The George, Bexley

Solid-looking Georgian inn in the centre of Bexley 'village', but the interior has been completely remodelled and refurbished in an anonymous semi-modern style, leaving a side seating / dining area in addition to the main bar. As a Greene King pub with 4.5 handpumps (one missing its handle) clipped for IPA and Abbot and advertising a 10% Camra discount you might expect some real ale, but no (at least temporarily), so the choice boiled down to BrewDog Punk IPA or Camden Pale (horribly priced at £5.05). May have caught it on a bad day, but not impressed by the seemingly dismissive staff attitude either.

This is another Greene King pub, and this one only had the IPA on with a couple of handpumps apparently unused. Seeing a goose surmounted font - not seen many of those in pubs - I had a half of Goose Island IPA for a change. It's not cheap at £2.50 a half, but it did come served in a branded glass, and I suppose it has come all the way from Chicago. It made a pleasant change though, but is bursting with hoppy bitterness so won't be to everybody's taste. The usual GK pub grub menu was available, which included a "2 meals for £11.95" deal, as well as a weekday lunch burger and drink offer. The drinks that were part of the latter deal did include the IPA. This pub is a large opened up affair. The walls are mainly exposed brickwork. The main bar area is bare-boarded with a mix of tall tables/tall stools, armchairs, and booth style seating by the windows. There's another seating area around to the right and rear of the servery which is carpeted and furnished with normal table and chairs. All in all this is a fairly ordinary pub. The beer selection was nothing special when I was in, although I enjoyed my Goose Island hop bomb. There are better pubs in Bexley Village.

This place looks like it has had a bit of makeover and I found it a little sterile and too food orientated. There are no TVs, but there was some very low mellow dance music playing in the background on my recent Sunday afternoon visit. The barman was friendly enough and he told me to take a seat whilst my decent pint of Guinness settled and then the barmaid delivered it to my table with a smile. Like the food, my pint was on the expensive side and I think that this pub is aiming itself at the more affluent of the area. Alongside the standard draught range there are a few premium lagers and although one hand pump was not being used the other two were drawing Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen. There is a quiz every Thursday with a very early start time of 18:30. I think that there are better pubs in the area with much more atmosphere than this one.

Official George page at a Greene King site - www.gkpubs.co.uk