The King William IV, Bristol

Further to Blackthorn's previous review and my previous visit the pub looked closed at 5.20 as I turned off the main road to the car park. However there were two doors open at the rear and on the side. The pub now boasts The Alley Bar which I was previously unaware of and is now actually the main part of the pub as it's open all day and given the name it was the pubs skittle alley as the marking were on the floor under the table I sat at. The main pub is only open for lunch and evening trade and suspect this is more food orientated than previous visits over the last 8 years. Back to the Alley bar it has a pool table, dart board, sports on the wall via a projector and a jukebox. I actually preferred this element of the pub than the actual pub I'd previously visited. So if you do go near it and think it's closed just turn off the road and you'll find the pub open when it looks shut.

A small and traditional pub on the main road through the village, it consists of two rooms with a small patio area at the rear and some decking at the front of the pub. The main bar area to the right is a somewhat unusual shape and has a carpeted floor with khaki green paintwork and some dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and a few old black and white photographs of the locale dotted around. A disused brick fire-place was off to one side and a plasma was mounted up above it showing a sports channel, although fortunately the volume was off and so it was not too intrusive. A restaurant area to the left had a slightly dated appearance but was broadly similar décor wise and this also had a stone fire-place that only appeared to have a decorative wood burning stove in it. Food wise, the menu offered a good selection of pub grub dishes divided in to sections such as grills, curries and classics and these included Lasagne, fish & chips, hunter’s chicken, etc. These were mostly priced around the £7 mark, although many were also available at certain times as part of a “2 for £10” deal and in addition to this there was a small specials board. We were only there for lunch so went for a prawn Marie Rose baguette with chips and home-made coleslaw and a cheese and ham toastie. These were both very generous portions with the fillings oozing out and represented very good value for money. Beers on tap were Doom Bar and Bass whilst the ciders were Thatcher’s Dry and Thatcher’s Gold. All in all I thought this was a decent village boozer and well worth popping in for a pint or a bite to eat.