Sports Bar & Grill, SW1

I stopped here to charge my phone before a journey and found it a relatively boring and not especially clean sports bar. expensive drinks. also the food I saw coming out looked pretty ghastly!

Not that easy to find. First floor bar with two hand pumps - Hobgoblin & Pedigree but all in all, just another station bar.

Official site of Sports Bar & Grill - www.sportsbarandgrill.co.uk

Official site of Sports Bar & Grill - www.sportsbarandgrill.co.uk

The Sports Bar is a pleasant, well lit first floor bar and diner overlooking the Station concourse. It is mostly laid out for diners, though there is a limited drinkers' spot at the bar. It's reached by climbing a set of steep steps from the Station entrance. The manager was polite and professional, but the remainder of the staff were more interested in their own administration than in serving drinks. There were two ales on, both Fullers. I had a pint of EPA which was far too cold and was by a long shot the most expensive pint I've had for a while. Food prices are also much too high for what they serve. The prices, along with the lack of atmosphere, will stop me coming back, especially when there are, as Steve says below, better bars on the station.

Not having been in since just after it opened I thought it might make a change from the usual suspects for a quick one on the way home. However as Steve says below you get pounced on the second you walk in the door: "table for one sir?" As I wasn't given enough time to case the joint and decide whether it was worth half an hour of my life I made my apologies - "sorry I just wanted a drink" - and retreated to one of the usual suspects.

Sports Bar and Grill is a bar found upstairs at Victoria station and is pretty much what it says on the tin. The stairs leading up to the bar area are lined with autographed sporting photos and the large bar area has more sporting memorabilia on the walls in amongst the seventeen screens that were showing numerous sporting channels. Strangely all of these screens were muted and some loud music from various genres was playing during my lunchtime visit one weekday just before Christmas. Food is served and the right hand side of the bar is lined with dining type tables, but food can still be eaten on the tall tables that take up the rest of the bar. As my visit was at lunchtime I decided to have one of the ‘award winning’ burgers and I have to say that £10 was way too much to pay and I didn’t think it was very good as it was dripping in fat. I also thought that the table service was a little over the top and I don’t like being pounced upon when I walk into a bar as if I have just walked onto the forecourt of a dodgy second hand car dealers. The bar supports four hand pumps and although one of these was off Ringwood Best and Marstons EPA were available from the others. Amstel is also available alongside a standard draught selection and the Guinness was on good form – I would have liked a little more liquid in the glass for £3.80 a pint though! Seats by the windows afford views of the station and departure boards so this place is handy for a pint before getting a train, but I think that there are better places in the station and this wouldn’t be my first choice.

I wasn't expecting much, and wasn't disappointed. A bit out of its time, it seems to be aimed at overpaid bankers trying to demonstrate an interest in sports. It has a ridiculous number of screens all round the place, showing several different sporting channels - far too distracting to look at one. The decor goes back to the 90s industrial fad of bare pipes and wires across the ceiling, while the tables are laid in straight rows from end to end. Table service seems to be the norm, although they will serve at the bar. To be fair, the attentiveness of the staff was high, but then again it should be at the prices they charge. The only surprise was the presence of a couple of real ales, although the Pride was off, and the Deuchars was far too green to be drinkable. Final loss of a point for serious short measure - you might be able to argue about the size of the head, but not if even that doesn't reach the brim. There is a sister establishment at Marylebone.