Robert Raikes's House, Gloucester

not your usual pub, but a lovely place - rather like drinking on a National Trust stately home, very civilised though it doesn’t quite feel right. Very friendly helpful staff though. A bit spartan in the bar with all furniture removed but the many other rooms are as majestic as ever. Sam Smiths beers, the extra stout was £3.40 for a pint. Food being served though most were drinking.

An impressive looking old timbered building towards the end of Gloucester’s pedestrianised High Street, it certainly looks appealing and doesn’t disappoint once you get inside either – or at least, not perhaps until you get to the bar and find that this is a Sam Smith’s pub, with a very limited range of drinks available. Internally it’s divided in to four smallish rooms, all broadly similar in terms of décor. Flooring was a mixture of pale coloured flagstones and sanded wooden boards, with plenty of wooden beams on the ceiling. Further supporting timberwork was inlaid in to the walls, and the leaded windows set in to stone walls at the front of the pub was an attractive feature. A large stone fireplace was off to one side, and this had a few logs blazing away in the hearth which was a welcome touch on a cold December evening. Many of the chairs were quite elaborate with ornate carved wooden back rests. The menu looked to offer a good selection of “pub grub” dishes and was divided in to section such as pies, sandwiches, burgers, pub classics and so on, with the latter category including dishes such as lasagne, sausage & mash, scampi & chips, hunter’s chicken, and so on. Most of the main courses looked to be priced somewhere around the £8 - £9 mark. The solitary cask ale on tap was their own Old Brewery Bitter, although there was a second pump that had it’s clip reversed. The solitary cider meanwhile was their own Reserve. Overall, a lovely pub certainly, but with the limited drinks selection, possibly not somewhere to linger for too long.

I remember visiting this place when it used to be called The Golden Cross, it was a very different place then - a favourite student haunt. Since those times, the pub has undergone a splendid restoration, I can't believe that my partner and I have only just rediscovered the place. The food is very tasty and well presented, we intend to try every dish on the menu if we can. Every visit to Robert Raikes House is a special treat and I can't wait for the next one.