I really miss going to the pub, after doing so regularly for almost fifty years, but I don't suppose it will ever be something I will do again.
Pubs have been in decline for many years due to the greed of PUBCOS, but I think this Covid lark will finally finish off a lot of pubs and possibly a lot of breweries.
Fully agree, nothing encourages me to pass a pub by more than seeing a large plastic dinosaur or climbing frame in the beer garden! I don't mind well-behaved kids and responsible families that keep their kids under proper control, but I hate it when they allow their kids to run around the dining area or repeatedly scream and shout to the extent they become a nuisance to the other diners, while their parents do sod all about it.
And before the landlord/landlady thought that their pub was a restaurant, and that their mediocre cook was a chef!
And before the landlord/landlady thought that their pub was a restaurant, and that their mediocre cook was a chef!
Does anyone else wish that pubs would go back to serving good, simple, traditional 'pub food' and stop trying to pretend be restaurants (and quite often failing miserably at it!)? Why not just offer us good, simple, home-cooked grub, and plenty of it, instead of trying to emulate Master Chef? Half a small chicken, home cooked chips and a simple bit of salad to go with it... nicely cooked and pleasantly served? Or perhaps a sirloin steak and a sprinkling of fried onions, served between French bread, with a handful of chips and salad garnish? With similar, simple but tasty, and filling, options for vegetarians.
I think that's the sort of food a good traditional pub should be serving, instead of trying to flog you some miniscule portion of 'pan fried' (I mean, how else do you bloody fry something?!) sea bass fillet, served with chorizo (who the hell thought that sausage and fish was a good combination?) and squid ink linguini, with a red wine jus!
There used to be a very nice local 'gastro pub' (they changed their entire 'specials' menu almost daily, so you never got bored eating there) and they regularly used to have well-known chefs call in to dine with them, but it changed hands. There was another local pub that did lovely, home-cooked, traditional pub style food, but it also changed hands. Perhaps these two were a hard act to follow, but these days I don't know where to go locally for a good pub meal, with the places I've tried either seeming inconsistent or falling between two stools, to the extent that I've pretty much given up eating out at pubs (other than for a 'snack' type lunch), which has made lockdown a bit more tolerable I suppose!
That's not traditional pub food. It was either a ploughmans or burger and chips. Before that it was a bag of crisps, pork scratching or nuts.
Chicken (or scampi) in the basket was around at the same time as the ploughman's and burger and chips... 'basket meals' were were very popular and a regular favourite of mine in the local pub in the early-70s when I was a kid. Coincidentally, I had a ploughman's lunch in a pub a few weeks ago.... he was furious!
I miss the pub
Try a cold bottle straight from the fridge.
Wus!
Indeed. We gave up smoking 2 years before the ban and the effects were almost instantaneous as far as being aware of what it was like to be around smokers. We found pubs very unpleasant places to be until the ban came into force. Now they're much more family friendly.
Now we ned to move onto the next stage of the ban, other peoples' kids!
Would that be the salted ones, just to make you drink more?
Would that be the salted ones, just to make you drink more?
Local brewery Bradfield Brewery do the 5L kegs of all their beers... 2 for £30, amazing
www.beerhawk.co.uk
