The King's Highway (JD Wetherspoon), Inverness

Typical Spoons in the centre of the city

A typically spacious Wetherspoon's establishment with bouncers on the door for our Friday evening visit. It was the usual bland Wetherspoon's interior with its normal clientele for a weekend evening. Greene King Abbot & Sharp's Doom Bar were available, as you'd expect. Caledonian Deuchars IPA is also a regular beer. Guests were Elgood's Greyhound & Blackberry Porter, Daleside Old Legover & Adnams Old Ale. In addition, there was also a real cider, which seems quite rare for Scottish pubs - Weston's Old Rosie. I used a CAMRA voucher to order a pint of the Blackberry Porter and despite only paying £1.49 for the pint, soon wish I hadn't. The sour taste was a little offputting and I couldn't work out whether the beer was genuinely sour or whether it was off. I concluded it was the latter, but still can't be 100% certain. You know what to expect from a Wetherspoon's - bland interior, a noisy atmosphere, cheap drinks, Abbot, Doom Bar, cheap food. All of those boxes can be ticked here.

As noted below although this is one of the JDW Hotels the bar is a fairly typical long rectangular room with a low ceiling that is rather gloomy and has the bar on the right. Due to the vagaries of Scottish Weather (continuous torrential rain) I got here a lot later than planned and so had a few hours rather than a brief stop before catching the next train North. It was a Wednesday afternoon and I didn't have any undue problems with the place. The bar has ten hand pumps which had one available soon, the Scottish JDW Trio Of Doom, London Pride, Vale Gravitas, Orkney Northern Light & Dragonhead, Adnam's New Realm APA and Windswept Wolf. I tried the two Orkney beers (£2.19), the Adnam's APA (£2.49) and the Windswept Wolf (£2.79). All were excellent and there was no problem with the food I ordered. Apart from the dreary gloomy room I thought this was a decent JDW.

A long and dark interior, with only the odd bit of light. Unusually for JDW, there are bits of modern art adorning the walls and a sculpture made of metal (based on Medieval helmets, apparently) can be seen. Overall standards were also from the Dark Ages, with uncleared tables, missing honey from Mrs Quinno's (chipped) fruit bowl breakfast and a general air of grubbiness. Sunday morning meant a mixed bag in terms of ale availability, my Tring was in good form at keast. Overall, not one of the chain's better outlets on this showing.

Although now a 'spoons, this hotel still performs its original function. However, there is nothing much of interest remaining within the large, mostly opened-out bar. Fair selection of real ales from the two banks of five handpumps, with a few local and regional beers including Three Sisters from Orkney & Atlas (£2.19). Dull, and the uncleared tables hardly helped to give a good impression...