The Fox Den, Stoke Gifford, Bristol

Appears to be a fairly typical Vintage Inn, although it is a new-build in a traditional style. Quite well done, both inside and out, so avoids too corporate a feel. Various seating / dining areas, and some tables in the front beer garden. Just Doom Bar and Butcombe Bitter available from the five handpumps, and the latter went during the pour...

A modern Vintage Inns pub built as part of the same complex as the Holiday Inn with which it shares a car park which is controlled and limited to 5 hours unless you pay the hotel for a day’s parking at £15.00.  The single story building houses a single large bar, broken up by various wooden walls and concrete pillars to achieve a not unpleasing effect.  In fact given its novelty and being part of a chain, it’s quite good. The floor is a mix of carpets and tiles, the furniture is all mass produced and the staff are fairly functional, not that welcoming other than at a superficial level.  Most of the people in were Civil Servants from the nearby MOD office complex, businessmen holding informal business meetings or commercial travellers eating on expenses.  Food was the standard Vintage menu, plus some decent looking pizzas and some ridiculously over-priced bar snacks.  Five handpumps on the bar but only one ale on draft, Butcombe’s Original, which was too cold and rather tasteless.  Goose IPA and Green IPA were available in bottles.  While it’s not too bad as these places go, it isn’t somewhere I’d visit for social reasons. 

Official pages of the Fox Den, contains menu and cask ale details - www.vintageinn.co.uk

Official pages of the Fox Den, contains menu and cask ale details - www.vintageinn.co.uk