The Garratt & Gauge, Wimbledon, SW19

Official site of The Garratt & Gauge - www.socialpubandkitchen.co.uk

Official site of The Garratt & Gauge - www.socialpubandkitchen.co.uk

A bit of a barn of a place, squarely aimed at the younger end of the market with nightly events. Usual sort of modern décor, with various distressed wood bd tiling under a turquoise ducted ceiling, with mainly canteen-type tables and chairs. There are two pool tables to the rear and a disco point. Not bad alewise though, with a couple of interesting beers and a cider joining the predictable Doom Bar, plus half a dozen craft beers and flavoured ciders on keg. The By the Horns Lambeth Walk porter was excellent.

A large effectively square room with the bar along a side wall. On three slightly split levels, the room is also partially divided by a mesh screen with red neon style lighting. A very modern and arty feel with lots of unusual framed pictures plus signage with mainly a railway theme. There is a pool table to the rear and what looks like a section of dance floor to a front corner complete with a DJ booth and overhead lighting. The services on the ceiling are all exposed, there is a lot of exposed brickwork, much of it decorated by arty graffiti. All sorts of seating including some huge raised tables with benches. Several TVs all muted while pop music played, rugby, cricket and rolling football scores on offer. Five handpumps and on the bar back, ten keg taps. On HP were Doom Bar, Pride, Surrey Hills Albury Red (£3.90), plus a cider, Lilley's Colider . ...a cola infused cider, just why? Four Lilley's offerings also from the keg taps which also included stuff from Brewdog and a keg version of Jaipur. A reasonable if unconventional spot for a Saturday afternoon pint but I expect this is a noisy party venue in the evening.

There are five handpumps here - with real ales of London Pride, Doom Bar, Robinson's Trooper, and Wimbledon Brewery Copper Leaf Ale (£3.50 a pint), plus Lilley's Cider cloudy perry all available. There were also loads of "craft" beer fonts. They describe their food as the usual suspects, which is OK by me. I noted pub grub favourites such as cod & chips (£8.50) and sausage & mash (£7.50) all available, although there were a few things I didn't recognise such as grilled hariyali chicken salad. They do a decent weekday lunchtime deal as well - £5.50 for a main course (e.g. burger & chips) plus a soft drink, but for an extra quid you can swap the soft drink for a pint of (sub 4.5%) of real ale.That looks like a good bet to me. This is an ultra modern bar, but it has to be an improvement on Edwards, its previous incarnation. It's glitz and bling everywhere. There are illuminated signs, red fairy lights trailing along some internal screening, bizarre modern art murals all over the place, and green painted ceiling and metal trunking on the ceiling. The bar counter is on the left as you enter, in an area that is bare-boarded and with a mix of tall tables with tall benches and stools, massive 12-seater tables, and a few normal tables and chairs. On the right up a couple of stairs is a carpeted area furnished with normal tables and chairs. This could be a comfortable area in which to sit but for the thumping pop music blaring out from there, which was obviously loud enough to be heard throughout the bar. There are at least a couple of large TV screens, muted and showing some football when I was in; some fruit machines, plus a pool table. There was what seemed to be an advertising screen next to the bar counter, which was scrolling through the array of Stonegate pub brandings. A Stonegate bar then. When I was in on Friday afternoon there were a couple of largish groups in, as well some people playing pool. So, not overly busy, but being in the heart of Wimbledon (although not on the High Street) it must get very busy and noisy in the evenings. It's not the place to go for a quiet drink. It gets a 5 for the beer quality.