Pubs - the topic

[bethesdabakers]

Cardiff: I used to know Cardiff a little ten years ago but it's all changed.

Can anyone direct me to a hostelry equivalent to the Harker's in Chester, i.e. a reasonably civilised, large pub/brasserie, that serves half-decent food throughout the day, where there's no need to book in advance. I'm trying to organise a birthday party for myself, not knowing whether two people (including myself) or forty might turn up.

It's not a match day or half-term.

Thanks

Mick

[Smithy]

Mick, it's a shame you never got responses here, but maybe someone else can benefit from your experience. What did you do, where did you go, and how did you like it?

[liuzhou]

Many, many years ago, I lived around the corner from a good, old, traditional London pub. Almost opposite was a fish and chip shop - one of London's best. A good Chinese place and a French "bistro", though no one was quite sure what "bistro" meant then.

 

It was a real 'local', full of characters, but also in a touristy area so you would get tourists popping in a lot. It was always amusing to see them come in and sit down at a table waiting for service which never came. Eventually, they would work it out and go to the bar for their drinks, but then become perplexed when my drink was delivered to my table without me apparently asking for it. 

 

Being a regular, and a Guinness drinker, I would just nod to the lovely barmaid, Alison. She would very slowly pour my pint of the black stuff, rest it , then top it, and unless she was particularly busy would bring it to me. There was also an Australian barman, whose name I forget. Pleasant chap.

 

I did a lot of my work there. I would settle down with a pile of books and paper and pen and go to work. No one bothered me. If I came in with no books, I was part of the gang. The just respected my privacy when I was obviously busy and welcomed me with open arms when I wasn't. Old Jack looked like he was born old and repeated the same stories over and over again, mainly about his cat which had died ten years earlier, but was a sweet old man really. Another man whose name I forget had somehow lost both legs and was wheeled in by his wife. When it was time to go she would exclaim " Good night all!! Got to get him home. He's legless again!" Same joke every time.

 

Scandal struck when the landlord's wife ran away with the Australian barman. Landlord didn't seem too bothered by losing his wife, but was incensed that "the bitch took the dog with her" or vice versa.

I'm not a dog person, but as dogs go it was an OK dog. He missed it. Hey, we all missed it.

Anyway I left London 20 years ago and now live in a land devoid of anything resembling a decent pub.

In a bout of nostalgia, I recently asked Mr Google to tell me if the pub was still there. To my horror, I have discovered that it is now a Spanish themed "gastropub".

Are there no standards any more? I blame Boris.

 

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On another note, does anyone know a pub on the outskirts of Bath, in a countryside setting, called the Apple Tree, attached to a farm. I had a wonderful afternoon there in the early 1970s and never found it again. Great beers and ciders and their home reared and cured ham and pickled onion ploughman's was to die for.

Edited December 22, 2014 by liuzhou (log)