The Old Bell, Gloucester

Located in the heart of Gloucester’s pedestrianised shopping district, this pub is housed in a beautiful old timbered building, but it’s location up above a Costa outlet and the fact that the signage outside suggest that it’s more of a restaurant than a pub meant that I had always steered clear of it until now. The first floor landing leads to a bar at the front and a more contemporary restaurant at the rear. The front bar did in fact feel very much like a drinking establishment rather than an eating one, with menus on the tables being the only sign that food was offered. In keeping with the outside of the pub, this was a very elegant room with full height, dark wood panelling on all the walls and an ornate carved wooden fireplace at the rear, although it was perhaps a bit of shame that the only thing in the hearth was an obviously fake wood burning stove. The flooring was mostly generic pattered carpet with a small strip of wood in front the bar counter. The rear room was clearly used as a restaurant and was a lot more contemporary in style with a pale wood strip floor and pale green paintwork on the freshly plastered walls. Another set of stairs led to a couple more rooms, the front one of which was locked shut on my recent lunch time visit, with the rear being given over to a table football game and pool table and this had a rather scruffy and tatty feel to it. The menu offered a good selection of pan-Asian dishes divided in to sections including sushi rolls, tapas, steaks, burgers and so on, along with an exotic meats section that included kangaroo, llama and zebra. Beer choice was rather limited with the single hand pump delivering the local Gloucester Gold, whilst the only cider was Stowford Press. Overall, I’m mixed feelings about this. The barmaid was friendly and it’s certainly a lovely old building, but only the lower front bar had much in the way of original character and the drink choice is clearly not going to draw anyone in, although there was an extensive selection of spirits behind the bar along with a few cocktail choices chalked up on a board, if that’s more your thing.