The Black Hat, Ilkley

A large town pub that has been the victim of a fairly-mediocre corporate makeover so now in shades of grey and some high tables and stools have been added. The five handpumps were doubled up TT Landlord and Boltmaker but were all clip-reversed (and glassed for good measure) and fronted by a sign saying "kitchen permanently closed" so a warm welcome to all. I can only deduce that the place is in the throes of a change of management or even a closure, although the monosyllabic grunting barman didn't shed much light on this. It could be an adequate pub - let's see what the next review finds (if it stays open).

A quite long single room with a slight L at one end forms this town centre pub. A sort of creamy green colour dominates the tongue and groove and balustrade at one end, otherwise it’s plain woodwork, either with the wide floorboards or the cladding on the counter front. The end walls are tiled, one with a big screen. The ceiling shows evidence of a multi room layout in the past. Furnishing is a mix of tables with mismatched chairs; bringing out the usual terrible OCD desire in me to rearrange them “properly”; and leather covered banquettes. To the beer: two T-bars of fairly standard fare, a Brewdog and a Stella solo, four pulls with two from Ilkley, the rare Theakstons Mild and Pedigree, not one for Custodian42 as only the Pedigree made it over 3.8%. Fair to middling would sum up the quality. No pandemic measures other than staff face masks.

A large pub with an L shaped room, the bar area is central as you enter and had a choice of four ales on pump. The left hand side area of the pub was set up for dining and had that gastro pub ambience about and the menu was high end also. The pub was busy on our early Saturday eve visit, with a mixed age group. A good few local hipsters had managed to show their faces in here, to give the pub a trendy vibe from their presence, compared to others in the locality. I went for the Ilkley Pale, which was a good pint, but the prices in here were steep.

The Black Hat is a decent sized pub that is on a very busy road. Once inside there is a large single L shaped room with the bar facing,the room is bare boarded,the seating is normal tables and chairs,there is also a small raised area to the front left,dont dare to sit down on the left side like i did if you are not dining,you will soon be asked to move to the right side,this area extends to the rear,the seating here is bench type and normal tables and chairs. There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Leeds Pale which was a decent drink,the other beers were Saltaire Blonde,Taylor Landlord and Charles Wells Poppy,i wish the service at the bar was as quick as i was asked to leave my seat on the left dining side. The pub was very busy with younger upmarket types,both drinking and having meals. This pub is ok for a quick drink,the beer was decent, service slow. Pub visited 7/11/2015