Moon On The Square (JD Wetherspoon), Basildon

Just a short walk over the road from the train station, this is Wetherspoons’ contribution to Basildon’s rather dreadful pub scene. It’s a mid-sized ‘Spoons, located in an ugly modern development that forms part of the town centre’s concrete drear-scape. Inside, there’s a vague U-shape layout with seating areas either side of a peninsula servery, all carpeted of course, with the exception of a stone tile area around the bar. There are plenty of dark wood panels throughout, which help give the place a bit more of a pubby feel, and a few large pillars, many of which are decorated with small mirrors, break up the otherwise open-plan space. Elsewhere, ‘Spoons info boards, slot machines and an abundance of Queen’s Jubilee bunting adds colour to a very grey-feeling interior. For an even worse experience, you might be tempted by one of the benches out on the pedestrianised street, to get the full dystopian-hell vibe. Just the two guest ales available alongside the usual ‘Spoons regular trio, and two fairly uninspiring guests at that, from which I picked Marstons Old Empire as the most interesting. It was in modest condition and served up by a friendly, but flustered lone barmaid, who I had to wait ages to be served by, due to her epic attempt to pour four pints of spectacularly lively lager for the bloke I foolishly let go ahead of me. Not much to write home about here, although in the grand scheme of things, you’ll probably struggle to top this if you were on a crawl around Basildon’s meagre pub scene. I was happy to have to drink up and go and catch my train, chalking the visit up to experience, but if you live round these parts, this might just be about as good as it gets.

As can be seen from perusing the pictures this is the ground floor of an uninspiring modern building that looks like it's an office block. Inside it's no better as it is just one big open plan room with the usual mix of tables and chairs. On my morning visit it was surprisingly busy with mainly older folk. There were twelve pumps of which two were unclipped and one had an "available soon" tag on it. On offer were the two GK beers, Doom Bore, a cider, Old Peculier and four beers from the festival. While I was there one of the unclipped pumps was given the boring Hobgoblin. I tried three of the festival ales all of which were in superb nick at £2.30 a pint. It's a very dull venue but on my visit the beer was very good and the service was reasonably OK. I rather doubt if Basildon has anything better to offer.

This is a Wetherspoons pub, some people love them, others don't but you have to admit they do have a good range of real ales. This is a typical Wetherspoons, with all the things you expect. It is right by the market in Basildon. There never seems to be any seating outside when I visit, so can't say whether drinking outside is allowed. It get very crowded early in the day, with the older crowd, probably due to the cheap prices. The bar staff cope very well.