The Dolphin, Weston Super Mare

A traditional pub in Uphill village just along the road from the beach, it’s a reasonable size with three interconnected rooms forming a U-shape around a central bar counter. There is also a small patio area at the rear and a covered area for the smokers, although somewhat bizarrely, the larger of these had a “No Smoking” sign on the wall. The main part of the pub could be considered to be the middle of the three rooms as this is where the bulk of the bar counter, and all the hand pumps are. This has something of a nautical feel with dark wood panelling on all the walls making it somewhat reminiscent of a ship’s cabin and in addition to this there were a couple of ship’s lanterns on the walls as well as some nautical pictures and the obligatory display of rope knots whilst the carpet was an unusual green and blue tartan. A smaller bar to the left had a pale yellow colour scheme, whilst the bar to the right was somewhat scruffier in appearance with a threadbare carpet, pale green paintwork and dark green wood panelling on the lower part of the walls. There was also a darts board and a plasma screen in here as well as some fruit machines. We didn’t check the menu, but a number of chalk boards dotted about included pub staples including chicken, fish, sausage and brie options as well as sandwiches, light bites, a Sunday roast and some more unusual dishes such as a chicken and chorizo lasagne, and these were mostly priced somewhere around the £6/£7 mark. Beers on tap were Doom Bar and Otter Ale, although there were a couple of other pumps on the bar that appeared unused. Ciders were Thatcher’s Gold and Blackthorn. All in all, this struck me as a solid local pub, and well worth stopping at for some refreshment if you’ve walked along the beach from central Weston.