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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Detail Pages
The Soldiers Return, Oakridge, Basingstoke
Basingstoke
RG21 5RP
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Soldiers Return
Situated some way to the north of Basingstoke town centre, this is a locals pub with a public bar to the front and what appeared to be a function room/dining room to the rear, where there was a sign saying "Carvery", but another saying no entry.
The front bar is fairly compact. TVs at either end of the room were about to show a live Premier League football match and the room was very busy and noisy. There were also people playing a couple of games machines. Dogs are allowed in.
There were 4 handpulls, two clipped with Pride (one of these clips turned) and the other 2 unclipped. Ciders were Inch's & Orchard Thieves. Service wasn't particularly friendly and the gents toilets were flooded. I can only hope that it was water I was wading through!
Basingstoke isn't particularly well endowed with decent pubs and this definitely isn't one of them.
On 23rd October 2024
- rating: 4
[User has posted 3040 recommendations about 3038 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Soldiers Return
A two bar community pub that to me felt a little sterile although my visit was at a quiet time.Three beers on at the time of my visit, Fullers ESB and Olivers Island along with a beer from Redwood Brewery I cant recall the name of. This is a cask marque pub and as I have constantly found ,the beers with this tag seem overly chilled, this was the case with my Olivers Island and so lacking in taste as Quinno found with his beer on his visit and like him I was not overly impressed with this pub.
On 25th May 2015
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2151 recommendations about 2118 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Soldiers Return
Re-opened after a period of closure.
October 2007
Went in on the recommendation of the Good Beer Guide but wasn't overly impressed. My Loddon was freezing and not brilliant. The inside is set out over two bars. There's a pool table, darts and SKY in the public bar, whilst the lounge has plenty of reading material scattered around. The place seemed very tired. We didn't really feel welcome either and I had no wish to settle down for a session. Perhaps it was a bad day. I'll try it again at some point if it reappears in the next GBG. Rated 5
On 2nd July 2014
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 5552 recommendations about 5533 pubs]