Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Norwich – Brewdog

    Norwich – Brewdog

    I’ve been slowly working my way around numerous Brewdog outlets across the UK and mainland Europe, having been won over by their beer and food. Although, it’s the service element that Brewdog seem equally strong at, all combining to make this a popular and on-trend location.

    I had reserved a table for James and myself to try their unlimited chicken wings. This allows diners to have as many chicken wings as they’d like for £10, with the staff bringing out more on request and there is also a vegan alternative involving cauliflower. We didn’t really investigate this option, but I’m sure it’s, well, lovely. We managed to arrive early and the staff member at the bar was helpful and suggested that we order drinks and then we could take a seat in the bar whilst waiting to be shown through to the restaurant area. This all happened efficiently and our table was reserved with a clear sign, it was just like being back in Liverpool for my Deskdog experience….

    This is the first plate that is brought out, with something like twelve chicken wings on it. This is a perfectly generous portion in itself, with a blue cheese sauce and the wings looked appetising and well presented. They also tasted of an excellent quality, with the outside being crispy despite there being quite a thick sauce on them. The sauce was also flavourful, with a slightly hot taste to them, mixed in with some honey. The chicken was also tender and they were very moreish. Which is handy. Also, they were served hot and they seem to have been freshly cooked.

    One thing which is quite unlike Brewdog is that they seem to have fixed some rules to this promotion, although I’m not sure what they are. The first rule is the clearest and is that this promotion must be booked in advance, whether on-line or in the bar in advance (although perhaps it’s possible to negotiate with the bar staff and take part if it’s otherwise quiet). With regards to the other policies, I’ve only discovered these rules from reading reviews of Brewdogs across the country, where some people think they have one hour to order, others two hours and others mention no limit. We weren’t told of any limit and nor we were stopped at any stage, so I imagine that the process is a little informal and flexible. James kept going much longer than me, as I’m far too concerned about maintaining my recent weight loss.

    Another policy is that the blue cheese sauce provided with the first set of wings is expected to last the entirety of the promotion. When diners finish their first twelve wings, they can request another portion and then five wings are brought over. This seems sensible and avoids waste, although the staff member varied in pro-activeness in offering more wings. When James wanted more blue cheese, they didn’t mention this was possible only with an extra payment, which seemed unusually unclear for such a precise chain. It didn’t seem worth querying this 50p when the bill arrived, although if they’re going to charge like that, they should perhaps mention at the beginning that only one portion of blue cheese sauce is included.

    Overall, I was entirely satisfied with the whole promotion and the staff were warm and friendly. Service was sufficiently prompt, although it could have been more pro-active for anyone who wanted to plough through a lot more wings, and I’m sure that there are some. But, Brewdog didn’t fail in terms of providing a clean environment, as well as a comfortable and fun atmosphere. All rather lovely. But they should have mentioned the blue cheese sauce.

    And, I don’t want to make this some Man vs Food blog post, but James went through ten more wings than I did (I think I stopped at 22 wings) which was very impressive.

  • Liverpool – Mathew Street YHA

    Liverpool – Mathew Street YHA

    This YHA is located at the end of Mathew Street, located close to the Cavern Club and the heart of Beatles territory. It was operated by another hostel company until just a few weeks ago and it’s now marketed as a “hip hostel”. I mean, that clearly describes me doesn’t it? Hip? Yeah, maybe not. Anyway, they had an offer of private en-suite rooms for £12 per night, so I was tempted by that alone.

    This was, until recently, a four bed dorm room, although it’s now a double room. The cleanliness was a bit skin deep, as visible surfaces were sort of clean, but other surfaces such as under the bed, and indeed, under any surface weren’t at all clean. But, it’s a little hard to complain at a price of £12 per night.

    I think a lot of the decor actually comes from the previous hostel operation, which was itself not that old. From what I can see, the YHA have tried to take over the ‘hip hostel’ theme here, although it’s all a bit muddled now as it doesn’t quite fit with their usual branding. Although that probably doesn’t matter, it’s just providing cheap and cheerful accommodation.

    Mathew Street is popular with stag and hen groups, as I discovered during my three-night stay. Fortunately, I actually like this sort of background noise, although I can imagine it might irritate some guests. I was pleased they allocated me this room though, it was quite enjoyable people watching down the street.

    The building that the YHA is located in is a former shop and there are some traces of the history of its original use, although it’s not all in great condition. I’ve seen some of the YHA’s recent efforts and I think it’s fair to say that they throw cash at some sites, with refurbishments often being multi-million pound projects. I’m not sure where they get all this money from, as some sites now have the appearance of hotels and seem over-spec’ed, but perhaps that’s what customers demand. This YHA doesn’t seem to have had the same love, it seems to just be a takeover of what was here before, with I imagine some changes now planned in phases.

    The whole set-up was very unlike a YHA though, there’s a strange lack of structure to the site, with an absence of food menus visible at the location, although they are on-line. And the prices for the food are, frankly, way out of proportion with the local competition. They’re charging the best part of £15 for a cheeseburger and pint of beer, which might be tolerable in a quiet out of the reach location in the countryside, but they are literally fifty feet away from a Wetherspoons. It was no real surprise that every time I walked by the cafe there was nearly no-one in it and I never had any idea what time breakfast was served, and that menu isn’t available on-line to check (although I did find the breakfast times on-line when writing this). I’m not really sure why the YHA don’t just set up a cheap bar on the ground floor so that visitors can drink there if they want. If they’re determined to offer a mid-price point restaurant on site, they probably need to put menus in the room, or at least in more visible locations.

    Anyway, I can’t complain too much about this stay as it was so cheap and the location couldn’t have been much better for reaching Liverpool city centre. The YHA seemed quite quiet when I was there, but I’m sure it’ll get a lot busier when people get used to it being there, as for groups it’s a convenient and easy option which isn’t too expensive. For the money, it was all very lovely.

  • Norwich – Spice Valley

    Norwich – Spice Valley

    Thanks to the observant Brian, we managed to get seats at the one year anniversary of the opening of Spice Valley, on Magdalen Street in Norwich. I was aware of this Indian restaurant, but it was one of those places that I hadn’t quite got round to visiting. Free food and drink is though always a way to encourage me to visit….

    The decor was modern and bright, with a staff member welcoming customers on entry. Since the restaurant wasn’t charging for food and drink, it was busy, but there was an orderly feel to proceedings and our party of five was promptly seated.

    The restaurant’s generosity included not just free food, but also free drink. There was a wait on the drinks order being taken, but I can hardly fault that situation given they weren’t charging for them, and I’d add that later on they were pro-actively offering more drinks to customers. I think it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t usually drink Kingfisher, but it was at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature and all that. I understand that the restaurant does sell local beers as well, but their on-line menu doesn’t mention that. If, however,  I discovered that they were selling craft beers, that would be an extra reason for visiting…..

    All very clean and tidy, the dining environment was comfortable and organised.

    It was a little hard to get a photo of the food given how busy it was, but there were some poppadoms, starters and mains. The poppadoms were decent, with some flavour to them, and the onion bhajis and meat samosas were excellent, with the onion bhaji being crispy, but not too hard. I was slightly unsure what the curry was, I think it was chicken korma, with the meat being tender and it had taken on the flavour of the sauce, although it was quite a lightly spiced dish.

    There was nothing at all wrong with the food, although it inevitably wasn’t possible to see how the food would usually be presented because of this one-off service style. And I very much like this whole gesture of inviting customers to have a free meal and drink, it shows that the restaurant is proud of their cuisine and keen to show it off. Since I’m also easily bought, I will likely come back in the near future, so their generosity won’t be entirely wasted on me. One thing that I felt was evident is that if a customer did have a problem, I’m pretty confident that the management would fix it promptly.

    All very lovely.

  • Liverpool – Thomas Rigby’s

    I’ve been to this pub a few times before over the years and it’s an intriguing building with a rich heritage. It takes its name from Alderman Thomas Rigby, a businessman who made his fortune through pubs and hotels.

    The service was excellent and although I was initially a little unexcited by the beer options, I opted for the Nene Valley Brewery’s Dicks’s Extraordinary Bitter (DXB). The ratings for those beer aren’t great, but I thought it was well above average, a malty beer with a rich flavour.

    The back room of the pub which had some character to it, although the television did perhaps get a bit in the way of the whole atmosphere of the room. This pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide, and it’s another entry which I, for what it’s worth, think is entirely justified.

  • Liverpool – The Captain Alexander

    This is a new Wetherspoons for Liverpool, which opened in the city centre in July 2019. It’s perhaps a little generic inside in terms of the design, especially given the money spent on it (£2 million), but it was all clean and comfortable.

    One interesting element to the frontage of the building is that there’s a balcony, which can be accessed by customers, and this was once where a walkway entered the building from the railway station on the opposite side of the road. It was part of the failed, and expensive, attempt in the 1970s by the city council to develop a system of elevated walkways across Liverpool. The new sign installed by Wetherspoons has obscured this slightly, but it’s on the right-hand side, above the “Free House” section of the sign.

    The pub is named after Captain Alexander Allan and he looks an interesting character…. The text about the pub on the Wetherspoon web-site says:

    “On 23 May 1819, Scottish-born sea captain Alexander Allan advertised that the 169-ton brig Jean would shortly set sail for Canada. It was the forerunner of the Allan family’s large North Atlantic fleet of sailing ships. By the 1830s, the shipping-line company had offices in Glasgow, Liverpool and Montreal. Its Liverpool office closed in 1917.”

    I don’t really understand the logic Wetherspoons have had here with the naming of the pub though, Alexander Allan himself didn’t have particularly strong connections with Liverpool. His company did have offices next door to Victoria House, which is the home of the new pub, hence the pub name, but it’s all a bit tenuous. Personally, I’d have thought there were more relevant and interesting stories to be told.

    I opted for the Mash Brewing Challenger which came in at marginally over £1 for half a pint, very reasonable indeed in terms of the price. There is meant to be a taste of fruit (apricots and orange), but I didn’t really get that, but it was a perfectly pleasant IPA and was at the appropriate temperature. It’s not normally the type of beer I’d order, but it’s part of the JD Wetherspoon beer festival which is taking place at the moment.

    The service was all good, efficient and professional, despite the pub being pretty busy when I visited. All rather lovely and although I wasn’t entirely excited by the beer options, at least there were several to choose from.

  • Liverpool – North Western

    The JD Wetherspoon operated North Western pub, located at Liverpool Lime Street railway station. This was the ground floor of the long since closed North Western Hotel, which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who also was the lead architect of London’s Natural History Museum.

    The ground floor retains its grand appearance, with plenty of space and some very competitive pricing for a railway station hub.

    Today is the first day of the JD Wetherspoon beer festival, and there are a number of intriguing and interesting options on the pub chain’s list. They’re not all available at once, so it’ll require multiple visits to try and get to see most of them, but I was pleased to see a beer from the Titanic Brewery. The half of this beer, the Another Pint in the Wall, was perfectly well-kept and drinkable, although this wasn’t a drink with strong flavours.

    I’m not quite sure why this pub isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, it has more character and more beers than some of other Wetherspoon outlets in the area. No doubt there is a natural limit to how many of their pubs can be listed in the book, but it’s perhaps unfortunate that this isn’t one of them.

    Staffing in the pub was efficient and there were no delays to the service, even though the pub was reasonably busy at the bar. The environment was comfortable and the choice of beers, and their prices, was excellent. All rather lovely.

  • Liverpool – Brewdog Deskdog

    I heard last week about a new scheme that Brewdog have introduced to allow people to get work done in their pubs (their own work, not work for the pub chain) which gives them a table, a free pint and unlimited coffee. The cost is £7, so I thought I’d give this marvellous concept a go.

    All rather excellent, they were expecting me. I don’t think a prior reservation is required though, so customers can just turn up. There’s a theoretical time limit of two and a half hours which the on-line reservation gives in the pub, but they do mention that it’s possible to extend this just by asking a staff member. I doubt that in practice there are any time restrictions (within reason).

    The first of several coffees. There’s a bell at the table which the very friendly staff member said that I could press to get another coffee, but, like the call button on aircraft, I rarely feel that comfortable pressing it. And since I was six feet from the bar, I was happy to make that commitment to walking over.

    The Punk IPA that was included in the price, the usual clean and refreshing flavours.

    The beer list with some tempting options, although I managed to restrain myself.

    Every Brewdog has a beer fridge where takeouts, or indeed drink-ins, can be obtained.

    The pinball machine area for those customers who might want a distraction.

    Decorative toilets with kegs on top of the cubicles, and they were also around the walls.

    Anyway, back to the concept. This is part of a sweeping move being made by pubs, restaurants and hotels to get remote workers, digital nomads, home workers, or whatever the exact term used, into using their facilities. Some do this better than others, with JD Wetherspoon leading the charge with their unlimited coffee for somewhere between £1.15 and £1.50 (or more at airports), but companies such as Accor are getting good at this as well.

    I like how Brewdog have made their plans very clear, as it means that people know that they are welcome within the pub for the day. The staff in this Brewdog were engaging and friendly, although the chain seems to be really good at this. The coffees kept flowing without any issue and the staff were knowledgeable about the whole process.

    I like pub and hotel environments with their ambient noise and ability to listen in to what are often ridiculous complaints made to staff. The noise in this Brewdog wasn’t disturbing at all, although the music did get a bit louder towards the end of my visit. I do prefer the policy that JD Wetherspoons have on dogs (they’re banned), but given the name of Brewdog and their open acceptance of dogs, at least their policy is clear and consistent.

    All in all, I really like this concept and Brewdog have implemented it with some professionalism. I can imagine that this will become more common over the next few years and it’s an excellent way of filling up what might otherwise be a nearly empty venue during the day.

  • National Express – Norwich to Liverpool

    After I had obtained some low priced accommodation in Liverpool, I just had to work out how to get there from Norwich. The trains weren’t priced at a particularly attractive level, which was especially irritating as there’s a direct service from Norwich to Liverpool (although I think that’s going as part of the franchise changes).

    So, I decided to abandon my favourite form of ground transportation and instead of using the rail network, I looked at the bus options. National Express had a return fare from Norwich to Liverpool for £28, which was much cheaper than any other option.

    The only little problem with this plan is that the journey was eight hours each way. Just what I wanted…..

    Anyway, I boarded in Norwich and the driver mentioned that I was going on a long journey. Much as I appreciated his enthusiasm, I did privately think that I was already well aware of this situation. On this point, the boarding process was all very efficient and I was able to get an emergency exit row seat (they’re not really called that on buses, but it cheered me up to compare it to an aircraft).

    I boarded the bus twenty minutes before departure, and like some child on a school trip, I managed to eat my Tesco meal deal lunch before we had even started. Marvellous.

    At Birmingham, we were allowed off the bus. I’m not sure if disembarking was compulsory, but I got off to explore the facilities. And the city’s coach station is pretty bland, full of expensive outlets, chargeable toilets and nothing much of interest. So, I waited in line to get back on the bus. Fortunately, the driver called us existing customers back on first, so we didn’t have to show tickets and the like again. Other than for one customer who the driver had clearly forgotten and he had to show his ticket again.

    Driving through Birmingham….. The bus was pretty much always on time, although it missed out several stops such as Dereham and Wisbech if no passengers wanted to get off there.

    As for comfort, the bus wasn’t too bad at all, particularly with the extra space of the emergency exit seat towards the back. One woman, who shall we say wasn’t exactly a millennial, decided she wanted to watch some television soap on a tablet with the sound on, which irritated me. So I stared at her angrily, to which she was oblivious, and I thought it might be best for me just to put earphones on instead.

    The driving, which was completed by three drivers, was all professional and it felt a safe environment. The power on board worked well, although the Internet was a bit hopeless and I gave up with that very early on during the journey. The bus wasn’t spotless, but it was sufficiently clean to not cause me any concerns.

    The highlights, other than arriving, were seeing my accommodation at Keele University (B Block, Lindsay Hall) from the M6 and also watching Jonathan travelling in the other direction on a Megabus service from Liverpool. I can’t say that I exactly enjoyed the whole journey, but it was easy, comfortable and fairly priced.

  • Liverpool – Mr Seel’s Garden

    What is now Seel Street takes its name from Thomas Seel, who was a city merchant and former slave traders. Just to show how Liverpool has moved on over the centuries to share its wealth around equitably, note the tent to the left-hand side of the road with what I’m assuming is a homeless person trying to survive the cold months.

    An information board giving more details about the area.

    This is really nicely done, with a white asterisk marking the spot (towards the right-hand side) where I was standing. Unfortunately, all of these gardens are now under roads now, but it’s nice that a reminder of history has been made available.

  • Liverpool – Head of Steam

    I, rather ignorantly, hadn’t heard of this small chain of pubs before, but I shall look out for them now in the future. As with other pubs I visited tonight, I went to them all because they’re listed in the Good Beer Guide. As with the others, this one also seemed to be deserving of its place in the guide.

    There was a quirky design in what was a substantial pub in terms of its size, with plenty of different seating types. I didn’t order food, but the menu looked interesting and on-trend, with plenty of dining type tables available for those who wanted that.

    I understand, from the head of pub planning for our Sheffield trip in a few weeks, that a visit is already planned to the Head of Steam bar there. The chain is owned by Camerons Brewery, once a much larger concern than it is today. Many of the pubs which they used to own have ended up with the Brent Walker group, which then became part of Pubmaster, and then in due course, Punch Taverns.

    It’s not very original perhaps, but I usually go for a Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery when I see it. It didn’t disappoint here, lots of flavour and nicely refreshing.

    Although later on, unable to force myself to leave the pub, I also went for Tiny Rebel’s Cask IPA. The two staff members who served me had a vibrancy about them, so the whole environment felt friendly. It wasn’t quite as busy as I’d expected, but it was a rainy Tuesday evening in October, so they were probably not expecting a full house.

    More photos of the pub’s interior.

    They had nine pages of this….

    I’ve never seen this before on a screen, it’s the pub’s live Untappd feed. Given that I’m easily pleased, I decided to log-in and make my presence known to everyone who was looking at the screen. Which, realistically, was probably only me and I already knew that I was there. But, it kept me amused.

    This is one of my contenders for favourite pub of the year, because the environment was welcoming, some thought had gone into the decor and the beer choice was marvellous. The service was friendly, it was a comfortable environment and there was a sense of excitement about the proceedings. All  very lovely.