Portwall Tavern, Bristol

Something of a hidden treasure, this small single-room Victorian back-street bar has survived the urban renewal around it and provides a great contrast to the nightclub next door. The floor is boards, the décor sombre, the staff pleasant and the food good value. It's especially busy at lunchtimes, though for some reason it's quiet most evenings. There are various tables for diners, space for drinkers and convivial atmosphere. Of the 5 handpumps only two were on; I had a pint of WTF which was in excellent condition, and had I not been driving, I would have had many more. Convenient for the City centre and very handy for the marina, I'm sure I shall be back.

The Portwall is a narrow fronted pub that is fairly close to Temple Meads station. Once inside there is a single oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the room is carpeted and has comfy bench seating and some normal tables and chairs. There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Bath Ales Jem,which went down very well,i only noted one other real ale which was Electric Bear Red Bear. There was a TV on showing rugby and the pub was fairly busy on my early Saturday evening visit. I really took to this pub,one i could stay in for a good session,a good pub to end my Bristol crawl in. Pub visited 4/2/2017

Well, the attractive two-tone blue paintjob has been replaced by... battleship grey of course. The interior seems to be unchanged from previous reviewers' visits though, it being still a basic drinkers' pub as far as I could tell. It's effectively a single, fairly narrow room, with the bar counter at the end on the left. It has something of a 70s feel about it (nothing wrong with that, although I'm glad it doesn't still sell 70s beer!) with a red carpet and red upholstered benches along the side facing the bar. There were a couple of tall tables/tall stools, but the majority of furnishings were of the more traditional kind. A brass oche in the middle of the carpet indicates the presence of the dartboard behind some seating on the left; and on the walls are some prints of local scenes as well as some (modern by the look of it) cut glass mirrors. I also spotted a newspaper rack on one of the walls, but containing no newpapers when we dropped at Saturday lunchtime. The beers don't seem to have changed much in the last year or so either, with Bath Gem, Butcombe Bitter, Cotswold Spring Brewery Codger, and Prescott Hill Climb on. This is a pretty good selection by any standards. I saw pizze advertised at £5.95 a pop, plus 50p for extra toppings. This is the sort of pub where you can stop off for a quiet and relaxing pint - which is exactly what we did.