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Image posted by paulof horsham
Submitted on Monday, 29th May 2023
With picture contributions to 4602 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (21 more images)
Detail Pages
The Hole in the Wall, Chichester
Chichester
PO19 1NP
Served areas
Reviews of The Hole in the Wall (Average Rating: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
paulof horsham left this review about The Hole in the Wall
A re-visit and, sadly, it's still difficult to totally enthuse about this Big Smoke outpost. It ticks a lot of boxes, with 4/5 cask ales (Harvey's, a 360 and 2 in-house on my visit) plus a long wall of modern keg. There's even 4 cask ciders and it's all listed on A4 for you to peruse at your leisure.
But.... my pint of Solaris was a tricky 20 minutes and a pie and chips approaching £17 didn't really help matters.
Can't help thinking that someone from Head Office needs to pay a visit to up the standards to those closer to home.
On 15th June 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 453 recommendations about 425 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Hole in the Wall
Having visited most of the Big Smoke pubs in the South East and having generally enjoyed them, I was looking forward to a visit to the Chichester branch of this ever-expanding chain, as I'd heard a few good things about it.
The street in which the pub stands can initially be difficult to locate from the main East Street shopping thoroughfare. Whether the pub is named after the alleyway you take to enter St Martin's Street, I'm not sure, but the road widens out somewhat by the time you reach the Hole In The Wall.
The interior is fairly dark with lots of wood. We didn't venture much further than the bar, choosing to occupy the table nearest the door. However, the pub did seem to stretch back a fair way with further customers at the bar and beyond.
The strength (and also the weakness) of Big Smoke pubs is its range of beers and ciders. Big Smoke Solaris is the regular real ale. Guests were Tiny Rebel Astro Loaf, Siren Momento, Northern Monk Eternal, Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter & 360° Tacoma. Ciders were SeaCider White Peach Cider, Sandford Orchards Devon Mist & Abrahall's Lily the Pink.
The craft beer selection was a little confusing. They are all served by taps on the back wall of the bar. A list was displayed on a blackboard above. However, on closer inspection, the list did not exactly match the clips on the taps. Either way, breweries represented included Big Smoke, New Town, Electric Bear, Laine's, Partizan, Cassels, Unity, Wander Beyond, Purity, Siren & Tiny Rebel. I also noticed Saxby's Cherry Cider on draft.
I was instantly drawn towards the Tiny Rebel Astro Loaf, billed as a "Double Fudge Chocolate Stout". Having the appearance of muddy dishwater and being fairly insipid, I'm fairly sure I was drinking the dregs from the cask. But the chocolate taste still overrode any vinegary tastes that would have persuaded me that the beer was off. Having since looked at Untappd, I can see that The Hole In The Wall had been selling this beer since June 8th and I was drinking it at least 18 days after it had come on. I may have been doing them a disservice, as they may have had more than one cask, but 18 days would seem too long for a cask ale to survive in a drinkable condition.
Therein lies the problem with many of the Big Smoke pubs (certainly the newer ones). The range of beers is excellent, but the quality of them can be lacking, as they're simply not getting the throughput they need to maintain such a large range. They would be much better reducing the range to just 3 or 4 well-kept real ales.
Rant over. Whilst I really wanted to like this pub, beer quality is lacking. I'd return and give it another try if I happened to be in Chichester again. But overall, this visit was indifferent.
On 27th June 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Hole in the Wall
I have to go along with Pauls take on this pub, It is undoubtedly one of the better pubs in Chichester as well as probably the busiest on my trip to the city, five beers on from the eight designated ale pumps leaving three turned clips, the remaining four handles were fully loaded with various Ciders. A pleasing pub, but as Paul mentions not a patch on their S.W.London brethren.
On 2nd January 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
View more reviews of The Hole in the Wall (6)
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- Official site of The Hole in the Wall - theholeinthewall-pub.co.uk
- Facebook page of The Hole in the Wall - www.facebook.com
- Twitter - The Hole in the Wall
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Hole in the Wall - whatpub.com
Fishbourne, 1.98 miles, 38 min walk (show)
Bosham, 3.49 miles, 1 hr 7 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 02 January 2020 by Moby Duck
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- CAMRA Discount : Yes - 20p per pint - last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Car Park : No last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 02 January 2020 by Moby Duck
- Live Music : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Micropub : No last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Quiz Night : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- Real Cider : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
- WiFi : Yes last updated 04 April 2021 by ROB Camra
