The Watermans, Richmond

Official site of The Watermans - www.watermansrichmond.co.uk

Official site of The Watermans - www.watermansrichmond.co.uk

A traditional looking pub tucked away down a quiet side lane between the High Street and the river, it consists of a larger lounge bar at the front and a smaller bar at the rear. There is also a beer garden although we did not investigate this. Décor wise it’s very traditional with red patterned carpet on the floor and red velvet bench seating around the perimeter. Leaded windows faced out on to the road and there were various old black and white pictures of the river on the walls. Paintwork was a pale shade of yellow and there was dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls. One end wall was covered in wallpaper printed to look like a bookcase, whilst elsewhere was a plasma screen showing the football which seemed a little out of place. Fortunately the volume was off so this was not too intrusive. The rear room was broadly similar in terms of décor although with purple paintwork and some stained glass partitioning in front of the bar counter. Although food is offered, it seems to be run as a separate enterprise from the pub itself, and hence must be ordered and paid for via different staff. The menu is predominantly Thai with a number of options from that genre, as well as a few English dishes if that’s not your thing. We went for a Chicken Pad Thai and this was a decent enough dish, if nothing spectacular but quite tasty and good value at £8.95 considering the area. Beers on tap were Young’s Special, Sambrook’s Wandle, Young’s Bitter, Twickenham Redhead and Twickenham Naked Ladies. Ciders were Aspall’s Harry Sparrow and Thatcher’s Gold, although the latter was perhaps slightly past it’s best.