The White Hart, Bristol

Pub with the friendliest landlady and landlord: Jemma and Jimmer. TV screens for us spirited souls who like to watch England footie whilst guzzling our favourite beverages. Excellent bands on a Saturday night doing covers of rock classics which gives the place a proper weekend feel. Delicious hand-made rolls. Lovely, well-maintained garden with cute features and a barbecue shack. However, what makes this pub garden really unique and special is that it is home to meerkats and parrots. Events such as charity fundraising and Halloween parties and attributes like a jukebox add to making this a fun and friendly pub.

A traditional pub on the main road between Bristol and Bath, this is located in a reasonably upmarket area and consequently the pub was something of a surprise in that it appears to be very much a no frills boozer whereas one may have expected something of a gastro-pub, or at least something a little cosier. There is apparently a beer garden at the rear, although we did not investigate this. The main bar area is a long room running along the front of the building and this has a somewhat dated appearance, and indeed in some cases was distinctly shabby with wallpaper stripped off, bare plasterwork and trailing cables. Perhaps this was work in progress. The flooring is a mixture of wood strip and carpet whilst a plasma screen down at the far end was showing the football. There is also a small stone fire-place and wood burning stove as well as a few generic country pictures dotted around. A smaller snug at the rear is somewhat cosier with some exposed stone and timberwork and a couple of shelves of books. There was also a table football game in here which I would have thought would have been better suited at the other end of the pub near the TV screen. I didn’t spot any menus or other signs of food, although a pizza delivery van did turn up and leave a couple of boxes on the bar. The solitary beer on offer was Doom Bar, whilst ciders were Blackthorn and Thatcher’s Gold. Many of the bottles behind the bar were priced up using star shaped day-glow stickers and a Gin & Tonic was served up in a Carling glass. All in all, whilst there’s nothing particularly wrong with this pub, I had expected a little more and won’t be in any rush to return.