Canteen Bar, Shildon

Graham Coombs left this review about Canteen Bar

A bizarre combination of greasy spoon and the George Samuel brewery tap in what was once the railway works canteen, as the name suggests. Finding it is the first hurdle - it is in a fairly anonymous industrial building off a roundabout, with minimal signage (look for the A-boards on the pavement) and a secretive car park behind helpfully identified once you have parked and reached the door. Finding a suitable entrance we went in through a factory type lobby past a gas fitter training company and through another forbidding looking door. Suddenly you are in a fairly basic large room with an open café kitchen and bar area, a series of benched tables round the side and a brewery behind! Very strange but they are incredibly friendly and welcoming. The beers are all their own: four on handpump and four plus an Appleshed cider on tap. Apparently some of these are cask conditioned also. At any event there was a stout and a porter with a range of IPA types and jolly nice they were too. For railway enthusiasts it is located a few yards from the starting point of the first S&DR train in 1825 and there are some photos from its past and other railwayana on the walls. Watch the opening times though: it opens for breakfast every day but is not licensed until noon and, despite information to the contrary elsewhere, they do serve at the bar from 12.00 to 13.00 on Saturdays, before closing until 16.00. Worth a visit for the beer and the novelty, also the very good value food.

On 20^th October 2024 - rating: 8
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