Hope & Anchor, Tenby

Nice pub on street down to castle, there is a small yard in front of what looks like an extension. Good beer

This place has been extensively described below and still had the wooden floor in an L shaped room extended out to the rear and left. The boaty wall displays have had pump clips and GBG covers added which may indicate that it has upped its game since previous reviews. It was certainly doing a good trade on my late February visit. It may now be run by the nearby Harbwr Tenby as there were three of their beers available. The seven hand pumps were all in use and had a cider, Exmoor Ale, Brains Bread of Heaven, Sharp's Atlantic and Harbwr Tenby GFA Sir Galahad, Gatland's Law & MV Enterprise. I went for the RFA Sir Galahad (£3.50) which was in good nick. I had no problem with this pub but just marginally preferred the nearby Buccaneer. It gets a strong 7. It's GBG 2019 listed.

An attractive pub with plenty of hanging baskets outside and an adjacent courtyard garden, it is conveniently situated just up the road from Tenby’s pleasant harbour. Inside, it is an L-shaped room and has something of a nautical theme as might be expected given it’s location and there were various bits and pieces dotted around such as a ship’s wheel, navigation charts, a life buoy, lots of photographs of ships and of course the obligatory display of knots in a case. The walls were also liberally plastered with old beer mats, suggesting a frequently changing selection. The flooring was sanded wood and there were a couple of TV screens dotted around showing the tennis, but the volume was off so these were not too intrusive. Wooden bench seating was around the perimeter of pub and these were scattered with a large selection of cushions, which, quite frankly, just got in the way. Food wise, the menu offered a good selection of pub grub dishes at around the £8/£9 mark such as burger, gammon, etc., as well as a number of steaks, curries, salads and jackets. There were also a number of fish specials as well as more unusual options such as Thai green tiger prawns or moules Stowford Press. I opted for the fish & chips which was a decent dish and a generous portion. Less successful was scampi and chips which had a distinctly odd taste. Whether it was the batter, the scampi or just old oil it was fried in I’m not sure, but it certainly didn’t taste right. I can forgive the pub that as I’m sure they just buy them in, and we didn’t highlight it at the time as we didn’t want to wait whilst something else was cooked. But we pointed it out to the guy who collected the plates who said he’d “mention it”. That was the last we heard of it, whereas they could have redeemed themselves quite easily at that point. Going on the previous reviewer, this seems to be a consistent theme. There was a good choice of beers on tap which on this occasion were Felinfoel Double Dragon, Boss Brave, Sharp’s Atlantic, Sharp’s Rockpool, Black Sheep Velo and Full Blast. A board also listed the regular beers as Rev James and Doom Bar, although I did not spot these on the bar. Ciders meanwhile were Stowford Press and Gwynt Y Ddraig Ancient Warrior. Overall, I’ve mixed feelings about this one – it’s a pleasant pub and has the best choice of beer of all the Tenby pubs we tried. On the other hand, their apparent lack of concern over the food left a rather sour taste in the mouth, in more ways than one.