The Oceanic, Hounslow

Official site of The Oceanic - www.heathrow.com

Official site of The Oceanic - www.heathrow.com

This one is landside at LHR Terminal 3, and is the last chance of a decent pint before heading off for the security area. They had three ales on during my recent visit – Young’s London Gold; Adnam’s Southwold Bitter; and Sharp’s Doom Bar. Interestingly they were offering a “special promotion” of a third of each ale for £3.80 for those who might be undecided as to what to go for. As others have noted, this is a better bar than The Bridge Bar which is airside. It’s certainly less crowded, and therefore more comfortable, probably because most people want to get the rigours of the security procedures out of the way before settling down for a drink. It’s clearly not cheap – a feature of airport bars of course – but is worth a visit if you’ve got the time to spare.

Another fairly bland airport bar, but this one has the advantage of serving real ale. By its nature, though, it caters for a wide range of tastes and serves food as well, so expectations of a good pub feel should not be high. This weekend it had Wells Bombardier and Adnams on. The formaer was fine, if a little too chilled; I didn't try the latter. As aiport bars go it's one of the better ones and is thus a good place to have that final pint before flying out.

Considering how many times I have to go through Heathrow I take satisfaction in avoiding these plastic airport pubs. But have now found myself in a second one in two weeks after being pulled in by some guests from the Orient who wanted a last taste of British Ale before heading off East. And I wasn't expecting much after my experience in T1 last week, but initially pleased to see both Pride and Adnams on and even more surprised when they both turned out to be really good. Still not a place I would choose to drink , but would have no hesitation to return if I found myself with time to kill in T3 again.

Hope you like the photo, I was questioned by the police for taking it, you can see one of them on the right hand side of the photo. Anyway, no real ale. Serves food all day.

Hope you like the photo, I was questioned by the police for taking it, you can see one of them on the right hand side of the photo. Anyway, no real ale. Serves food all day.