The Lantokay (JD Wetherspoon), Street

Back in Somerset and having been dragged to the Clark’s Village and seeing from the newer reviews that this ‘Spoons had undergone a refurbishment since my previous visit some 14 years ago, I decided to go over the wall and investigate. Yes, agree, much improved over its previous incarnation with a bit more character and significantly lighter. An initial brick walled and carpeted section as you enter via the front door leads onto a main wooden floored section that houses the bar to the left, and now with a glass walled section to the right, which provides much more light than previously and leads to a small garden area. Then, beyond this, up a few steps, is a further elevated carpeted section with table seating. The bar now supports two sets of six ale pumps and although the trilogy of doom is repeated on both there were five ales on the remaining pumps which had a decent choice on as my visit coincided with the ’Spoons Autumn real Ale Festival. These were Acorn Brewing 2 Decades Pale Ale, Rudgate Vanilla Mild, Hobgoblin King Goblin, Adnams Dos Perros amber ale (apparently brewers exclusively by Adnams for Wetherspoons) and Steel and Oak Brewing Easy Stout. I went for the last two and they were both in decent Nick. Much much better than my first visit, so happy to up the rating.

This is a fairly typical shop conversion consisting of a rectangular room with the bar on the left and a patio to the right. The furnishings are slightly better than average and it was doing a good trade on my Thursday afternoon visit. The bar has two sets of six hand pumps which had the complete range doubled up. This was the JDW Trio Of Doom, Dartmoor Jail Ale, Cotleigh Tawny and Butcombe 42. I went for the 42 (£2.29) which was an excellent pint. Given the limited beer choice and that there didn't appear to be any other viable options in the town, I had a look at the cider and there were four, two from Purbeck, one from Orchard Pig and one from Thatchers. These were £2.69 and were also excellent on a warm summer day. I thought this place was OK and is much needed in a town where there are so few worthwhile outlets.