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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Kings Arms, York
York
YO1 9SN
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Soup Dragon left this review about The Kings Arms
A very touristy Samuel Smith’s, water front pub, with a great patio area. It is a medieval town design, with a stone lower story and a white plastered overhanging upper story.
The interior is an L-shaped room around the serving bar. The decor is simple; brick and stone, with wooden ceiling and support beams, stone flag floor and a brick fireplace. It has to be simple, as the place has been flooded out on a number of occasions – there is, as the other commentators have said, a marker on the wall, as well as some photographs, of the height the water has reached. There is no TV, there was also no background music. Service was fine. The clientele varies here, depending on the weather. A massive queue can form leading outside on nice days and the pub and patio can get rammed. I of course simply walk past, being miserable, however, at other times it is as quiet as a church mouse.
Beer; all keg Samuel Smiths beers, but without a MILD. The stout was as cold as ever, but fine enough, apart from the fact that it is served in plastic glasses.
It is worth a visit for its location, but the fact that there is no real ale, or keg Sam Smiths MILD and one is subjected to plastic glasses means that I would rather go elsewhere after one (if i get in)
On 4th October 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3067 recommendations about 3062 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Kings Arms
I dropped into this pub because it was raining outside and we needed to get a bite to eat. I would normally avoid this sort of pub – i.e a Sam Smith’s pub that only has keg beer on. With nothing on handpump, it was the scene of the embarrassing sight of the King Rat in a pub drinking orange juice. Luckily there were no witnesses who knew me (Mrs R doesn’t count in this context!). It has an attractive riverside setting, with several picnic benches outside on the jetty – sadly unused during my visit due to the pouring rain. Inside it’s a fairly decent pub with banquette seating in booths at the front, a bit more seating on the left of the bar counter, and some stools at ledges on the right. The walls are all exposed brickwork, and ancient posts and beams give it a genuinely ancient look. The floor is solid flagstones. There’s an interesting feature near the door, with high flood levels over the years displayed on a board; the highest was in 2000, when it nearly reached the ceiling.
This is a decent pub – shame about the beer. Without a decent ale I doubt whether I shall be back.
On 15th June 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Mat Nichol left this review about The Kings Arms
One of the most well known pubs in York, partly because it gets flooded by The Ooze every year and has the height of various floods from previous years. Good beer - Samuel Smiths. Great to sit outside and watch the boats go by in summer.
On 1st December 2006
- rating: 10
[User has posted 115 recommendations about 115 pubs]