A Drink in London That Won't Cost An Arm & A Leg?

Molanole

I live in Ealing and work in Bloomsbury and am well used to getting stung in pubs with London prices. All those who posted about Samuel Smith's pubs are right though. They are by far and away the cheapest places to drink. No you don't get the branded drinks but I find their bottled lager to be fine (heard that the draft stuff isn't so great though). I'm used to paying £3.50 upwards just for a bottle though and that's not even in the trendy bars.

nutmegman

Gemmzie wrote:

What's so bad about Wetherspoon's?

If you are asking then you must enjoy them:rotfl:

I could write a book on reasons not to go in

1, Music is too loud
2, Full of smoke
3, Fantastic Food
4, Nice looking ladies hanging around all day nursing halk a bitter
5, quality drinks

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Why go anywhere else

Then again i could poke myself in the eye with a needle

skintasusual

sam smiths = 100000000 times better than wetherspoons.

I use wetherspoons sometimes purely cos its cheap, and there is a really nice one in chancery lane. the one near my house however, I would avoid at all costs - it attracts allsorts of weirdo's!!

I also go to the chandos in trafalgar sq - its samuel smiths and really nice, cheap and not at all scummy!!

Glass_Half_Empty??

xzibit wrote:

Wetherspoons and Lloyd's No.1 are both owned by JD Wetherspoon. Lloyds are the bars that play music, and are meant to be trendier, where as I believe the Wetherspoons don't play music!?!
I have heard a rumour the drinks are cheap for a reason, because they buy nearly out of date stock, but not sure how true this is. I do know last time I bought a bottle in there, it was only in date by 2 months!!

How much is an average pint in Londinium then? Where I live £2.80 is expensive for a pub, clubs are £3.00, and Wetherspoons are £1.50 - £2.10 depending what you have.

I used to manage for wetherspoons and please let me put you straight on something. They do NOT buy nearly out of date stock and then sell it cheap. They have or at least had nearly 700 pubs when I worked for them, now if you go to a brewery and say I have 680 pubs and I want cheaper beer or I go elsewhere then guess what? The brewery sells it cheaper
It cost around 60p per pint of fosters for spoons and they sell at around 2 quid now. Not a bad profit at all although obviously there are others costs that go into that profit.
I hate wetherspoons as a brand for the reason I left but it really pees me off when I hear people saying this rubbish about buying out of date beer. They are so strict they wouldn't accept beer if they didn't think it would sell before then trust me.
Sorry guys, rant over

nutmegman

Glass_Half_Empty?? wrote:

I used to manage for wetherspoons and please let me put you straight on something. They do NOT buy nearly out of date stock and then sell it cheap. They have or at least had nearly 700 pubs when I worked for them, now if you go to a brewery and say I have 680 pubs and I want cheaper beer or I go elsewhere then guess what? The brewery sells it cheaper
It cost around 60p per pint of fosters for spoons and they sell at around 2 quid now. Not a bad profit at all although obviously there are others costs that go into that profit.
I hate wetherspoons as a brand for the reason I left but it really pees me off when I hear people saying this rubbish about buying out of date beer. They are so strict they wouldn't accept beer if they didn't think it would sell before then trust me.
Sorry guys, rant over

You may be correct, however, the FACT is all beer in spoons is crap.....!!

PercyPig

nutmegman wrote:

You may be correct, however, the FACT is all beer in spoons is crap.....!!

I find this a wee bit judgemental to make a sweeping statement like that about every beer sold in over 700 pubs.

I went on a long pub crawl the other week around London drinking San Miguel and BY FAR the best pint I had was in a Wetherspoons. The quality was excellent. I like to think I know a good pint when I find one as I have sampled many varieties over the years and regularly attend beer festivals, conferences etc. Added to the fact that the average price of the pint in non-Wetherspoons establishments was over £4 and they were selling their pints for £2.20 - how can you go wrong? And if lager is not your drink, try one of the many real ales they sell - they wouldn't be supported by CAMRA if all their beer was crap would they?

As I said in my earlier post, yes there are dodgy Wetherspoons but there are dodgy pubs everywhere. To say they are all crap is, frankly, just b******s and too snobby for words.

(BTW the pub crawl was a one off for a birthday celebration, not just my normal Friday night )

Glass_Half_Empty??

Some beer in Wehterspoons will always be crap in certain pubs because they don't clean their lines often enough. But it isn't just Wetherspoons that is guilty of that and it isn't their fault either. It is the managers responsibility to ensure all lines are cleaned once a week with guest ales every time the barrell goes. If the managers don't keep on top of it then the beer is crap, simple as. And I would say that I get a better pint in Wetherspoons on general then I do in most places.

Mushy61

Went to Wetherspoons last night and they are doing a deal at the moment, 2 steak meals and a bottle of wine for £15. Was reliably informed by the barman that the Rioja we chose cost £25 at a hotel he worked in Liverpool 4 years ago!! :eek:

As for the brekkies :- <--- yummy smiley.

regularly go there for mine.

pennylane99

enjoy the concert....should be good...

I missed out on getting tickets.....sigh...