The Farmer's Union, Exeter

The entrance of the Farmer’s Union opens onto a pool table, which must be very annoying when you’re trying to have a frame with people walking past all the time. There’s lots of open plan seating with high and standard tables that are faced by a serving counter that runs up the right-hand wall. One of the four hand pumps was in use drawing Otter Bitter and premium keg was also available alongside Fosters. There was a bit of 80s music playing in the background, but I was the only customer during a recent midweek late afternoon visit so there was no atmosphere. The barman seemed nice enough, but this isn’t somewhere I’ll be revisiting any time soon, especially with a better and much cheaper Spoons just up the road.

Hotel bar, done-out as dull as ditch water in mint and cream shades - I suspect there's some nice wood under the gloop. Pool table. Two cask over four pumps, Sharps Atlantic and Hanlon's Firefly, the latter of which was a grotty non clearing half (NBSS 1). Polite service at the bar but that was about the only positive. Everything else was pretty agricultural.

Located on the outskirts of the town centre and not far from the central railway station, this large pub seems to have a slight identity crisis. On one hand it has something of a hotel lounge type feel to it, whilst on the other it is perhaps more of a sport bar. It’s predominantly all one room, although segregated off in to a couple of different areas. Flooring is a mixture of carpet and laminate whilst the paintwork is either cream or khaki green. A pool table was off tone one side, and behind this was what appeared to be a carvery counter, although this was not in use when we visited. A free standing chimney breast housed a wood burning stove, and behind this was a small snug area with suede bench seating, a book shelf and a pile of logs. A plasma was above the fire-place, but this was not in use. The menu looked to be of the mass produced, laminated type and was divided in to a number of sections such as burgers, salads, fish and old favourites. The latter consisted of pub grub staples such as Ham EGG & Chips, Chilli Con Carne, Beef & Ale Pie, Chicken Tikka Masala, etc., and these were mostly priced somewhere around £8. Despite four pumps on the bar, these were both doubled up so the only choices were Doom Bar or Otter Amber. The solitary cider was Thatcher’s Gold.