Ye Olde Custom House Inn, Chester

Venerable old pub at the bottom of Watergate Street, remodelled many times over the years I’ve known it. Two entrances leading to a single bar via the lower door and two bars from the upper one. The upper bar has three pulls and continuing round to the right is another largish rear bar with five pulls, only a trio of Marstons beers in each; Pedigree, Wainwright & an Hobgoblin varient. I didn’t check out the separate bar as it meant going outside and back in, it looked full of local codgers anyway. The main bars had a mix of ages and types as well as seating at separate tables and chairs, it’s a bit food oriented but not overly so. I preferred it a couple of reincarnations ago.

Ye Olde Custom House is an amalgamation of two adjacent houses, one of which dates from the 17th century. The interior consists of a small right-hand seating area, a larger left-hand seating area and a third seating area in the rear. These three separate areas are all served by a central bar and each has a plasma screen, which was airing the Chase during a recent Tuesday afternoon visit. Out the back is an advertised beer garden that I did not visit. The rear bar supports five hand pumps and the left-hand bar repeats three of these. A standard and premium keg range was available, but I couldn’t drink my Fosters as the stench of eggs caused my undercrackers to initiate a brown alert. I found the service to be very polite, but I wouldn’t return.

First visit here in a few years and nothing has really changed , fairly quiet on my thursday afternoon visit with just few couples eating inside and half a dozen or so enjoying the sunshine in the small pleasant beer garden . Still four handpulls all beers from Marstons range , Pedigree , Hobgoblin , Boondoggle and a pleasant Marstons 61 deep . Its nothing special but a nice enough place to spend an hour or so .

A quite pleasant pub with 4 cask ales on. Standard choice of beers on this visit, Wainwright, Pedigree, Hobgob and Boondoggle on this visit. Beer garden thingy at the rear.