The Empress, Hull

Very distinctive city-centre pub, with a colourfully adorned tall but very narrow frontage. Pretty unremarkable inside the main bar area and single-storey side extension, mostly full of pensioners tucking in to their Sunday roast dinners when I stopped by. Just John Smith's Cask (£2.60) available on handpump, but this was in notably good condition.

A very good looking pub from the outside. Inside there's some dark wood panelling and B & W photos of old Hull around the walls, but it's a bit of a disappointment after the outside. It's all one L shaped room really, but there are a couple of partitions to split it up. There's also a quiz machine and a jukebox. Sadly there were a group of tracksuit bottomed dickheads in one corner ffffing and blinding all the time. Two handpumps on the bar, both badged with John Smiths Bitter. This was in great nick although served a bit too cold for my liking. If all John Smiths tasted like this I'd be happy drinking it. A good solid pub, let down by by some of the clientele.

The beautiful frontage of this pub makes the fairly ordinary interior a bit of a let-down, but it's pleasant enough, and the bar itself is quite attractive. There's still only one real ale available, and it's still John Smiths Cask. But I have to say this was the best John Smiths I have ever had: it was in superb condition and tasted like a different beer altogether. Most of the other customers were eating lunch between bouts of shopping, while I was on my way to join the Pubs Galore crawl of Hull's more interesting pubs. This one was "off piste", but I enjoyed my visit. Date of visit: 18th March 2016