The Angel, Knutsford

There were some people on the three or four café tables on the pavement outside the front of the pub wen I visited on bank holiday Monday afternoon, but the actual pub was empty. I reached the bar to catch the end of a conversation about closing the kitchen early due to lack of trade. There was a large funfair on the heath up the road so maybe much of the dinner trade were tucking into overpriced burgers and hotdogs in amongst the rides. This is a Holts pub so I decided to have a Two Hoots which was well served. Bitter was available in the other hand pump and the usual Holts keg was available. The interior is L-shaped with street-level seating across the front an up the left-hand side. The bar counter across the rear wall is split with a street-level section to the right and a raised section to the left. There was some low background music playing and the televisions were showing muted Sky Sports. The service was friendly, but the pub is a bit boring and was the quietest during my crawl of the area. There are better pubs less than a minute walk away so I doubt I’ll find myself in here again anytime soon.

Near to an entrance to Tatton Park so nicely situated if you wanna dump the wife and kids in the park while you get off for a drink. As a pub its ok.

The Angel page at the Joseph Holt site - www.joseph-holt.com

A substantial building in the historic part of town whose interior is sadly no longer in keeping with the area. The brewery clearly hired some design consultants to mimic the standard gastropub-by-numbers every town in the country must suffer nowadays. Pity they didn't spend a bit more money as it doesn't quite pull it off and looks like an Ember Inn done on the cheap. Popular with diners, too many tables reserved meaning many drinkers standing looking at empty spaces on an early Friday evening. The beer is fine. Include on a crawl but this isn't a destination pub any more.

The Angel page at the Joseph Holt site - www.joseph-holt.com

Holts Bitter (£2.65) and IPA from shiny chrome handpumps, there is also a range of Holt's products on a stand of keg fonts. This is a substantial corner located pub, opened out fully inside but somehow retaining a feel of separate areas. Fairly foody, plenty were eating on Thursday afternoon. There is accommodation available here and the general feeling is of a bland corporate hotel chain, a million miles away from the Holt's pubs I knew as a younger drinker. The small range of tied houses were always basic old school boozers, no frills but always clean and tidy. The Angel is full of cream and brown, light wood, modern functional furniture, decor includes a small selection of local pics plus some framed arty stuff but not enough to dilute the generally sterile feel. The fire was lit but it didn't really help to lift the place beyond the anonymous space it has become. Mixed seating including sofas, menus on the tables, soup and a sandwich £6.75, Chilli and rice £8.50, Cheese and bacon burger £8.10. If you like modern bars or coffee shops you'll like it here, if you like real pubs you probably won't, I didn't.