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Monday to Thursday : Unlimited Chicken Wings at Brewdog Norwich, a Free Whopper and Limited Progress at the Ferry Boat Inn

Another one of my little complaints, this is the disgrace (I like using strong words to reinforce my anger, even though it makes me sound inarticulate and odd) of the former Ferry Boat Inn, a pub operated by Greene King until they closed it in 2010. After a series of business plans which fell through, it’s now going to be turned into flats for students. There are so many similar developments in the city that I’m not sure where all these students are coming from. Anyway, the development has stopped again now due to some odd financial arrangements, so the site remains in flux. What this site would have made is a excellent pub which could have been one of the best in the city, with a long heritage since around 1820. Who knew? Anyway, in around ten years there might be some cheap flats here overlooking the river which will probably fall down in around thirty years.

My friend James mentioned that there were free Whoppers being dished out around the country by Burger King. I didn’t want him to be lonely when he went to get one, so I accompanied him to the new Norwich branch. I know that since hitting 30 I’ve become old, but I’m sure that Whoppers were better back in the day…… It was quite fiddly to order them using the app, but there was such a queue that anyone could realistically just walk in and say they had ordered one.

Inspired by this food excitement, James and I went to Brewdog in the evening for all you can eat chicken wings. I mean, no-one can say that I’m not classy? Whoppers and chicken wings? Very decadent. I’ve worked my way around most Brewdogs in the country, and indeed many Wings Wednesdays, as although it’s not the best food that the chain does, it’s sort of affordable (for them anyway) and I know I’ll eat enough.

James can eat more than I can, he’s nearly to 40 than I am (in terms of chicken wings consumed, not age), but they’re delicious, although that sauce is a little vinegary so it soon becomes quite challenging to eat them. We managed to persist for a couple of hours though, with the service being a little sluggish at first although it then picked up and extra wings came flying our way (there’s a pun there) at some pace. They were generous in letting us have two blue cheese sauces, they really something to the chicken wings, mainly by hiding the vinegar taste which is in the sauce.

We then shuffled along the road to the Leopard, which I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions is one of the best pubs in Norwich (although the dog is I know annoying more than just a few customers now), with their selection of keg and cask beers. I went for the Have Your Cake and Eat It from Three Blind Mice which was pleasant enough, but it didn’t have enough dessert taste for me to really like it and I slightly regretted getting an entire pint of it. Interesting beer though and the staff here were as friendly as ever, it’s a very laid-back pub and the beer options are well balanced.

And in a switch of drinking partner from James (who needed to go home to get over excessive chicken wing consumption) to Nathan (who was propping up another bar in another part of the city), I popped to the White Lion before we accidentally both went to the King’s Head for goodness knows how long. We had to discuss the delights of Gorleston for the big day out that we were planning, although I expect we got distracted and talked about some other unimportant thing that had annoyed us both.

I’ve noted how food and drink obsessed this blog gets when I’m back in Norwich, but readers will just have to wade through this drivel….. At least the blog marches forwards several days at a time when I’m in the heart of Norfolk life, so there’s less to read.

June 8, 2022
Reading – Brewdog

Continuing my vague plan to visit every Brewdog in the country (along with many other similar plans that I have), this is their outlet in Reading, an impressive building which was constructed in the 1830s as a Congregational Chapel. Over the last decade, it has housed a number of different pubs and bars, but it has been a Brewdog for the last few years.

I’m not sure what is happening to the frontage of this building, it’s in a really poor state and it has lost the blue coating that Brewdog painted it not that long ago. At a best guess, they painted it without permission and have been told to remove it (this sounds like something that Brewdog would do), but they really need to do something about the current situation.

The beer selection, with the Coffee Stout confusing me as it had no brewery name by it. The staff member didn’t know and couldn’t find out, but she asked a passing manager who told me that it was brewed by Firebrand Brewing Company, a Cornish brewery. The member of bar staff was personable and engaging, but she accidentally poured me a pint instead of a half. She realised when pouring, but she tipped the remainder into another glass, although it was probably just easier to give it to me (not that I really wanted any more than a half to be fair) rather than have a bit of beer randomly sitting there.

There’s quite a large interior which is bright and comfortable, with another floor above.

There was a booth available which I thought looked comfortable, and was a pleasant environment to read a book on my phone. The beer is the Lil’ Beans from Double-Barrelled Brewery, which was better than I anticipated, with rich vanilla and chocolate notes. The brewery are local to Reading, so credit to Brewdog for making the effort to have this available to support local businesses. I was pondering why I had heard of this brewery and it transpires I had their ‘Infinite Reflections’ beer a couple of weeks ago in the Artichoke in Norwich, where I’ve also had the ‘Everything But the Bulbs’ beer as well. I’m going to see if I can get chance to visit their taproom over the next couple of days, probably not, but I shall do my best…..

Anyway, I had expected the bar to be a little busier, not least because Google warned me that it was “as busy as it gets”, which usually means that people are flooding out of the door. In the end I read a chunk of my book, a sign of a warm and comfortable environment, so all really very amiable with the friendly staff and clean surroundings.

February 17, 2022
Cambridge – Brewdog

This was the next pub that my friend Nathan and I popped to after visiting the Maypole, and this is the centrally located Brewdog that I’ve visited before. I thought that this was one of the better bars in their chain when I visited before, with everything on this trip being well managed so I don’t have much need to change my view about that.

There was a short wait whilst we were greeted at the front door, where customers are asked to wait. They were encouraging customers to order at the bar rather than using the app, so we did that. There was a decent selection of options, with a range of beer styles being listed there including sours and darker options.

Although the downstairs area looked quite busy, the upstairs was anything but, so I found us a table with a plug so we could keep our phones charged. This is important when your rail tickets are on your phones…..

This is the one third of the Carachino from Mad Squirrel Brewery, although it clearly isn’t, it was another Brewdog mispour. They’re managing to do this on around half of my visits, but I refuse to condemn their heavy handedness as it means more free beer….. As a drink, this was another beautifully decadent one, just suited to my tastes of an imperial stout (it weighs in with an ABV of 8%) with tastes of caramel. It was like drinking liquid Cadbury’s Caramel, although my comment about the rabbit from the advertising campaign was lost on Nathan. There was a full body, beautifully smooth taste of caramel and that rich flavour lingered beautifully. Sometimes these flavours can be dulled when drinking more than a third of a beer, but this one remained gorgeously decadent until the end. Very nice.

Anyway, service in the bar was fine, it was clean and everything felt organised and well managed. No negatives and this remains one of my favourite Brewdog outlets in the chain.

December 20, 2021
Norwich – Brewdog Visa

I picked up my new Beer Visa from Brewdog in Norwich yesterday, which I thought I’d be interested in given my attempt to visit every Brewdog in the country. I have to say that I don’t really quite get what they’ve done here, I had hoped it was something like just getting it stamped at each Brewdog. Instead they’re introduced something really quite complex which seems to involve having certain drinks to get stickers and then also repeating the same process at different Brewdog venues. I can’t see whether they’re trying to promote visiting different bars or drinking their mainstream beers, so they’re got some hybrid thing going on.

It’s actually so complex that I really don’t understand it despite reading the instructions on numerous occasions. Although, to be fair, I’m often easily confused by things. For anyone who wants to read the rules then they’re at https://www.brewdog.com/uk/beer-visa-2.

Given that I don’t tend to drink Brewdog’s own beers when in their bars, as I’ve had them all, I’m not that interested in the whole process so I’m going to bin the visa. Not the loyalty scheme that I had expected, but apparently they’re relaunching it again in 2023. I’ll wait until then and hope they get something a little more exciting.

December 16, 2021
Dublin – Brewdog

Since I’m trying to visit every Brewdog that there is (one of many slightly pointless hobbies I’ve picked up), a couple of weekends ago we meandered down to the financial area in Dublin to visit this outlet which opened in late 2019.

I’d say at the outset that this appears to be a troubled bar and it has slumped into nearly the lowest rated restaurant in Dublin on TripAdvisor. We were a bit time limited on our visit, partly due to my not realising just how far away this Brewdog is from the city centre, and there was a sign saying to wait at the entry desk to be seated. That’s in line with the rules in Dublin, but we waited for a few minutes and no-one was visible. Very conscious of time we went on in anyway and were then noticed by a team member who took us to a table.

This is a very large venue, the ground floor has this brewing equipment, but there’s a similar size floor above with outside terraces on both levels. I’ve been reading reviews of how the venue often has no tables available, so they must be taking some serious money at weekends and other busy times during the year.

The downstairs bar which we were seated near to, in what was pretty much an empty venue when we visited on a Friday lunch-time.

The upstairs bar which was shut, other than for customers to use the toilets.

The view from the terrace.

The upstairs shuffleboards, a popular feature of many Brewdogs, but I still haven’t played.

From our table, looking down the ground floor. It’s fair to say that the ordering process for drinks was muddled. The wrong beer menus were on the table and the pricing of the beers on the app was clearly wrong. I queried it with a team member, who didn’t have a clue what the situation was and he couldn’t tell me what the prices were meant to be, but he accepted that they were wrong. I ordered via the app to try and reduce the issues given the slightly chaotic situation, but we had fewer beers than we really wanted (well, I had fewer beers than I wanted to be more precise) due to the confusion.

I went for two beers, this is the Quench Cake brewed by Brewdog, which was a decent fruit sour.

And the Goodbye Blue Monday from Galway Bay Brewery. I probably wouldn’t have had this beer had I realised how many Galway Bay Brewery pubs we’d be going in during the rest of our stay in the city, but it was an agreeable IPA.

The service was always polite, but a little muddled and duplicated. The wave of negative reviews are often about staffing, but many are about pricing, including a very angry person who paid €9 and got three chicken wings. That’s not ideal if true, Brewdog should be doing better than that. Pricing here is though going to be challenging, it’s the only Brewdog in the country and these already expensive craft beers have to be transported here and there are clearly huge overheads. But, there’s money aplenty in this area, there’s a JP Morgan office next door and they even have their own table number on the app. Money talks….

I can’t say that I was overly impressed by this Brewdog, it felt formulaic and designed to make money rather than prioritise customer care. Obviously their priority is profits, but it all felt a bit overly decadent and style over substance here. The beer list was though well curated and there were a range of beer styles, with the beers we had being of a decent quality. The bar gave up a year ago responding to reviews, probably not an ideal sign and I guess they are just trying to avoid the now mostly negative comments that are being made. Although some of the replies aren’t really very illuminating, the reply to queries about high pricing was:

“It is true that our beers can cost more than those from more commercial breweries, but that’s because everything we serve is craft”.

That lack of explanation of craft is a little disappointing without any further details. Anyway, I digress. The bar is named Dublin Outpost, which leads me to suspect that the company might be planning to open another venue in the city centre at some point. So, everything was fine and it’s great to see craft beer of this quality being made available in Dublin, but given the money being taken here it really shouldn’t be bottom of restaurants in Dublin on TripAdvisor, that’s far from ideal.

October 29, 2021
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Brewdog Paddington (2nd Visit)

I’ve visited this Brewdog before, but I thought that it seemed an ideal place to spend a couple of hours before readying myself for a near six hour long coach journey to Hull. I’m not thrilled at the thought of the coach journey, although the price was entirely agreeable which is why I opted for it over the more decadently priced train.

The bar was nearly empty, which meant that I had a choice of seats around the venue, but there’s usually more drama being located near to the bar. There were also power points and a nice chill from the air conditioning, so that location was perfect for me. I ordered via the app to save the long walk to the bar…..

As an aside and since it was so good, I went for a third of the Dessert in a Can – Mocha Ice Cream Fudge Cake from the brilliant Amundsen Brewery. It’s on draft and isn’t in a can here so the name is slightly confusing (although there is a canned version which obviously makes more sense) and it was beautifully decadent and rich. I didn’t need to buy anything else during my near two hours in the pub (stretching a third to last that long isn’t ideal, but it wasn’t cheap, so I felt that balanced out fine) as sipping that and getting on with other bits of work worked out nicely. The drink was rich, quite sweet and the taste of fudge was certainly there, definitely a liquid pudding in a glass. Pleasant flavour which wasn’t too strong and a long aftertaste which didn’t readily dissipate.

For anyone who wants a relaxing and relatively peaceful afternoon in Paddington, I can think of far worse places…..

September 26, 2021
Leeds – BrewDog Headingley

I visited the other two branches of Brewdog in Leeds a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t get the chance to come out to Headlingley. As I’m trying to visit every Brewdog, I took the chance today to come out here to tick another one off.

I arrived shortly after the bar opened at 16:00, and it’s also closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I had pre-booked the Wings Wednesday unlimited chicken wings and there was a friendly welcome from the team member. I was offered a choice of seats internally and externally, but went for the one with a power point near to the end of the bar. I’m easily pleased.

One of the beers I wanted was unavailable, so I just had half a pint of the Saison Fourage: Woodruff (or whatever it’s called, I’ve taken that from Untappd) from Yonder Brewing. It was beautifully decadent in terms of the richness of the flavours, it was quite an aromatic drink and it reminded me that Christmas isn’t far off and that annoyed me…. A slightly peppery flavour, all very rustic and I was pleased with this.

The first lot of chicken wings were average, they’re using these giant things which are devoid in any depth of taste, with the wings not being cooked off so that the skin was all floppy and not crisped up. As friends will know, I can’t be eating skin that isn’t frazzled, and preferably burnt, so I picked the chicken out. They also don’t have wipes or the usual Brewdog sauce bottles, although they got me a tub of BBQ sauce.

As I had unlimited wings, I went for the other option of buffalo sauce and these were as bad as they look. Greasy, lacking in flavour, all really quite unimpressive. I have no idea where they’ve got these wings in from, but they’re not a great quality and they’re not cooking them to mask that fact. They’d likely be better to just dump BBQ sauce on the outside of them, cook them for longer and hope for the best. Although I’d suggest that hoping for the best isn’t an ideal way to serve food.

The matter got worse insomuch I was particularly annoyed when the standard £10 charge for these was ignored and I was charged £15. A manager was called over when I politely queried (although I verging into complaint territory at this stage) and they were reduced to £10 without a quibble and that appeased me (I’m easily pleased, as I noted earlier). I’ve checked the Brewdog web-site and it does say that wings should be £10 or £12 in London (although going up to £11 and £13 respectively) so this wasn’t an ideal situation.

On staffing, the server was excellent and she was friendly and engaging. Absolutely no problems with the staff and their welcome, this was a comfortable place to visit. The music was way too loud during the early part of my visit, but they seemed to realise that when a barman was literally shouting at a customer to be heard. As a worrying aside for Brewdog, I quite liked the music, so I’d suggest that they’re entirely out of sync with their customer base. I believe that the Wurzels are the most important musical influence over the last half century, that might not be the vibe that this bar is looking for.

If I hadn’t of got food from this Brewdog then I might have found it a better experience, although the list of beers was limited and it wasn’t very well balanced in terms of beer styles. There were no dark beers and they had to tell another customer that, the only choice was the fallback option in the fridges. On the service, I was entirely happy, but the quality of food wasn’t great and that’s particularly bad given that this is one of their outlets specialising in BBQ food. Friendly staff though, but an average visit.

September 22, 2021
Glasgow – Brewdog Glasgow Kelvingrove

I tried to visit this Brewdog a few days ago as it’s opposite Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, but it was a bit shut. Given that I’m trying to visit every Brewdog in the country, I decided to pop back here on the Glasgow Subway.

The lack of welcome was a bit odd, but I suspect they didn’t see me, despite my British thing of standing there looking awkward for a short while. I think they were trying to greet every customer, so I must have been missed. I went to the seating area near to the bar and there’s a strange set-up here that they don’t use the standard Brewdog app. The location is also relatively small, although it’s one of their earlier ones and I think that this bar has been here for nine years.

That’s the limit of the inside, although there are some seats around the outside as well that I ignored as I like being away from wasps, traffic and passer-bys.

The beer menu wasn’t as large as most other Brewdogs, primarily no doubt as the venue is relatively small. I decided to just go for a third of the No Going Back from Newtown Park Brewing Co, a brewery from Bristol. Perfectly pleasant, lingering flavours of mango and peach, so that was my fruit intake sorted for the day. There wasn’t much else for me to try that I hadn’t had elsewhere, so I thought I’d limit myself to just one little drink.

Then a barman comes over and asked if I ordered a third of the No Going Back. I said that I had, but I’d already got it. He then told me that I might as well have a second one for free, which was a policy decision that I entirely agreed with, but would never have suggested. As an aside, the amount of times I’ve seen in JD Wetherspoon when food goes to the wrong table and a customer says something like “I didn’t order it, but I’ll have it!” with the staff member doing a fake laugh or smile (they must have heard that line so many times) is a reminder for me not to say something like that.

Anyway, the staff seemed friendly, although quite busy, so I liked the relaxed feel here. It’s clearly not a typical Brewdog bar, but still all very agreeable. For those visiting Glasgow’s city centre, there’s a larger Brewdog there which I visited earlier on during the week.

August 28, 2021
Glasgow – Brewdog Merchant City

I’m slowly trying to go to every Brewdog in the UK and this is the chain’s city centre location in Glasgow. I’ve never quite understood the Doghouse branding that Brewdog have, but this was what the pub was called between 2015 and 2018, before reverting to the current external signage.

I was welcomed by a friendly team member who gave me this table and it seems that all sole diners were put in this row of table seating. I thought it was quite a decent location, I could see what was going on throughout the bar in case of any exciting drama. Unfortunately, nothing dramatic happened, but it’s good to be ready and in a prime location.

The beer fridge and bar, all standard Brewdog layout.

These windows at the rear retract fully to open up to the outside and they were opened just before I left (I was leaving anyway, I didn’t stomp off because they opened up the windows).

I had a look through the beer list and was a little perturbed to see that I had already tried nearly everything on the draught (I still don’t know whether it’s better to use draft or draught, so I alternative between them a bit) beer selection. This suggested to me that either I’m visiting too many Brewdogs or they’re not rotating their beers enough. Rather than take any blame myself, I decided they were at fault.

The above beer is the Cosmic Crush Raspberry by Overworks, which is Brewdog’s own brewery. I didn’t order a half (it was expensive, so I limited myself to a third), this was another mispour from Brewdog and I liked how the engaging staff member apologised and said if it was a problem then I could always leave some. It absolutely wasn’t a problem, and that’s about the eighth mispour in a Brewdog that I’ve had. This pleases me greatly. Refreshing and suitably sour, but there was a slight chemical feel to the aftertaste rather than a subtle flavour of raspberries, but still a very decent beer.

I also ordered a Vagabond, which is Brewdog’s gluten free beer that I don’t think I’ve had (or I’ve forgotten if I have) and this was perfectly adequate, but with nothing remarkable about it.

And I ordered Wings Wednesdays, with no shortage of chicken wings despite the national delivery problem which is apparently even impacting Greggs. The staff here were the most pro-active in offering extra rounds of the wings that I’ve experienced in a Brewdog, always being friendly and helpful as well. I should probably though switch to a different food order in future, the wings have quite a strong sauce which isn’t ideal on the throat…. For anyone interested (goodness knows who), the chicken wings tasted fine, but weren’t as crispy as I’ve had elsewhere, as if they’ve had them sitting in the sauce for some time. I didn’t let it bother me though and merrily ate them anyway. Incidentally, the menu here has a strong focus on vegan and vegetarian dishes, I will likely try those again as they’ve been excellent when I’ve had them before.

The reviews of the bar are positive, although there’s one furious customer claiming that they were ill after their visit and it must be Brewdog’s fault. It probably wasn’t, but some people seem entirely content to make these accusations. Anyway, I liked the reply to the review which I assume was a complaint about the time someone had to wait:

“First son was born before I got served”

The reply from Brewdog was:

“Congratulations!”.

OK, it might not be comedy gold, but I liked it. I also liked that Brewdog had little interest in tolerating a customer who abused their staff with the “unbelievable snowflakes for bar staff” in a review. I always feel a little sorry for the bar staff when I read reviews like that, but there we go….

All told, I had a very positive impression about this Brewdog (although, to be fair, I like nearly all of them) given the clean environment, the friendly staff and the food and drink options. All rather lovely.

August 25, 2021
Leeds – BrewDog White Cloth Hall

Having visited the Leeds Brewdog North Street bar for unlimited chicken wings I thought that for the sake of completeness I’d visit the other Brewdog in the city as well. That’s all handy given that I’m working my way through all of the Brewdogs in the UK, although they’ve just opened another one in London as soon as I’ve completed that little challenge.

This Brewdog is located in the historic White Cloth Hall, this one traded in undyed clothing and another hall dealt with, well, dyed clothing. All very precise and a reminder that the woolen and clothing industries powered Leeds financially for many centuries. The bar opened in 2013, so it is one of the earlier Brewdog locations and the company notes “we had to fight for the right to bring BrewDog Leeds to life in the White Cloth Hall”. Sounds an exciting back story….

The inside of the Brewdog and there was a friendly staff member at the door ready to welcome guests. I think he was actually just a bit bored and thought he might as well standing there greeting customers, as it wasn’t that busy. It felt a friendly environment though, although there’s a more limited food menu than the other outlet.

The beer fridge. Apparently there’s an Nintendo 64 system upstairs for guests, although I didn’t go looking for it to find out for sure.

There were a few fruit beers made jointly between Buxton Brewery and Omnipollo, but I opted for the original double blueberry ice cream one. This had no shortage of blueberry flavour which is pleasant upfront although just very slightly too tart at the end, but still a very decent beer. I think some other Brewdogs are serving this drink with ice cream, which sounds a bit too decadent for me.

This is the Milk Shake from Wiper and True brewery from Bristol, given that name from the milk that goes into this stout to add to the creaminess. I had only moderate expectations for this one, but it was a combination of rich and creamy with a pleasant aftertaste, so it was better than I had expected.

As for the reviews, I’m unsure about this one which said “I just ate dog food”. I’m not sure if that’s a rude comment about the food, or whether he ate one of the dog biscuits that I think Brewdog supply. I would have quite liked to have seen more information about that though. Nearly everything else is very positive, so they’re doing something right.

So, that’s another Brewdog visited alongside the many Good Beer Guide pubs that I went to in Leeds, and all of the pubs were a delight (well, a couple of the Wetherspoons were a bit average). This bar had friendly service, a clean environment and decent beers, so nothing for me to complain about.

August 6, 2021