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Submitted on Saturday, 26th May 2018
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Detail Pages
Hare & Hounds, St. Albans
St. Albans
AL1 1RL
Served areas
Reviews of Hare & Hounds (Average Rating: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Hare & Hounds
Another backstreet pub in this part of town, this is a fairly large, multi-roomed boozer seemingly popular with a relatively younger crowd. You enter into a slightly lower front room with a grand fireplace under a huge dark wood lintel to the right with a couple of sofas in front of it, making it a good spot to grab on a chilly Autumn evening. The greeter’s lectern was just to the left of this space and having completed the unnecessarily complicated sign-in process, I was led through a low doorway to the left, into the main bar area where I was seated at a nice table opposite the bar. The servery runs along the back wall and has a tongue and groove counter front which runs in an unusual ‘bulging’ angular shape. The bar back is remarkably basic and detracts a little from the room’s overall effect although it had been brightened up a little by the addition of some fairy lights, which snake out from here across the ceiling beams. Tub chairs serve a few small tables opposite the bar but the majority of the seating appears past the left-hand end of the servery, where the room opens out into a bare boarded space with basic seating underneath low panelled walls decorated with traditional paintings and an acoustic guitar. One final room can be found to the rear right where some more chair and banquette seating can be found in a compact bare boarded space. A TV screen here was showing muted live football whilst a dreadful 90’s pop soundtrack played away in the background – I’m tempted to give this pub the score of shame just for making me listen to the bloody Macarena in full.
I counted six handpulls on the bar, two of which were unused, leaving a choice of St Austell Tribute, Adnams Ghost Ship, Youngs Special and Rat White Rat. The barmaid who had made the registration process such a chore on my arrival, continued to prove particularly inept in dealing with my complex order of one pint of White Rat, eventually managing to serve up a decent drop of a beer I don’t see down this way very often.
Despite the borderline hopeless service, I rather enjoyed this place which has a nice mix of rooms, mostly very nicely presented and comfortably furnished. Having at least one interesting beer on the bar certainly helped the cause and were there an interesting local brew available and a better choice of music on the stereo, I may well have thought even more highly of this place. Definitely worth a look if you’re crawling the backstreets of this part of town.
On 18th November 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Hare & Hounds
As others have mentioned the Hare and Hounds gives off all the exterior vibes of being a modern gastro pub, but fortunately inside is still quite a nice traditional pub interior.
Yes the main bar room is mainly laid for dining and is a tad dark, presumably because of the low beamed ceiling combined with smallish windows and a very dark bare wood floor, but this pub surprises with the comfortable Chesterton filled section beyond and the impressive exterior decking space and large garden with children’s play area beyond.
Impressive range of six ales as reported below and the Trumans Lazarus was in good condition. Difficult to truly judge as it was almost empty for our mid afternoon visit , but certainly one I would consider returning to.
On 23rd August 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2111 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Hare & Hounds
The upmarket J-shaped interior has had a lick of paint since my last visit but ostensibly still the same; bare boards, two-tone green colour scheme, sofas. One or two characterful touches though. Good-sized garden replete with table football. Other items of note were a selection of papers, kids colouring stuff and advertised live music. A spawning of ale, from two in 2009 to five over six pumps, Red Squirrel Summer Daze, Otter Bitter, Truman's Lazarus, Long Man American Pale and a house beer brewed Ringwood (though no idea if unique or rebadge). I tried the Truman's which was in decent nick but had an bad sweetcorn taste (which from accumulated wisdom would have it placed at the brewer's rather than the publican's door - though a top-notch landlord would have picked this up). Decent enough though perhaps I was a bit unlucky with the ale. I'd give it another go next time.
July 2009
A nicely-kitted out two-roomed, boho pub/bar thing with four ale pumps (though only two ales actually on - Woodfordes Wherry and Doom Bar, which came out fairly well) as well as Aspells Cyder which is always a good tipple - expensive in here though. Sports TV, daily papers, dominant foreground music and Jenga add to the mix. The TV seems oddly positioned by the bar, if you're queuing to be served it feels like you’re blocking the view of others. Whilst it won't bother some of the big-hitter pubs elsewhere in St Albans I thought it was a decent place and perhaps worth a quick stop if you're in that part of the town. Rated 6
On 1st August 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
View more reviews of Hare & Hounds (13)
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- Official site of Hare & Hounds - www.hareandhoundsstalbans.co.uk
- Facebook - The Hare & Hounds
- CAMRA WhatPub :: Hare & Hounds - whatpub.com
St Albans City, 0.63 miles, 12 min walk (show)
Park Street, 2.01 miles, 38 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- CAMRA Discount : Yes - 10p per pint - last updated 16 October 2015 by ROB Camra
- Car Park : No last updated 18 November 2020 by Pub SignMan
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Darts : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Function Room : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Jukebox : No last updated 18 November 2020 by Pub SignMan
- Karaoke : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Live Music : Yes last updated 26 February 2015 by Will Larter
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Micropub : No last updated 22 July 2015 by Moby Duck
- Pinball : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Pool Table : No last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Quiz Night : Yes last updated 26 February 2015 by Will Larter
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
- Real Cider : Yes last updated 18 July 2015 by Bucking Fastard
- Wheelchair Access : Yes last updated 18 November 2020 by Pub SignMan
- WiFi : Yes last updated 08 September 2015 by Quinno _
