Otium, Weston Central, Weston Super Mare

Renamed and extensively refurbished since my previous review, it’s now quite unrecognisable from it’s biker friendly days and is clearly aiming at a very different clientele. In fact it seems quite classy in appearance, which doesn’t really suit the Weston demographic I would have thought, and perhaps explains why it was virtually deserted on our recent Thursday evening visit. It also appears quite food focused, with the pub’s strapline, Woodfired Kitchen, being etched on many of the windows and the door. Most, if not all of the tables laid up for dining, although nobody actually was as far as I could see. Internally it’s one single, open plan room, with a curved bar counter to the left. Some sort of plasticky looking wood effect laminate was on the floor and there was much use of Farrow & Ball shades of paintwork on the panelled walls, making it look quite elegant. The majority of the seating was velour style arm chairs, along with some unusual brass framed ones that you sat in, rather than on. Some very large floral garlands were arranged at the front of the pub, and a small wood burning stove with an adjacent pile of logs was off to one side. Unusual large silver egg shaped lamps hung above the bar, whilst subtle red strip lighting ran along the top of the bar front. Unfortunately, there were no real ales on tap, with Neck Oil being the sole keg offering. Ciders fared little better with just Inch’s Medium Apple. Overall, this was quite a pleasant joint if you wanted a bite to eat and the young barmaid was very friendly, but as a pub it really falls woefully short.

Official site of Otium - otium-wsm.co.uk

Official site of Otium - otium-wsm.co.uk