Ime not really a fan of Wetherspoons waiting to get served is a nightmare even when they are quiet, the food is cheap but sometimes iffy and i diont think their normal beers are that cheap now £1.99 for a guest ale.
On the up side they open early in the morning 9.00 am for beer which is very handy when in a new town waiting for the pubs to open and you are almost always guaranteed a drink of real ale.
I would never have more than one drink in a Wetherspoons.
I think we must be lucky with the Regal Moon In Rochdale. We were in a few weeks back on a late Saturday afternoon with the intention of just having the one but the choice and quality of the beer was so good we ended up staying for 6-7 and finishing off with 2 slices of ham, 2 eggs and chips for £1.99p.
I take the food for what it is. You wouldn,t go there for summat special but if you just want summat cheap when you,re peckish it,s o.k. Just.
Our last round on that particular visit was a pint of Elland 1872 Porter, double Bacardi and Coke and 2 of the aforementioned meal less for than a tenner.
I,m in the bargain camp.
From the home of the kebab of doom
Has anyone else notice that the new Wetherspoons Menu is now a Printed on a Yellow & Gold cardboard like a standard Gasto Pub Menu and it don't say Wetherspoons on it Anywhere except in the very small Print what are they trying too do go up market.
Don't You just hate Pubs that say
( We don't stock any Real Ales as theres Just no call for it.)
"Do I know where hell is? hell is in hello"
I found that piece particularly depressing. It seems Timbo is moving perilously close to the slash and burn tactics used by WalMart in America. An article in The Observer, a couple of years ago, highlighted how Walmart would move into small towns and gradually put the local shops out of business, through their discounts and purchasing power. After a while, the town's economy would collapse, with people having to move on. When WalMart's own profits started to be affected, they themselves closed down and moved on to the next town. Possibly a little fanciful and dramatic at the moment, but for how much longer? Give it a rest, Mr Martin.Originally Posted by hondo
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
I take each visit to 'Spoons on its own merits. Good ones I have visited previously have been found wanting and vice versa. The Kings Fee in Hereford did a fantastic extended range of curries but the chef must have left because its back now to the standard menu. Perhaps people are easily pleased because I find 'Spoons pretty well full of diners whenever I manage to visit one. Yes I have had a couple of bad/ poor meals but they are in the minority. On much the same level of incidence as other chain pubs cum restaurants.
Oh lawd feeling hungry! Badly need some Neaps and Tatties.
I have to admit this whole principal is the main reason I have an unnatural aversion to Wetherspoons, whilst there are certainly some good ones I would still rather have decent friendly locals and I fear that one day we may as well just call this site Wetherspoons Galore.
All that being said though this statement intrigued me:
If that is true then they are already screwed, it may be that Wetherspoons helps them though. If Wetherspoons can get people out because of its cheaper prices there is always the chance that the other locals will get fall off business as people fancy a bit of a crawl or can't be bothered to wait at the Wetherspoons.
All in I personally feel it is a bad thing, but this could certainly be an intriguing experiment.
Haggis neeps and tatties should be on in the Anchor in Birmingham today to go with their Burns Night beers. Off for the bus in a tick. Loads of Scottish breweries said to be on, so I'm off to celebrate.
I’m firmly in the “against” camp when it comes to JDW. First and foremost, I just find them generally unpleasant. Some of them (very few in my experience) are OK, but even then the pros (decent choice of beer, low prices) are outweighed by the cons (terrible service, poor atmosphere).
Away from that, as already mentioned above, the danger is that once the Leviathan that is Wetherspoons rolls into town, it sucks the life from the smaller, older more traditional pubs in the area. It’s similar in its way to the out-of-town supermarkets which seem to lead to the downfall of the small grocer, baker, butcher etc. Once they’re gone, everyone bemoans their loss, but rarely pauses to consider their own neglect of the local shops. I sense the same thing occasionally with drinking companions who are adamant in their love of old, traditional boozers, yet arrow straight for a cavernous, soulless converted bank and a £3.99 pint and nuked burger or whatever it is.
The value for money thing is tricky. Obviously Wetherspoons are almost always a lot cheaper than the competition, and in terms of price a lot of the competition can’t hope to match them. I’ve always said that if it comes to 10 or 20p difference in the price of a pint, I’d always pay the extra to drink in the better pub, but when that difference becomes £1 - £1.50, it’s easy to understand why people would choose an inferior location. But then, if price is the motivating factor, I could head down to the aforementioned supermarket and pick up a load of beer for much cheaper than even JDW knock it out, and drink it at home, smugly counting the money I’ve saved. But I hate drinking in the house, so I suppose it all depends on where each individual draws the cost/benefit line.
That leaves the food. I don’t care how cheap it is, it’s still overpriced. Paying some bloke to take delivery of a mass-produced ready-meal from 3663 or whoever and heat it up in an industrial microwave is over my budget if it costs more than £0.00. I don’t really think that a new chef is going to make much of a difference to the edible material that ends up on the customer’s plate.
So, er, count me in the bonkers camp.
Last edited by Evil Gazebo; 26-01-2011 at 14:58.
And you can really taste the hops!
My experience of breakfast in JDW's........not good
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/33079/
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