The Red Lion, York

A rather nice and very old half-timbered building and the interior does not disappoint, with lots of black-painted beams around a random assortment of rooms with some nice features including stained glass partitions and a splendid fireplace in a side room. A large terrace is available outside, including a covered area. Perhaps being on the edge of town, wedged in a corner opposite the Merchantgate bus stops with an awkward entrance, deters the tourists but it felt more like a locals' pub. An excellent range of beers included Rudgate Ruby Mild, Timothy Taylor's Golden Best, Black Sheep Holy Grail, Purity Mad Goose, Robinson's Dizzy Blonde and Bombardier.

From the outside this place looks like a real gem but inside it is let down purely by bad management. the interior is fine but there is a very lackluster approach to the place although the roaring fire is very impressive. The bar staff are not the friendliest of people which is another let down as this really could a a fantastic pub if some of these issues were sorted. I have not been in here for a few yesrs since my last visits beer was terrible but i decided to give it another try. six hand pulls were available but only four were in use, these were moorehouse ruby witch, rudgate ruby mild, thwaites wainwright and purity mad goose. the ruby mild was really nice but very overpriced at £3.50. A nice place to have a beer but some tlc in here could really go a long way and help showcase some of the great features it has, at times not the comfiest place to be if you cant get a seat in the side room with the fire.

We went in this pub as something of a lucky dip, as we were looking for a sandwich for lunch. And I reckon we struck lucky with this one. The front bar as you enter is fairly small, is carpeted and as you walk past the counter on the left you come into a larger area with a tiled floor and more traditional seating. There's another separate room to the left of the counter, with more traditional furnishings, and which appeared to be a bit less elegant than the room on the right in which we sat. The sandwiches certainly were of a high standard - or more accurately the sausage and fried onion sandwiches we had were. They cost somewhere between £6 and £7 as I recall. I saw some other customers eating pork, apple sauce and gravy sandwiches. I thought including gravy in a sandwich was quite bizarre, but our companion thought that this was a reasonable accompaniment and should be encouraged. As already stated, there were half a dozen ales on. The Rooster's Azacca I had was in fine form. This is another pub well deserving of our custom.

Obviously a very old building with wonky walls and a low beamed ceiling, I'd guess a traditional Tudor exterior rather than the 20th century fad, lovely stained glass windows, the rear area had a working Aga. Three separate areas, real fires around, white panelled boarded ceiling. Regular seating, some divided by screens, various mixed stuff framed on the walls. Exposed brick walls with copper pans over, the interior steps up and down a bit with the local terrain. Beers on were Rudgate Ruby Mild, Robinson's Dizzy Blonde, Rooster's Azacca, Hobgoblin, Purity Mad Goose, plus Little Brew Porter. Food is served, my colleagues had tremendous looking hot sandwiches with chips. A fine old pub.

We received a good welcome from the manager, who was friendly and chatty. He gave us great info about the pub and told us about the hidden priest hole in the chimney breast in the front room. The old cast iron cooker in the dining area was also of interest. Six ales in operation, we went for the Ossett Silver King which was well kept.