The Encore, Stratford Central, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Called in on Saturday the 14th of June first time in Stratford for many year this pub as had a major refurb very modern and very busy for food we sat out side on the road it had a seating area and very good for people watching i had two good pints of U.B .U Purity 4.5%. Went to toilets ands where spotless lovely sophisticated upstairs area.Well worth a visit

Official site of The Encore, contains menu - www.theencorestratford.co.uk

Official site of The Encore, contains menu - www.theencorestratford.co.uk

The Encore is a modern pub with a very generic chain-pub feel to it, set in a lovely Grade II listed building that overlooks the river. The pub used to be called the Anchor, but was given its similar sounding current name at some point in the 60’s or 70’s. The ground floor is laid out over a number of rooms which run around the large central servery. There are stone floors and comfortable seating options throughout and for some reason a recurring feature seemed to be stacks of chopped wood which are piled up along various walls. An area to the left of the pub was separate from the main room and looked to be set up more formally than that around the bar. We found a seat to the right of the bar, which seemed like the most comfortable spot and the best place for drinkers to sit. Behind the bar, there was a fairly sparse section which led you to the stairs for the toilets and upper dining room which boasts of fine river views. There is also a function room somewhere, but I didn’t bother to explore that much. An annoying feature was the lounge/jazz soundtrack which nearly drove me to distraction. Two beers from Purity were available at the bar – Ubu and Pure Gold. I gave the latter a try and thought it was probably past its best, although my other half enjoyed a proper mug of hot chocolate. Although we weren’t eating, the reasonably priced Italian menu looked quite tempting. I thought this place straddled the line between bland lounge bar and generic drinking barn, with little to nothing in the way of redeeming feature within. It’s probably worth a go if you fancy some food and can bag a window seat upstairs, but it didn’t really do anything for me and I can think of plenty of better places to enjoy a few drinks within a short walking distance.

The Encore is a large pub that is on the corner of a busy road junction,there also seems to be open topped tour busses going by the pub about every 10 seconds. This pub was a Whitbread beafeater joint when i went in it,once inside the pub was fairly comfortable with lots of different dining and drinking areas. There were two real ales on here i had a drink of Pedigree and this was a decent drink the other beer was Boddingtons bitter. I had the fortune to visit the pub early doors so it was very quiet and i was happy enough having a drink in here. Pub visited 23/6/2001

The description by ROB is pretty accurate. I am sure Soupy would hate the interior. I found it perfectly acceptable. I didn't eat here, but the food looked and smelled very nice. I tried the Timothy Taylor Landlord, which was pretty good and was topped up by the barman without prompting. I didn't try the Purity purely because I am not personally keen on it. Given the evidence of the Landlord, I am sure it would be equally well kept. All in all, a pretty ok place.