Yates, Torquay

This is an old Georgian building with nice moulded stone work which was called the Royal Hotel between 1833 and 1997 due to a visit by Princess (and future Queen) Victoria, it has been owned by JD Wetherspoon’s since 97 when it reverted to its previous name of the London Inn. The interior is on two floors, ground floor at the front and first floor at the back, both floors have their own bar counter, the first floor is also on two levels. First impressions when entering this pub are that it is a fairly standard JDW with the long grey marble topped bar counter along the back half of the left hand wall and large mirrors on the front half of the left wall, couple of Georgian style wood panel supporting pillars towards the back of the room, patterned carpeted floor with tiles just in front of the counter, standard pub furniture laid out in a dining area fashion, a fake looking library in the right wall, a large flat screen TV in the front left corner and some framed local history on the walls. But unusually the very back of the room has a wide staircase which leads up to the first floor, this has a second smaller wood bar counter along the left wall, a second level across the back and right hand side of the room which is up a couple of steps, high ceiling with a large central sky light, more standard pub furniture, a large flat screen TV on the front wall near the stairs and some nautical paintings on the walls. The staircase itself is quite interesting as it has three very large paintings of late 18th century Royal Navy ships in battle and two ships figure heads high up on the walls. Regular ales are currently Abbot Ale and Ruddles Best with up to six changing guest beers which on this occasion were Dartmoor IPA, Cotleigh Golden Seahawk, Teignworthy Reel Ale, Bays Topsail and Gold (Cask Marque). I tried halves of the Seahawk and Reel Ale and found them to be ok, not a bad local selection to be fair. This is a decent Spoons which has a more traditional façade and décor than the Green Ginger (Lloyds No.1) a little further down the road at the beginning of the pedestrian high street. If you are looking for somewhere more genuine and intimate with decent food and a good selection of real ale then try the Hole in the Wall just over the road. This place is nothing special but it serves its purpose well enough, I would return to this JDW if the kids were with us or as part of a pub crawl with friends.

Felt this was the better of the 2 Wetherspoons when we visited on Friday. Busy but service was good. No problem with Dorset Piddle Silent Slasher.

OK 'spoons once you have fought your way through the chavs gathered around the front door for a smoke. Food surprisingly better than average - surprising for microwaved frozen pre-packs - but range of beers a bit disappointing. Tiered higher level bar is quite unusual and tends to be less busy than the lower bar. Average.

Typically large Wetherspoon's split across two levels with a bar in each. Not much choice in the way of Ales at the top bar, so if that's what you're after you'd be better off getting your pint on the way in. Maybe that's why the barmaid at the top bar seemed a bit miserable. Not that I had much more luck at the lower bar – my first two choices were off, even though the pump clips had not been turned round. On appearances (not actual availability), the beers on this occasion were Ruddle's Best, Bays Breaker, Mauldon's Thomas Tipple, Abbot Ale, Daleside Spring Frenzy, Butcombe Blond and Culloden 1746. Cider's were Strongbow and the quite pleasant Marcle Hill.