The William Shenstone (JD Wetherspoon), Halesowen

On a Wednesday evening, this branch of Wetherspoon's wasn't quite as busy as I would have expected. However, it is a fairly spacious place with plenty of tables. So, there were still probably a couple of dozen other customers in. We grabbed a booth towards the rear which is on a slightly higher level. Whilst availing myself of a 50p off CAMRA voucher, we also had a selection of small dishes. As you'd expect from a 'spoon's, they came quick, they were cheap, they were edible and most importantly they filled a gap. The usual real ales were on - Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar, with 5 guest beers - Enville Ginger, Kinver Khyber, Noble & Witchfinder General & Inveralmond Ossian. The cider was Weston's Old Rosie. Service was fine. My Witchfinder General was good. Toilets were unsurprisingly upstairs and were a bit of a trek.

A Wetherspoons housed in a grim 60s building but quite nice inside with a mauve colour scheme alongside dark brown wood trim. Mixed bag, the Theakston OP was excellent (NBSS 4) but the food service was dire with wrong orders and missing items. The toilets weren’t great either. Some of the punters were ‘interesting’. Still, a decent cask and that’s the bottom line for me. 5.5

Fairly standard spoons just round from the bus station. Decent choice of beers on my last visit due to the current festival. My pint of Cotleigh Styrian Wolf was in great shape.

Basic 'spoons in a converted split-level building on the edge of the dull pedestrianised shopping area. The interior is of the unimaginative 'could be anywhere' type too, with no distinguishing features. Modest selection of six real ales from two banks of five handpumps, but two were from Springhead Brewery - Left Lion and Roaring Meg - and the Backyard Penda Black IPA.

This is an old school Spoons on two levels. Left of the entrance is a small area down some steps and a few steps on the right lead to the main bar area. It's not one of their larger outlets probably best described as medium sized. It's low ceilinged and forms an L shape. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had the two GK beers doubled up, two available soon and four festival ales. One of these was the excellent Saltaire Triple Chocoholic (£2.15 festival / standard guest price) which went down a treat. I thought this was a decent Spoons.