Ma Boyle's, Liverpool

Almost 8 years since my last visit, I made a return trip to Ma Boyle's. It's located along an alleyway just in front of a small park next to Liverpool Parish Church, but is just too far away from Liverpool's best pubs to make it a frequent stop. On a Tuesday afternoon, it was doing a fair trade with a few people having a late lunch and what looked like it could have been a wake in what appeared to be a downstairs room. There are a couple of handpulls, but just one was clipped with Rock The Boat Liverpool Light. I didn't fancy that and chose the Wychwood Hobgoblin IPA on keg instead. The pub has not been in the Good Beer Guide for 20 years and my visit after an absence of 8 years confirmed to me that it still isn't worth a visit for many more years to come. There are so many better pubs in Liverpool city centre to visit. Bar staff were friendly and the barman who served us was knowledgeable about his products. But I guess when you've only got one cask ale, that knowledge is fairly easy to maintain. I suspect there will be more reviews of this pub sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see if others concur.

This styles itself as a restarant and alehouse, which is fair enough as they do a full meal service, but although in literal terms the two real ales they had on qualified it as an alehouse, I would normally expect an alehouse to have a better selection. The two they had on were Portobello Star and Ma Boyle’s Mrs Livelihood. I was told that the latter is their own ale but the girl had no idea who brewed it. The food contained many pub grub favourites such as fish & chips (£9), steak & ale pie (£8.75), bangers & mash (£8), and burgers (£9). This bar/restaurant is tucked away behind Our Lady and St Nicholas’ church. It’s completely modern inside, with little of interest that I noted. As you enter you go down a few steps to the bar area, and then back up a few steps on the left to what is effectively the dining area. There are a few tables and chairs outside with a nice setting next to the church gardens. You don’t go to this bar for a genuine pub experience, but it was handily placed near our hotel for a bite to eat one evening, and did at least have a couple of ales on.

Official site of Ma Boyles Oyster Bar - www.maboyles.com

Official site of Ma Boyles Oyster Bar - www.maboyles.com

A rather poorer visit for us than the previous reviewers. There are 3 handpumps on the bar, but only one was on. This turned out to be a rebadged Tetleys which was just about average. We went and sat in the raised area facing the bar and were promptly joined by a group of 4 blokes who were loud and very, very sweary. The barmaid didn't know anything about the CAMRA discount that Liverpool CAMRA said that they did either. We drank up and left. Not good on this occasion.