The Excelsior, Liverpool

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Pub SignMan left this review about The Excelsior

This is a smart, two bar pub on Dale Street with a pleasant traditional interior. The pub is bare boarded throughout with some very nice, low lincrusta wall coverings matched with a mix of plain wood panels, nice painted sections and some nautical themed wallpaper. Modern windows along two sides of the building have an etched glass-style pattern and have been fitted with heavy drapes. The rooms pop with colour thanks to attractive stained glass partitioning screens that break up the seating areas, a cool gold frieze beneath the lincrusta ceiling, and a few nice mosaic tile sections of floor here and there. Seating comes in the form of pews and chairs plus some button backed banquettes and low stools around the perimeter. The bar has a tidy, if somewhat boxy, dark wood counter which fronts a pleasant traditional bar back. The two main rooms are roughly equal in size and don’t seem to have anything that especially distinguishes one from the other, whilst a side room in a split-level space to the rear offers lots of additional seating. TV screens were showing muted coverage of a golf tournament whilst a plodding soundtrack failed to make itself heard over the modest hubbub created by a small Friday night crowd.
There were four ales available when we called in - Ossett Butterfly, Thwaites Wainwright and Taylors Landlord and Boltmaker. I ordered a pint of the Butterfly from the super-friendly barman, which was in reasonable shape but probably not as good as the Boltmaker, which I would’ve ordered had I not initially mistaken it for a double-clipped Landlord.
This is a decent enough pub that has a pretty good interior and a few solid ale options, but its location on the excellent Dale Street means that it all feels pretty average when compared to its neighbours. Some top service and comfy seating made for a pleasant visit, but it was notably quieter than a lot of other nearby pubs and would need to up its game to compete with the high standards set in this part of the city.

On 20^th December 2023 - rating: 6
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