The Stable, Falmouth

Set across two floors in an impressive city centre building overlooking the Quay, this is the Cornish branch of the popular cider and pizza Stable chain. You enter into a lobby area with the main bar visible through a door to your right. This is a simple rectangular room with bare floorboards and the servery and open kitchen over on the far right hand wall. The room is a bit bland and bare, with a clean colour scheme enlivened a little by some decorative artwork around the bar area. Long canteen-style tables and benches fill out the majority of the room, with some smaller tables and comfy chairs filling in the gaps. The walls display lots of blackboards, variously listing the pizza and pie options available, but other decorative items are notable for their absence and the place struggles for character or warmth as a result. The best spot to grab a table is along the rear wall, where the windows give good views out to the Quayside area behind the pub. On the other side of the front lobby, there is a smaller dining space for a slightly more intimate spot to enjoy your food. Alternatively, you can head downstairs for another large room with bare stone pillars, tiled flooring and banquette and low stool seating. This looked a little more interesting than the main bar, but was pretty much empty on a Monday evening and the decor didn't extend much beyond a stuffed boar's head. We stopped in here for some pizza and really enjoyed our choices which came from a menu with plenty of interesting toppings. As with all branches of this chain, cider is the star and an extensive range was available here on draught or from countless boxes stacked behind the bar. All were detailed in menus and the bar staff seemed pretty clued up and were able to help indecisive punters make informed choices. After some poor experiences with real ale in other Stable venues, I was a little wary of trying the lone beer option - Black Rock Deep - but was pleased to find it was kept in reasonably good condition, if not exactly top quality. The barmaids and waiting staff were all very friendly and helpful, although some of the cider and food orders when we visited took a long time to process, resulting in long queues at the bar. I thought this was a reasonably good venue for this particular chain, benefiting from a good location, friendly, knowledgeable staff and some nicely differentiated rooms. It lacked a bit of character and won't hold too much appeal for the beer drinker, but if it's quality pizza and a good pint of cider you're after, you need look no further.

Yet another outpost in the ever expanding Stable chain, this is a large pub in the heart of Falmouth with good views across the river and is set across two floors with an open kitchen on the upper level. It is housed in the old custom house building which had apparently been derelict for a number of years before being sympathetically refurbished. The main bar area is downstairs and this is quite a contemporary style room with plain whitewashed walls, a concrete floor and some exposed stonework. There are a few thick wooden joists visible on the ceiling and a few timber and iron supporting posts as well. A fire-place was at the rear along with a wood burning stove and a pile of logs. Seating was all large tables and long wooden benches which means if there are only two of you then you are likely to end up sharing your table. Pizzas are the main focus here as far as the food goes, although there were also a few pies and salads. As with their other branches, many of the pizzas have been given local names such as the Pendennis Piggy. Our Mignonette and Longhorn Jim were both decent enough, although I didn’t seem to be quite as impressed as I was when I first visited their Bristol branch. Beers on tap were Skinner’s Lushington and London Pride. Cider is the main focus here though, and there were no less than eight available on tap which on this occasion were Cornish Gold, Ashridge Gold, Symonds (the board didn’t specify which), Dorset Draft, Cornish Blush, Bee Sting, Devon Red and Single Drop Gold. If none of those take your fancy, a further 18 were available from boxes. Overall this was a decent enough venue with friendly staff, but it somehow felt a bit more like a restaurant than a pub in contrast with some of their other outlets.