Little Barrel, Dudley

Old-school blokes boozer with plain, semi-rustic furniture and limited decoration in the narrow bar and slightly raised seating area at the far end. Rather unwelcome smell of bleach on entry as they were starting to mop the floor around the punters watching football on TV. No real ale, and a limited choice of standard keg offerings, from which I went for a quick Banks's Bitter (£2.80).

Standard boozer. The pub stretches thinly back and doesn't really have anything going for it. However it was busy today but if you want real ale then this isn't the place to be. Fizzpops are to be found here.

The pub looked warm and welcoming, and they'd got a Santa's Grotto set up at the back! The guy hanging on the door as we passed said it was a "good night" to be had. We carried on and made our stop off at the Lamp then on our way back in to town we called in, its small and narrow and dark, and they have FIVE hand pumps, but four have nothing on them, and one has cider. However the electric pumps dispensed Banks smooth and that was a nice drink. They had karaoke and totally mad punters!