The Moon Under Water (JD Wetherspoon), Watford

Housed in the building that was once destined to be Watford's Metropolitan Line station, this is a long and cavernous Spoons with areas off left and up top - but at least brightly lit so felt quite perky. Blush red and cream shades, fair enough. Five guest cask, my Sambrooks Black Forest was fine (NBSS 3). Good food and efficient staff – I suppose they have to on the ball here given that JDW HQ is just up the road. Of interest to fellow Spoonerites is that are there are a number of menu items you don't see in the rest of the estate, so I assume that this place acts as a soft-launching pad. Watford town centre hasn’t got much going for it, ale-wise, so dropping-in here is a bit of a default option.

Just had to pay a return visit to what for a couple of years doubled as my lunchtime canteen when I worked in Watford, and glad to find it unchanged and still one of the better ‘Spoons for ale choice. Of the 16 ale pumps that line the bar in three groups, only Ruddles and Abbott were doubled up and there was a good line up of guests with only one dreaded “coming soon” label from what I could see. I went for the Shep Neame winter seasonal Cracklewick , and although the beer wasn’t to my taste, it was in good condition. Having lost a couple of the town centre pubs since my last visit and other apparently focussing away from real ale, the Moon still remains as a beacon of hope in Watford for those who prefer the ale.

Big pub but quietish .Usual array of beers .My Inveralmond -lia falls was good and cheap.

Large and gloomy branch of Wetherspoon's on Watford's High Street. I've been past here numerous times without going in. On a matchday, it was packed. There is one long and fairly wide space, which opens out further towards the rear. Despite all of the available space, toilets are found upstairs. The usual Wetherspoon's beers were on - Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar. Guest beers are Beartown Bruin's, Dorset Brewing Company Jurassic & Great Newsome Holderness Dark. There is no longer any real cider. At least beers are now served in proper glasses on a matchday. Otherwise, this is a pretty poor example of a 'spoon's.

With Watford being the home of Wetherspoon HQ, my hopes were high for a visit to the town's main branch of the ubiquitous chain. The pub, like many early Wetherspoons venues, takes its name from the well-known George Orwell essay describing the perfect pub and Orwell himself is depicted on the pub sign, but I suspect if they were naming it now, it would have a railway themed name, as the building it is housed in stands on the site of the proposed Watford Central station - a planned extension of the Metropolitan line that never came to fruition. In fact, the station was actually built and the facade still survives today, complete with inlaid medallions of Queen Victoria, although the rest of the building behind is a more recent development, previously in retail use. Today, we find a deceptively large interior broken into a series of distinctly different areas. The entrance takes you into the main bar, with the servery down the right hand wall. The bar has a dark wood counter and mirrored bar back with a white tiled coffee making area at the far end. There is some cheap looking laminate flooring to the front of the room and around the bar, but the usual unique carpeting appears elsewhere, whilst walls are wood panelled with some sections painted white. High stool and bench seating accounts for most of the main bar area before you reach some steps to the rear which lead up past some interesting filigree panels into a bright seating area with regular tables and chairs through the middle and nice stained glass booths down the right hand wall. Doors lead out to a glum rear patio where smokers were encouraged to head instead of loitering outside the front doors. The left side of the pub opens out into what I initially thought was a neighbouring building, but I may be wrong. Here you'll find two further raised seating areas with more of those nice decorative panels, bare floorboards and cream painted walls. A large plant-lined skylight provides plenty of natural light to a space otherwise devoid of any windows and the walls are decorated with mirrors and large paintings plus the usual 'Spoons info boards. There is loads more seating on this side of the pub, mostly standard tables and chairs, all of which was very much welcome on a busy match day. On the bar, I counter five guest ales, three regulars (some repeated), one cider and three 'Coming Soon' clips. A friendly barmaid served me a good pint of Bath Ales Forest Hare and although this was served in a plastic glass, which I believe is standard practise on match days, it was at least of the rigid polycarbonate variety, rather than the usual flimsy rubbish you tend to get elsewhere. I quite liked this place, which had a nice pre-match vibe with both sets of fans mixing amiably and plenty of seating options to settle down over some decent beer. Service was friendly and the place was nice and clean, with staff working hard to clear tables and get through food orders. I certainly preferred this to the Lloyds Bar down the road and in a town with few decent pubs, it's certainly worth consideration.

It looks a standard 'spoons from the outside but the interior does widen out as you go further into the body of the pub with a large raised area to the left and a beer garden at the rear with bright green artificial grass.The bar is long and runs down a large part of the right wall and has three banks of handpumps ,two sixes and a four.On my pre Christmas visit it appeared the regulars Ruddles Bitter,GK Abbott and Doom Bar were either double or triple clipped,leaving guests as Fuller ESB (also double clipped),GK Abbott Reserve,Hook Norton Twelve Days and Daleside Santa's Progress (decent form) with a pump clip reversed and a real cider offered.It was difficult to judge whether there is a commitment in here to a varied and interesting selection of real ale given the time of year Given the lack of real ale options on the High Street this pub may well be a default choice if you've been shopping and feel in need of a pint.What I ate was standard fare but tasted fine,and the interior has some attractive stain glass designs dotted around the rear and a respectable clientele on my lunchtime visit.

Much larger inside than it initially appears because it not only extends back a long way but also sideways into the rear part of an adjoining building. The interior has been partly opened out, leaving numerous different seating areas but since these are not all inter-visible it avoids too cavernous a feel. Usual furniture and decor. Three banks of six handpumps distributed along the length of the counter, and despite various duplicates and several of the dreaded 'available soons', there was a pretty good selection when I visited (e.g. the seasonal Wickwar Christmas Cracker at £2.55).

This is a typical Spoons shop conversion, dark and not very inviting. There are eighteen handpumps but the selection is no better than an average Spoons as many of the beers are doubled up or are selling a cider and in fact the boring London Pride took up three of the pumps. The Abbot Reserve was in good nick but I felt relieved to use a CAMRA voucher as it was £2.69.