Old House at Home, Milton, Southsea

Great Pub situated in Milton giving us fantastic live music on Friday and Saturday Nights.. BBQs most summer sundays in their fantastic gardens and great food!! Loving this place and brilliant for all the family.. oh! and with their multi-screen set up you will not miss any sporting action

Set back from the road and shaded by a couple of trees, this one promises something a bit more sumptuous from the outside than the inside actually delivers. The unusual fireplace/chimney breast aside, there’s not a huge amount to look at beyond the TV (which was showing football and not the advertised rugby). Family-friendly, mainly younger working class, a number of whom were taking advantage of the large grassed side garden (access to which takes you past three (yes three!) dart boards) and the atmosphere was certainly boisterous, with a large number of kids zooming around left right and centre. My reason for visiting was its entry in the 2014 GBG; a massive let-down on this front as over the six pumps sat but a single ale, a flatlining Courage Directors with a Doom Bar clip turned. Two Weston's ciders at least made things look a little more respectable but on Saturday afternoon you’d be expecting near-capacity on the pumps, surely? Most of my Directors ended up as grass fertilizer. Not one I can imagine returning to, perhaps there’s been a change of management here in the last few months?

The pub looks quite attractive from the outside, set back from the road with a couple of mature trees in the frontage. Inside is a sort of dog leg or elongated Z-shaped space, the bar opposite the entrance. Bright blue painted lower wainscoted walls and bar front, a tad garish, mostly carpeted but with a wood floor at the far left end where there are three dartboards in a line, suggesting that the arrows are rather important here. A few trophies on a shelf add to this assumption. There is even a further dartboard in the main bar area, perhaps for the less serious chuckers. There is a pool table with a no under twelves' rule, clearly flouted when I was in, a couple of TVs and live music is advertised. Beyond the dartboard area is a large grassy garden with a covered barbeque/food serving area and a few swings for the kids. The bar has three mouse themed murals painted over the gantry, with a tongue in cheek reference to the pub name, The Old Mouse at Home...cheesy but a bit of fun. The welcome at the bar was friendly from the young barmaid, four beers and a cider on alongside the usual keg offerings, Courage Directors, Doom Bar, Tim Taylor's Landlord, Triple fff Pressed Rat and Warthog (£2.40)plus Old Rosie cider. I went for the fff beer and was offered a taster as the regulars aren't "used to it", which made me smile. A surprisingly good pub with a surprisingly good beer choice in a backwater of Milton, I quite liked it here.