The Aragon, Hillhead, Glasgow

An L-shaped, one room bar on trendy Byres Road which has retained a traditional feel despite the insertion of four big screen TVs. It tends to attract an older crowd than the students from the nearby University who generally favour the numerous more modern alternatives in the area. The comfortable bar seating is supplemented by a few tables outside on the pavement, although this is very limited due to space restrictions. There is a good selection of beers on draught, including Tennents, Stella Artois, Carling, Fosters, Kronenberg and Becks lagers, Guinness, McEwan’s 70 Shilling and John Smith’s. There is also a Guest Ales menu, which featured Deuchars, Caledonian 80 Shilling, Spitfire and Bombardier at the time of my visit. All in all, a very nice pub which is well worth a visit if you’re in the area and useful as a half way stopping point between the real ale emporiums of Tennents and The Three Judges.

This was a bit of a lucky dip stop for me, not part of my intended list of pubs to do but it looked quite appealing from outside and seemed a shame to walk by so I thought I would take a chance. The L-shaped interior is plain and simple with bare floors and carpeted edges, standard furnishings and a job lot of old pictures. There are multiple TVs and Sky Sports 3d was advertised as well as Acoustic music on Sundays. If the weather allows there is some pavement seating. The bar back was laden with whisky bottles and a sign proclaiming Stella as their Beer of the Week which wasn’t the most endearing feature. That said, there were 4 hand pumps with Caledonian Deuchars on 2 pumps, Caledonian 80/- and Black Sheep Best (off). The ales were decent enough an reasonably priced Overall it was a reasonable place for a quick pint although it is overshadowed by some of its better known neighbours. I wouldn’t include the place at another ones expense but if there is time to squeeze in a pint somewhere, the Aragon will do the job.