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Pub Of The Month - January 2026 with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Fancott, Dunstable
Fancott
Postal town: Dunstable
LU5 6HT
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Fancott
The Fancott has a bar to the left as you enter with a snug up a step to the far left end. The bar has a tiled floor and is quite comfortable. There is a gramophone in one of the seating alcoves. The snug is carpeted and has walls lines with pictures in some fairly impressive frames.
As you enter, there is a bare boarded area with a large fireplace. A dining room can be found to the right. Toilets can be found upstairs. On a cold day, they were almost as hot as a sauna.
The pub has a bit of a railway theme with railway signs and old signals to the front and various railway pictures outside the toilets. The large garden to the rear does possess its own miniature railway, as well as a children's play area. Colouring books are also available indoors near the entrance but we didn't spot any kids during our visit. Additional outdoor seating can be found to the front with a handful of picnic tables.
5 cask ales were on. Sharp's Doom Bar is the regular beer. The other 4 were Sharp's Winter Solstice, Black Sheep Snowflake, Timothy Taylor Landlord & Hardy & Hanson's Rock On. A 6th handpull was clipped with a cider - Red Fin Spiced Apple. The back wall has an impressive keg range. Although several were off. Despite this, Brewdog Wingman, Beavertown Neck Oil, Sharp's Atlantic & Shipyard American Pale were all available.
Service was a bit strange. One barmaid was doing something with some glasses when we entered and failed to acknowledge us for a while. She eventually said hello and asked how we were and I asked her how she was, but she didn't have any intention serving us and ultimately she directed us to a colleague. The colleague then proceeded to ask her to dispense one of our drinks for her, which she duly did. I'm not exactly sure why she couldn't serve us in the first place.
In spite of the slightly disinterested service, I quiet liked this pub. I can imagine it can get overrun in the summer when the railway is operating but on a chilly early January afternoon, it was quite pleasant. With 5 ales and a cider, I was relatively impressed.
On 3rd January 2026
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3368 recommendations about 3366 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
The Chairman left this review about The Fancott
Recently reopened after a major refurbishment to a surprisingly high standard by new owners Morgan Pub Collective. This is primarily a restaurant with an extensive all day food offering, but still maintains a pub style drinking area at the front. The beer offering has improved with a selection of 4 real ales (Landlord, Doom Bar, Purity Mad Goose and Oakham Citra when I visited) and 2 ciders on handpull. The large garden remains and is being improved with an outside bar under construction which could make it very popular next summer, especially when the miniature railway is operating.
On 2nd November 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 58 recommendations about 57 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about The Fancott Arms
An attractive looking country pub with plenty of colourful hanging baskets and flower troughs outside, it consists of a bar area at the front and a restaurant at the rear along with a patio area, good sized beer garden complete with children’s play area and even a miniature railway running around the garden.
The bar area at the front of the pub appears as though it may have recently been refurbished, but still retains plenty of character with a low, beamed ceiling and quarry tiles on the floor. A large stone built fire-place was at one end complete with a wood burning stove and a pile of logs ready for the colder weather whilst the seating was a mixture of high stools at the bar and high tables and chairs in the large bay windows. To the left is a small snug area with a carpeted floor and low chocolate brown leather sofas with plenty of cushions around the perimeter. The other seating here was small pouffes which were a clear case of style over substance and were quite uncomfortable, especially if you were going to be eating. Another, smaller fire-place and wood burning stove was in here.
To the right was a parlour style room complete with a dresser full of condiments, although most of the punters in here appeared to be eating. Service was ok, if a little slow and distracted at times – plates were not cleared from the tables and I overheard someone else asking for their table to be wiped down as it was all sticky. To be fair though, the restaurant at the rear was full to capacity even on a recent Tuesday evening visit, so they were no doubt concentrating on that.
The food menu offered a decent selection of dishes, and was divided in to sections such as Baguettes & Melts, Salads, Bar Snacks and “Stove”. The latter category contained a number of options in the “pub grub” genre such as Cod & Chips, Steak & Kidney Pie, Burger, Chilli, etc., and these were mostly priced somewhere in the £10 - £12 range. My Smoked Salmon & Champ Fishcakes with a creamy wholegrain mustard and dill sauce was a pleasant enough dish and a very generous portion consisting of two large fishcakes.
Beers on tap were Tribute and Doom bar whilst the solitary cider was Stowford Press, which makes a pleasant change from the usual dross around these parts. Overall I quite liked this pub, but the emphasis is very much on food, so if you’re after a more traditional drinking pub this may not be for you.
On 30th April 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2107 recommendations about 2006 pubs]