The Golden Lion, Weymouth

Official site of The Golden Lion - goldenlionweymouth.com

Official site of The Golden Lion - goldenlionweymouth.com

As described by PSM, below, this GK dive bar remains a downmarket drinking den largely shunned by locals and all but the worst kind of grockle. The irritating over-loud jukebox, loud gaming machines and loud feral, over-indulged children who should be in bed (or anywhere other than here) complete the picture. Two ales on draft, Tribute, which was in fair condition, and King mango which I couldn't bring myself to try. The keg range was limited to Carling, Amstel and John Smith's. I doubt I shall return.

Located at one end of a long, pedestrianised shopping street, close to the Quay, the Golden Lion is a large, opened out Greene King pub that seems to be aiming for the lower budget food market. The place clearly had a nice multiple room layout in the past and a lot of sections of partitioning wall have been retained variously throughout the building, leaving a rather confused and unsatisfying layout. The main entrance sees you pass through a lounge style area, carpeted for the most part and furnished with plenty of standard tables and chairs plus a few comfier options. Further into the room, a raised area with modern laminate flooring appears to the left with a few more seats dotted around before the servery eventually appears down the left hand wall. The bar is all dark wood with a half decent mirrored bar back in which one mirror sports the pub's name. Some brick pillars and a section of wall screens the bar from a large open-plan area to the right which has basic seating around the perimeter and a good deal of standing room through the centre. A few more seats in a compact space to the rear round out the options, but none of these areas seemed particularly homely or likely to generate any sort of ambiance, so we sat near the entrance, as at least there was some good natural light here. A few nautical themed items decorate the walls, but it's all a bit half-hearted - the numerous TV screens showing live football provided a much more cohesive theme for the pub. Just the two ales on the bar - Greene King Back of the Net and Morland Old Speckled Hen, with a third pump unused. The bar staff were rather easy on the eye but not so clued up on customer service - when asking for a apple juice as part of our round, I was advised that they didn't have any but that we could get one from the shop over the road! We initially planned to eat here, but after finding out there was a 45 minute wait despite the place being practically empty, we sank our drinks, including my passable pint of the Back of the Net, and bought our lunch in the aforementioned shop over the road instead. There are a lot of pubs in a fairly concentrated area in the heart of Weymouth, so it must be tough trying to beat the competition and I suspect the much knocked about interior is a victim of various owner's efforts to pull in the crowds. Sadly it currently has the opposite effect, as its heart and soul has long since been lost and we're left with a vapid drinking barn experience. This could have been a lot worse in all honesty, but it's sad to reflect that it could also have been, and probably previously was, so much better.

The Golden Lion started life as an 18th century coaching inn, but the interior has now all been knocked through to create a large pub with little character. I visited at around 21:00 on a recent Thursday evening when the Olympic sailing was still in town, but unlike most other pubs in the area this place was empty. Maybe the hastily scrawled signs saying ‘CASH ONLY’ that were put up everywhere were putting people off. I certainly thought it very amateurish and I felt sorry for the Spanish guitarist who was playing to an empty pub. Entertainment is advertised Thursday through to Sunday every week so hopefully I just happened to visit at a freakishly quiet time. Cheap food is served daily from noon until 21:00 and although I saw no food I would expect a pub co menu. The bar runs along the left hand wall and is stocked with standard draught. There are also four hand pumps that were drawing Sharp’s Doom Bar and Tetley’s Golden Lion Hotel Cask Ale which is probably something rebadged. The final two hand pumps were unused. I saw nothing in here that would warrant this place being completely dead on a reasonably busy night, but I wouldn’t go rushing back as there are much better pubs nearby.

What a dive! On my last visit - no ale on at all and scabby barmaid didn't even acknowledge us, just kept chatting to her bloke (the ONLY other person our side of the bar). Walked out in disgust and, with such a wealth of good pubs in Weymouth, we certainly won't be back to this hole.