waitress, who simply shrugged. Shortly after being served our food, a man sat at the table next to us and started smoking, so we had to move away. He was the only one in our section who smoked, yet he affected (and infected) everyone else. When we left we noted that the end table in the other section had smokers, while the other tables did not. It would make sense to put the smokers together and keep them away from the majority of non-smokers (only
14.1% of people in the UK are still cigarette addicts).
The menu was a decent offering. OK for me as I eat fish, though a vegan would struggle. I ordered salmon fish cakes, which were very nice, and were presented beautifully, though came with chips, which I hadn't ordered, and were not mentioned on the menu. I'd prefer not to have chips with everything! If they wish to bulk out the dish, then some fresh wholemeal bread would have been more welcome, or a little rice or cous cous. Just a bit more imagination. And, at the least, let people know what they are getting so they can ask for it to be left off. Once given, the temptation to eat it can take over.
Anyway. Nice place. But as there is no cask beer, and they allow smokers everywhere, we won't be back.
Date: April 2021 Score: 5
Currently closed and shuttered. Stonegate are looking for new tenants. It appears the place had been given a makeover since my last visit in 2021 - trendy grey paint, and bold modern signage, including the words "Bar & Grill". Shame they couldn't make it work.
Date: Sept 2024 Score: N/A
51 Archers Road
Southampton
SO15 2NF
Open: Noon to 11pm
Food: Website says breakfast, lunch and dinner, but when I visited the barman said only in the evening.
Update: As of April 2021, pub serves food from 12 noon onwards. There are plans to provide breakfasts later in the year.
Owner: Enterprise Inns (this may have changed). Enterprise were taken over by Stonegate in 2020.
