The Union Rooms (Lloyds No 1 Bar), Plymouth

Mega Spoons over three tiers, a fairly modern fit-out with plate glass frontage letting in a decent amount of light. Very busy and also understaffed, with many tables littered with glasses and my food arrived well before my beer - a 20 min wait for the latter via the app. For the record it was a South Hams Porter (NBSS 3). Venue’s alright but the service levels aren’t great.

Unions Rooms is a very large Lloyds that was very busy with a young student crowd when I visited on a recent Tuesday evening. Street level seating runs along the floor to ceiling front windows and there are two flights of steps that lead up to the bar , which runs up the left wall, and seating up the right. The usual standard and premium keg is available and I counted ten handpumps in two banks of five. The usual mainstream cask was available alongside Bay’s Topsail and Inveralmond’s Lia Fail. The JDW menu is in operation. Out the back is a large split-level patio with some covered seating. Cheap? Yes! Destination? No!

My experience of this un-pub was not dissimilar to Aqualung‘s, below, and I did wonder whether I’d wandered into Popworld by mistake. The large glass fronted corner building was once a car showroom. On arrival there was a gang of smokers around the exterior, contributing to the dog-end-and-chewing-gum flooring. Once past the bouncers there is a lower floor with dining tables, then up a central staircase is the main bar area. We sat down at a high table and were told to move as that was going to be a dance floor shortly. There appeared to be 4 ales and a cider on, but the loud crowds through which we had to fight to get to the bar obscured the pump clips, so I could only see Screecher cider and Exmoor Fox. I had a pint of the latter which was in poor condition, unusually for a JDW. The barman (sorry, ‘team leader’) who served us was a humourless thug, while the incompetent waitress who brought the pizza I ordered managed to drop it on the table, then asked why I needed the fork I had requested; apparently people here eat everything with their fingers. I wonder how that works out on Curry Night. The worst ‘Spoons I’ve visited for a while.

Sadly the only truly central Plymouth JDW is a Lloyds and unlike most that still survive they haven't tried to disguise it by removing the external branding. I got here at around 22:00 on a Wednesday night to find bouncers on the door and some rubbish music blasting out. Nearly all the vocalists sounded like Daleks or some other alien beings. The place was busy with students or other young folk. I didn't get to see all the beers on from the ten hand pumps but I did see one unused, the IPA version of the JDW Trio Of Doom, Dartmoor Jail Ale, Brains SA, Bays Top Sail, Wells Youngs Special and two I couldn't see. I gave up on the cask and ordered three tins of Uprising Treason IPA for a fiver and a pint glass. The pint glass was plastic and soaking wet, pathetic. I assume the normal glass washer would melt the plastic. It gets an extra point for having a Locale beer other than the boring Jail Ale. The best thing about this place is that the lights on much of the external lettering don't work so in the dark you could possibly (if you were lucky enough) completely miss it.

Official site of The Union Rooms (Lloyds No 1 Bar) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Union Rooms (Lloyds No 1 Bar) - www.jdwetherspoon.com