Castle Inn, Dudley

It was raucous in the Castle during a recent Wednesday late afternoon visit, in fact it felt a bit like a Friday evening with people dancing around to the 2 tone music in the background. The entrance leads to a beer shelf with stools that runs along the right-hand wall. This is where I drank my half away from the excitement. At the front of the pub is a dartboard with its oche running across the front windows. Tables run up the centre of the pub from front to back where banquettes sit under a rear window. Televisions throughout were airing muted Sky Sports News and in the left front is a pool room. The barmaid was polite, but only standard keg and Madri were available on draught. A sign in the door states that this pub is now over 21s due to antisocial behaviour, which isn’t surprising as many of the customers looked as though they’d been in here since lunchtime. A poor pub not worth a visit.

An unexpected car disaster resulted in me having to get the bus back from work. This included changing at Dudley bus station - which is similar to a scene from The Walking Dead! Having half an hour to kill I thought why not pop in the refurbished Castle. Never again. After 15 minutes the bus station didn't seem so bad! This place was always a bit of a dump - now it's a dump which has had a lick of paint. Still no ale so I had a Coors. The barmaids language was atrocious, as was the clientele. A painful experience, one I have no intention of repeating! There are better options nearby, in fact anywhere ....

Possibly the world's worst pub, thank god I only went in there to answer the call of nature, strangely apt given it was a sit down job.

Basic boozer. Its only small and has 2 areas. There is a pool room to the left of the bar. The main area where the bar is a fairly mundane place with beige floor tiles and a rather dull colour scheme for the walls. No real ale. Close to the bus station therefore it has its uses.

This is a 1960's terraced pub, which stands near enough on the site of a Victorian hotel of the same name. It is a bland product of its time, with etched glass being the only decorative feature. It is rendered in cream. The interior has an open plan room, which is in cream, with brown perimeter seating and a brick fireplace. There is a TV (not on) and a dart board. There were a bank of speakers at one end pumping out loud music - very loud music - and this is possibly why there was nobody in on a Saturday night. I only popped in to kill a few minutes while waiting for the bus - I nearly killed my hearing. The service was functional. Beer; despite 3 handpulls standing to attention at the bar, there was no real ale, just the usual keg stuff so I had the swiftest half of Theakston's Dark, which was OK. Painful.