what the price for a pint of beer in england? on avarage

The trick is to find the non-poxy ones, if there are no viable non-Spoon alternatives.

Many people I know are getting worryingly keen on JDW, as whatever their faults they do more-or-less reliably offer smoke free seating areas, few ankle-bashing screaming brats (& their worse parents), some sort of real ale, edible food, no loud music, and the staff (if you can find any!) don't run away in horror if someone asks for a coffee instead of a pint of Old Bishop's Todger XXXXB.

They really should indicate when a beer is off though.

I thought 'spoons grub was mainly to soak up the beer - and save the walk to the local kebab emporium, giving you more drinking time.

Mostly.

There are, unfortunately, places in the UK where the food and drink available in Wetherspoons improvement on anything else in the locality. :-(

In article , Arthur Figgis writes

Oh no they don't - as I commented the other day. 100% failure rate in one JDW establishment (the Lambton Worm, Sunderland).

HTH -

The pubs that offer such produce - particularly in snack or light meal format rather than in formal restaurant style - are few and far between, particularly in the North of England.

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In message , Frank Erskine writes

The only actually smoke free smoke free room in a JDW I've seen is the Imperial in Exeter. Something to do with it being larger than many entire pubs, every other one leaves me quickly stinking of smoke.

Food: varies, I always find the portions pitifully small. If you don't have the 'meat&2veg' options you go hungry. I use the chippy opposite on my rare visits.

For RA, outside the south east they're rarely even the cheapest pub in town!

"PeterE" - a made-up name if ever I've heard one - said

That's a bit of a generalisation, although perhaps you're right overall. Fortunately there are one or two good places in my own town so I tend to forget that you probably wouldn't list the Northwest as a great gastronomic area (outside the cities anyway).

Wouldn't it be nice if British pubs could do little tapas or free snacky things on the bar? Sometimes that's all you fancy.

Arthur Figgis - a made-up name if ever I've heard one - said

Based on my experience, these are the advantages of JDW:

Disadvantages:

...but the killer one for me, is that they are completely devoid in atmosphere. When I go in a JDW, I feel like I'm on a conveyer belt, being passed through this big machine for drinking. Some of them almost don't feel like pubs as I understand them.

Free? FREE? You'll be lucky! :) I have seen crisps and peanuts going free at the bar in some places, usually decent local type pubs, and it's not been unknown for one of my favourite pubs to dish out free bread & cheese occaisionally. But with profit margins as thin as they are in most pubs, it's likely to remain a rare event. I take your point about sometimes just wanting a finger snack sometimes.

KeithS

In article , PeterE writes

Where on earth in the North are you, I could go into at least a dozen within 5 miles of where I live and get good beer and anything from sandwiches to a three course meal.

Mike

Ever wondered if it is part of the corporate training? I've actually seen training material for one pub chain that emphasised the need to *only* fill to a specific point. Said point being more than the 5% leeway...

There's a pub I know that you can virtually guarantee will have a staff member tour the tables during the evening and remove empty glasses while leaving a few dishes of nibbles (peanuts, cheese etc)

See sig.

You must be lucky, because in my experience pubs that offer "good quality, locally-sourced, often organic homemade food" and are not expensive restaurant-style places are few and far between.

You'd be surprised how much food sold in pubs arrives in a Brake Bros van.

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Fairy snuff, maybe I've been lucky. I've only been to Sunderland once, and the only pub I went to was called something like "the Transporter", I think.

I was thinking in terms of separate areas rather than completely separate rooms, which I think are generally too much to hope for. Many Spoonses tend to be so big that we can get away from any smoking areas, and they don't allow smoking at the bar (I assume for the benefit of the staff, but it help me as a customer). The thing is that, rightly or wrongly, people I know (YMMV) assume that a bog-standard JDW won't smell as much as many "real" pubs. With a "real" pub you have to go along and see. I try to try-out non-Spoons pubs, but I'm getting dragged off to JDW more and more. Maybe I need new mates :-)

I find them okay, but of course it is a personal thing. Again, it's the Drinker's McDonald's idea - I can be reasonably sure what will be on offer. Weatherburger and Weatherchips with Weatherketchup isn't very exciting, but they aren't going to be rude to me for thinking a large sign on the bar saying "food available" might mean food was available, as I found in two pubs last week.

I'm in London. Locally I have a totally generic JDW, another place which on my few vists was serving some form of vinegar by the pint, a plastic paddy pub, and a wannabe-Spoons place which has even less character than the real one. Whether or not they turn the clips round when the beer is off, I don't know. :-)

Last month I found a place in Croydon doing Tetley's at about GBP 1.50 a pint, but it was as bad as might be expected!

/delurk

FWIW, pubs in Australia have had to re-invent themselves in the last few years. It's rare to find a pub in anything but the most out-of-the-way places that doesn't serve cooked 2 or 3 course meals for lunch and dinner. They nearly all serve at least a "roast of the day" with veges, steak/chips, fish and so on. Some of them have always had such a service, but economics have forced the laggers to either close or catch up.

There are a few places whose reputations draw people from far and wide. The dining room in the Charleville Hotel (western Queensland), for example is famous for its silver service, but it's *not* called a restaurant, it's the "hotel dining room".

I suppose it's a legacy from colonial times - you might spend days travelling from the station homestead to the nearest town for your quarterly/annual supply run, and publicans found it worth their while to provide good food and lodgings.

There's one that calls itself "Brisbane's worst vegetarian restaurant" - slabs of 2-inch fillet/rump/t-bone/porterhouse on offer for about AUD$25.00

/lurk

In article , Arthur Figgis writes

What is it about drinking beer that gives one the kebab munchies?

Steven Pampling - a made-up name if ever I've heard one - said

I wouldn't be surprised. With the staff in our local jd's I think sometimes it's a combination of lack of practice and the pressure of being short-staffed.

Occasionally they seem to think they're auditioning for a new American TV show as well, jumping and diving around, pouring two drinks at a time, pointing ostentatiously at the next customer for his order etc.

All that's open? And have you ever tried looking at a kebab while sober...? Urgggh :)

Probably depends on what's open at the time. Which may well be the reason why I have in the past gone into the nearby 24hour Tescos when half cut.

Stephen.

"KeithS" - a made-up name if ever I've heard one - said

What you would have to do is to give a little dish out to people, with the implication that this is the portion, finito. Otherwise some greedy sod would shovel half a kilo of peanuts down his neck.