bod, Stoke Central, Stoke-On-Trent

I got here around 17:30 on a Saturday evening on a day when both Stoke and Port Vale were at home. There was a friendly enough bouncer on the door and inside it was busy but not rammed. One of the reasons it was busy was due to a ridiculous gate cutting half of the pub area off. A notice on the gate said that it would be opened when the train barriers closed at 18:00. The barriers were closed when I arrived at around 10:45 and again at 18:40 when I left. They did open the gate just bafore I left but the barriers were not open. The other problem is that the only toilet inside is officially a disabled one but with the platform ones inaccessible everyone was using it. The bar has six hand pumps which had Titanic Steerage, Iceberg & Plum Porter, Milton Pegasus, a Derventio beer & White Horse Dark Blue. I went for the Plum Porter (£3.60) which was fine but the Iceberg was quite cloudy so was changed for another Plum Porter. For a station bar this is pleasant enough but hardly a place to come for more than a swift drink before getting a train. I much preferred their Stafford Bod. They really need to resolve the gate issue here.