The Dubliner, York

Have always visited this pub when in York and last night was no exception. The ale wasn't at its best in selection for once but I'm not marking it down at all as usually the range is pretty good.

The Maltings is not the biggest pub and the arrival of twenty or so fellow pub crawlers on a recent Friday morning made the interior quite cosy, but the staff soon hacked their way through the orders and I found myself with a pint. I’m not sure which one of the eight real ale options I ended up with, but it was very good. I can recall that there was a ninth hand pump that was dispensing a real cider and there was also a selection of premium lagers. The interior consists of a bar in the right rear corner with seating at the front right window. To the left there is more seating in what felt like an extension. Here there is a food hatch where traditional pub food appears between the hours of 12:00 until 14:00 during the week and 12:00 until 16:00 at the weekend. This is a good pub that will be revisited next time I am in the area.

A Friday lunchtime is not the best time to visit any City centre pub and especially not one as small and as close to the station as this, and consequently it was several deep at the bar in front of us when we piled in. I hate to think what it was like before the extension and outside drinking area was added to the side. What could have been a frustrating visit was made pleasurable by the efficient landlord who, not only kept tabs on the order people arrived at the bar, but also managed three orders in parallel, a bar skill sadly missing from most London city centre pubs nowadays.. The not so inviting black exterior contains a bit of a quirky interior of some character and all in all this is a decent pub with a sportingly decent ale offering. The beer range for our visit was as reported below and I tried the Rooster's Yankee and the Slater's Smoked Porter with the latter being preferable as the Yankee was a bit thin.

The rather off-putting Gothic black façade hides an attractive interior with various items of interest. Only had time for a quick Salter's Smoked Porter (£1.75, half) from the decent selection on six handpumps, but will certainly re-visit properly when next in the area.

The black painted exterior gives the place the look of a rock venue or maybe a goth spot but once inside this is a very decent pub indeed with lots of old tin advertisements and signs on the walls and ceiling, a sign near the bar from days gone by listing local VD clinics (!), a through fireplace, part boarded and part tiled floor and regular seating at benches and small stools. The landlord and I assume landlady were very friendly and efficient and clearly passionate about good beer, I had a decent chat with him while being served. They had been told about our sizeable group visiting and helpfully roped an area off for us which was a nice touch. As well as the tin signs there are various CAMRA awards on display including the local branch cider POTY 2014. Ciders were from Biddendens, Fanny's Bramble, Farmer Jim's and Old Rosie. Beers were Rooster's Yankee, York Guzzler, Bad Company Mutual Aid, Squawk Pale Ale, Green Duck Drunken Duck, Black Sheep Golden Sheep and Slater's Smoked Porter. Food is served and I spotted a few portions coming out that contained proper home cut chips which is getting rarer. An outdoor paved area has benches above caged in chunky white stones. Apart from my spoons breakfast earlier this was my first pub of a day long crawl of York, it set the standard well.