The Sidings, Bristol

Since my previous review, this has been renamed and undergone an extensive renovation. It is now almost unrecognisable and had a lively and buzzy atmosphere being full to capacity on our recent early evening visit, perhaps with after work drinkers grabbing a pint before catching their train. Whilst the basic layout is largely unchanged, it’s a single room pub so there’s a limit to what else could be achieved. Décor wise they are perhaps aiming for a slightly rustic look with rough wooden boards on the wall at one end and there were various station names stencilled on to this. Elsewhere, the flooring was laminate boards with tiling around the bar area, pale grey paintwork and dark grey boards on the wall at the opposite end. This had a large drawing of an old steam train on it, and the train theme continued around the pub with various signs such as “Mind the Gap”, “Beware of the Trains” and so on. Seating was a mixture of booths along the front with padded benches at right angles to the window to make the most of the outlook, curved booths at the rear and tables and chairs elsewhere. We didn’t inspect the menu, but it would appear that pizza is something of a speciality. Beers on tap were Bass and Bath Ales Gem, whilst a third pump appeared unused. A board behind the bar listed a number of craft beer options, although these were all of the bottled or canned variety. Ciders meanwhile were Thatcher’s Gold, Thatcher’s Haze and Stan’s Big Apple.

The Reckless Engineer has lost its new signage and now sports its old Isambard Brunell signage along with its old Ind Coope brewery signage. The pub looks like a wreck inside and was closed when i tried to do it yesterday. Attempted visit 29/7/2017

Due to close in a few weeks for what is rumoured to be a refurbishment?

A faceless exterior but being this close to Temple Meads the pub will always bring in transient custom,and I had half an hour to kill.It's open plan with two raised sections guarded by scaffolding poles.Nothing interesting to note (even the darts board has been removed),and although there are 6 handpumps only two were clipped with Otter Bitter and Salopian Hop Twister.However on ordering the Hop Twister the bar man poured from a barrel on stillage,and to be fair the ale quality was good.I noticed that the Otter Bitter was also racked up and two unmarked barrels were settling,so despite the depressing interior you may get lucky on the real ale front.