I did have a plan to visit every Brewdog in the country, although they feel like they’ve lost their way recently and the whole chain has become somewhat less appealing to me. However, I thought I’d visit their Bournemouth outlet as I’d never been.
It’s a little frustrating as Brewdog pays to be listed on Untappd, but this is another one of their venues that doesn’t keep it up-to-date. So the Vault City beer that I was hoping they had, they actually didn’t have as it hadn’t been updated in a few days. The beer selection is OK, although there’s little that’s new and exciting and I’d had most of the guest beers before. The service was though friendly, warm and engaging.
For a Friday evening, the venue was much quieter than I had anticipated. I was meeting my friend Ross here, otherwise they had a grand total of five customers. Their pricing, especially for food, has kept pushing towards the higher end of the scale. As a bar though, it’s beautifully designed. I do actually also like their food, especially the chicken wings, but unless there’s some offer on, it is a little out of sync with other venues.
This is the Pupa from Vibrant Forest Brewery, a light, tropical, refreshing, hoppy and juicy beer that I rather liked. It’s from a local brewery, as Vibrant Forest are from Hardley and I’ve had a few of their beers before. One thing that Brewdog manage, unlike some other chains, is that their glasses are nearly always spotlessly clean.
There’s a sign on the top of the fridge noting that it’s a bit broken, but they have cold cans elsewhere so all is not lost. It’s a well curated beer fridge, I was tempted to have a couple in the bar rather than taking away, but there’s a £2 uplift for that and although that’s not unreasonable, it made it all just a bit expensive.
This Bournemouth location opened in 2022, so it’s one of their newer ones, and it has survived the recent cull of ten venues and so it must be doing reasonably well. I thought it felt well managed, it was spotlessly clean, the team members were friendly and it had a welcoming vibe. There’s still definitely some mileage in the brand, but it’s a shame that some of their pricing couldn’t be a little lower in places.