The Bear Inn, Street

Quite a nice pub. The coachloads of chavs buying 'seconds' from the conglomeration of 'factory outlets' across the road tend to congregate in the Lantokay 'spoons, so the Bear often (but not always) attracts a quieter, dining clientelle during the day. The menu is quite good and reasonably priced and the beers are well kept. The bar staff could do with a bit of customer service training - well, actually, a lot of customer service training. Slightly better than average.

The Bear Inn is a large Marstons Inn with a traditional pub décor. It has one central bar, but then several distinct dining and drinking areas designed around it. Some of these do not have any natural light, but the good use of copious amounts of mirrors in all areas (both plain and brewery mirror types) still give the place a bright and airy feel. It also benefits from a large outside terrace and garden area ideal for the warmer days. The beers are, as you would expect from the Marston's stable, but they usually complement the Pedigree with seasonal ales as well as guests from the Ringwood Brewery. For example there was Ringwood Best and Marstons Ashes Ale on during my last visit. The food menu is a bit spoon's like supporting several mains at under a fiver, but they've always been reasonable when I've tried them in the past. All in all, this has always been a decent place for a pint and a quick bite to eat for me., and has the advantage of location opposite a back entrance to the Clarks Village, so that you sneak here for a quick pint whilst waiting to be summonsed back to the shopping fray by text message.