Crossways Tavern, Radstock

A rather disappointing town pub which has very restricted opening hours. The garden is as described by Rex, below, but it was made less pleasant by screaming children, though this is a family-centric pub, so we can’t really complain. The front two bars are a knock-through, the games room leads to the garden. There is a DJ booth on one side of the bar, there are a few gaming machines and there were TVs showing sports, though these were mute. There was no real ale on, nor were there any craft beers, just feeble excuses from the unhelpful staff and banks of keg lager and cider. We settled for bottled Doombar but didn’t stay for a second one. It’s unlikely that we’ll be back.

This is a pub of two halves. The inside half is a very basic pub, with a dartboard, pool table, and loud pop music playing when I was late afternoon/early evening. The only ale on was Doom Bar (£3.40 a pint) which was hazy but drinkable. I guess I should be grateful that there was one real ale on. My companion and I decided to escape from the racket inside to the garden at the back. As you exit the back door you are in a covered smoking area with a good amount of seating; past this there’s a bridge over a small stream that leads to a very large garden area with plenty of picnic bench seating.This area also contains a large covered gazebo, plus a chidren’s play area. This was a very pleasant place to sit and enjoy a quiet pint. I wouldn’t make a special journey to this pub for the beer, or to sit inside, but it was definitely worth the ten minute walk from my chum’s house to enjoy reasonable pint in the lovely garden that they have here.