Grand Junction Arms, Tring

This canal side Gastro pub is well described by the previous reviewers. A decent looking exterior building now houses your typical clean Gastro makeover interior but of little character, with the usual pastel painted walls wooden floor and large wooden tables and chairs with the larger section away from the smaller bar area reserved for dining. I guess fine as a restaurant but all a bit sterile as pub experiences go, but probably not important as most people come here to eat. The area by the bar not reserved for eating is quite small and the small bar serving area means it doesn’t take many waiting to be served before it starts looking very busy and queuing out of the bar area. But the key selling points for the Grand Junction that saves it for just a drinking experience and makes it worth a visit is the excellent outside patio and garden area which stretched back along the Grand union and gets the full benefit of the sun (when its out) for most of the day, and a decent choice of well-kept Cask Ales. We utilised the Grand Junction twice whilst walking the Grand Union on a fine weather Sunday, once at lunchtime, when the place was extremely busy with people eating and then again late in the evening when the food service had stopped, when it was altogether a much more relaxed experience. Three of the four ale pumps were in operation and XT3, Tring Sidepocket and Doombar were available and we tried them all and they were all were very well kept. One thing that seems to have upset people on other sites such as trip advisor is that the current management do not allow greasy (as in covered in dirt) boaty types and dogs into the main pub. Understandable I say as you wouldn’t want to get those lovely wood floors dirty or find a dog hair in your Raspberry Jus now would you… :-)