The Lanes, Bristol

As described below, this is part of a bowling chain rather than a drinking venue. When we visited the atmosphere was reminiscent of a mortuary drinks party. There were a couple of teenagers using the bowling alley, while we were the only drinkers, having eventually found a barman to serve us. No real ale or cider, just a few megas. We opted for Rothaus Wheat Beer and Wild Hart on keg. Not worth a revisit.

This is in fact a bowling alley with a bar rather than your more regular pub, but you can nonetheless use the bar without bowling and it appeared that several punters were doing just that on a recent Monday evening visit. First impressions are how on earth do you get in. An entrance lobby had a reception desk but this was unmanned. The most obvious route was perhaps the stairs behind this, but it transpired that you needed to go through a small door to the right. It’s a high ceilinged pub with large, arched windows and was quite noisy, partly because of the bowling no doubt but also the harsh acoustics. Red and white chequered lino was on the floor and a projection screen was showing a football match, but there was little else of any note. There was also another bar up a few steps to one side. A quick glance at the menu showed that they offered a selection of basic dishes such as pizzas and calzone as well as a number of alcoholic milk shakes. The solitary beer on tap was Moor Revival, although they did have a surprisingly good selection on cans including some from Alphabet, Moor, Adnams and Wild Beer. Ciders meanwhile were Aspall’s Harry Sparrow and Mr Whitehead’s Devil’s Device.

After visiting here for the second time over the last couple of years I've decided to add this venue as it clearly is a bar more over a bowling alley with a bar serving craft beer and food specialising in Pizza's. On my recent visit the place was full of about 30 women from Wales out on a Hen do and a band were setting up to play later although an entrance fee did look like it was going to be charged for the privilege to see said band.