Royal Lion Hotel, Lyme Regis

A Hall and Woodhouse owned hotel, with predictably high prices. The layout hasn’t changed much since previous reviews, and it has a pleasant ambience, friendly staff and a lively, varied set of customers. Only two Badger ales on, Fursty Ferret and Tanglefoot, both in good condition but over-priced. There was no guest ale. All in all a decent pub with good beer, but it’s somehow lost something under its current owners.

Although this is the bar for the attached hotel, and does indeed have something of the feel of an old hotel drawing room rather than your traditional pub, I nonetheless found it very pleasant and preferred it to many of the other establishments nearby and the staff were all friendly, helpful and liveried. It’s a good sized pub split in to several different rooms. As you enter, there is a snug type room off to the right with green carpet, khaki green wood panelling on the walls with cream paintwork and lots of low leather sofas. The first bar to the left has some ornately carved old wooden benches, and old black grandfather clock and a large brick fire-place. Beyond this was the largest of the bars, and the most hotel like with floor to ceiling wood panelling covering all the walls, black beams on the ceiling and a large copper hood on the fire-place with a stag’s head mounted up above. Red carpet was on the floor and red padded chairs provided the seating. Another room to the rear has similar decor to the snug with cream plasterwork and khaki green woodwork, but tables and chairs for the diners instead of sofas. A row of pewter jugs was on a shelf up above the bar. There was a good choice of food offered with most of the mains around the £10 - £12 mark. My Lyme Bay Crab Linguine was a decent enough dish, but at £12.95 possibly priced a little ambitiously as it needed plenty of seasoning and I was unable to detect either the advertised chilli or coriander. Beers on offer were the (very) local Mill Town Cobb, Butcombe, Otter Ale and Otter Bitter. Ciders were the excellent Ashton Press and Aspall’s Suffolk.