Mad Dog Brewery Co Taproom, Cheltenham

A somewhat unusual venue, located, as it’s name suggests, in an old fire station, the right hand part of the pub is the former engine house with the large arched doors still in place at the front, and this looks to have been joined on to an older town house next door by means of a glass building and thus the pub now consists of three parts. The central glass section had an upstairs seating area which must be a pleasant spot in the warmer weather, whilst the older section to the left looked a little more elegant. We opted for the old engine shed as that looked to be the main part of the pub and also had the most character. In many ways it has probably changed little from when it was used for housing fire engines, with exposed brick walling and an arched wooden roof which had been painted white, although clearly the wood strip floor is new. A long bar counter was off to the right and this included a ladder to access the large array of spirits stored at the top. A shelf running along the back of the pub housed an extensive array of pot plants. Seating was a mixture of padded benches around much of the perimeter as well as high tables and chairs. The menu offered a decent enough looking selection of dishes, perhaps a step or two up from your normal pub grub, although still including options such as a burger or fish & chips as well as some more adventurous options. I went for the smoked haddock fish cakes topped with a poached egg and served on a bed of spinach. This was, as far as I could tell, perfectly ok, although the large quantity of spinach really over shadowed the fish cake, so it was a little difficult to tell what it was like. What I could tell is that a side order of chips tasted quite stale, whether they had just been hanging around a long time or cooked in old oil I’m not sure, but they were well past their best. Prices seemed not unreasonable at first glance with the fish cakes coming in at £10.50 for example, but by the time you’ve included the side order of chips and a 12½% service charge (really?) it came to over £15, which was way too much for what we got. Despite four hand pumps on the bar, one appeared unused and the Prescott Season’s Best had run out, leaving just Purity and West Berkshire’s Yule Fuel. The solitary cider meanwhile was Symonds Founders Reserve. I really wanted to like this pub due to it’s quirky setting, but other than the friendly staff I can find few other positives. Certainly, the food, prices and disappointing drinks selection all conspired against it and I won’t be in any rush to revisit.