The Travellers Rest, Bristol

One of the few decent roadside pubs on this route out of Bristol. There is a good sized car park at the side and it has a conservatory style extension at the back adjacent to the garden which itself has some fine views over the surrounding countryside, though the view was slightly marred by the presence of an industrial-looking container. The menu has been amended to include light bites and a children’s menu, and since Blackthorn’s review it has become more expensive and pretentious. The friendly coven of lady bar staff were pleasant enough, there was a group of local workers from a local company enjoying a well-earned break, and some elderly grockles procrastinating over what they wanted to eat. One ale on draft, Ubu from Purity, and this wasn’t on top form. The keg options were Doombar and Brixton Reliance, plus Amstel, Moretti, Cruzcampo, Guinness, and Thatcher’s Gold and Dry. Worth it for a pit-stop.

Official site of The Travellers Rest - www.travellersrest-pensford.co.uk

Facebook page of The Travellers Rest - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Travellers Rest - www.travellersrest-pensford.co.uk

Facebook page of The Travellers Rest - www.facebook.com

A traditional looking pub on the main A37 on the outskirts of the village of Pensford, it’s an L-shape pub with a central bar counter and a conservatory extension at the rear as well as a good sized beer garden. The décor too is fairly traditional with although it’s had a bit of a spruce up at some point with much brown paint from Farrow & Ball on the walls and a burnt orange wall along the front. Flooring is a mixture of carpet and wooden boards and there were numerous old black and white photographs of the locale on the walls along with some rather arty drawings. To the left of the bar counter is a small snug with a leather sofa, although the plasma up in the corner that was showing a BBC news programme detracted from the relaxed ambience somewhat. Around the corner towards the rear of the pub was more of a dining area with the conservatory beyond this. This was a little more contemporary with mottled tiling around the perimeter and pine wood cladding on the lower part of the walls. I believe that this offers excellent views across the Chew Valley, although as it was dark on our visit we could not appreciate this. The printed menu offered a fairly basic selection of pub grub dishes such as fish & chips, scampi & chips, lasagne, burger, steaks, etc., and these were mostly priced around the £10 mark. A large special board next to the bar offered another ten or so options which sounded more interesting and were more in the £10 - £12 range. My Hickory chicken with bacon, cheese and barbeque sauce was a generous portion but ultimately no better than I could have got for a lot less in many chain places. Across the table a chicken and pasta dish had a similarly mass produced feel to it and neither were worth the asking price. Beers on tap were Doom Bar, Courage Best and Gem whilst a pump for Tribute appeared to have run out. Ciders were Thatcher’s Dry and Thatcher’s Gold. Overall, despite a hiccup with the food I quite liked this pub with it’s traditional ambience and friendly staff and would happily stop for a pint if I was passing.