Punch Bowl, York

A terraced Tudor styled black beam and white rendered exterior, adorned by hanging baskets The interior has three rooms. The bar is, as stated below, on the left when entering and is in red and wood panel, with a brick fireplace and wood floor. It acts as a food area overspill and has prints on the walls. The food area is to the right, again, in red and wood panel with support and ceiling beams with old photographs on the walls, amongst other ephemera. The snug is further back and is another food overspill area. It is in wood panel, white and beam ceiling, with a red painted brick fireplace and stone flagged floor. The service was friendly, the clientele mixed and it was busy. The food we had was fine and the music was general and quiet. Beer; tap stuff with Peroni and Thornbridge Wild Swan, Wadsworth 6X, John Smiths Cask a decent Leeds Best on handpull. Certainly worth popping in, but not somewhere i would stay all night - too many more to try

The Punch Bowl is another of Nicholson's "Classic Pubs" and is centrally situated in the main pedestrian thoroughfare of Stonegate. A fine Brewers Tudor exterior leads into a Tudor style wood panelled drinkers bar on the left. On the right is a more comfortable food orientated bar, seemingly principally catering for tourists, off which is another bar at the back. An information panel tells us that The Punch Bowl has been a pub for over 400 years , although a pub T shirt on sale behind the bar bears the wording "circa 1500" , which seems to be 500 years, not 400, to me. We also learn that the pub has had 2 major fires during this period. Perhaps inevitably, the pub is alleged to have several ghosts. On my late June visit, beers on were Leeds Best, Thornbridge Jaipur IPA, John Smiths Cask Ale and Wadworths 6X. The Leeds Best - £ 2.90p - wasn't desperately good. Interestingly, the much stronger Jaipur IPA was on offer at £ 2.85p. This is a fine traditional pub, but it doesn't stand out from the crowd in this well pubbed city.

This is a decent looking old pub on one of Yorks bussiest shopping streets when we went in here it was standing room only this was in the room at the front of the pub'there were plenty of people having meals here. There were 5 handpumps on the bar and we treid a drink of Leeds Best and this was a decent drink the other beers were Robins Ransom,Sharpes Doom Bar,Caines Best and Batemans Thirsty Work. I would have liked to have visited this pub when it was less busy and it might have got an higher rating.

This is a Nicholson’s pub with all the character that this chain embodies in its pubs. The building itself is old, a pub having been on this site for over 400 years. There has been considerable remodelling in recent years, mainly as a result of fires. The current facade is a classic example of Brewer’s Tudor, being nowhere near as old as it is supposed to look. Inside there are three interconnected drinking areas. All were comfortably furnished in the Nicholson’s way, with plenty of dark wood panelling. We sat in the room at the back on the left. This one had a small bar counter on the left, flagstone flooring, and a low dark-beamed ceiling. The only thing that detracted from the country pub look was the hideous games machine flashing away like a demented Dalek. There were several real ales on of course – I had the Leeds Best which was excellent. The usual sort of Nicholson’s menu was available. This is a reasonably decent pub; not great, but typically Nicholson’s, which is not a bad thing.