The New Inn, Gloucester

I had a similar feeling to Will when we visited this pub. It looked great, but just didn't deliver on any level. The bar service was haphazard. There were only 2 beers on out of 8 and they were boring. The decor is tired with an unmaintained feel. Despite the age of the building it managed to feel like a hotel bar, which it is of course. My pint of Exmoor Gold was OK though not great. Ms CAMRA's red wine was cheap crap at premium price, which is very poor. If this place had been good, with some atmosphere we'd have probably visited again on our second day in Gloucester. It wasn't, so we didn't. It should be so much better than it is.

An hotel, restaurant, coffee shop and pub,with courtyard area. The medieval rebuild (with later additions) is predominantly in white plaster and wood and plays host to a plethora of hystorical myths, ghosts and poor karaoke renditions befitting of its status. As my fellow reviewers have pointed out, it has central courtyard, overlooked by a gallery level. We stayed here a for a few days and, as Danny and Roger say, the hotel element is a little tired. The pub part is called the Tap and Barrel. It is a dog-leg shaped single room, which is in white and wood, with white and wood beam ceiling. The narrower back part has wood settles, tables and chairs and is the more loungey element, the front area, wider, was used for a karaoke one night - the semi-pain being relieved to some degree by the strange animatronic butler figure, who looked like something from the Rocky Horror Show. There is a TV - which had Sky Sports News on and the music in the daytime seemed charty, but at a decent level. A pumpclip collection jostles with standard prints and brasses for supremacy of the walls. There is a nice wood surround fireplace. The service was fine and the place seemed more full of locals than hotel guests - but a general mixed crowd. Beer; usual tap stuff with Exmoor Gold, Doombar, Hancocks HB, Butcome Bitter and Adnam's Broadside on handpull - although this had dwindled by the Saturday night. The Broadside, Hancocks and Butcombe were all fine, especially the Broadside. Definitely one to visit in my opinion, but the better time was the Friday evening, when there was more choice.