The Sir Daniel Arms (Lloyds No 1), Swindon

I agree with the previous reviewer that this is a rather disappointing Wetherspoon's, the worst of the 4 (I believe there are now only 3 left) I have visited in Swindon. Situated on a street corner, there are a handful of tables outside on the street. Indoors is spread over two levels, with the upstairs room seemingly open on this visit. Toilets are upstairs (30 steps!) too. We sat on a table on the dancefloor underneath a glitterball, but there was no sign of any dancing on our Saturday morning visit. We managed to order through table service, but the real ale choice was fairly uninspiring and the ale itself was of questionable quality. The usual Greene King Abbot & Ruddles Best were on, alongside Sharp's Doom Bar, Portobello Star, Redemption Urban Dusk & Coach House Cheshire Oaks. Real cider is no more.

A very disappointing Spoon's, in a strikingly large modern building but it does not feel like it inside, which is rather enclosed and gloomy. It is never good to be greeted by uncleared tables and then find a large queue at the bar. It is worse to find a boring selection of ales (IPA, Abbot, Doom Bar and Black Sheep) with only the latter on and in barely drinkable form. There is by the way an upstairs area which looked at though it might have an outside, but this was all shut off. A strong and unfavourable contrast to the other Wetherspoon's in the town or the Yates down the road.

This is a full blown Lloyds which was converted from a nightclub in 2007. Inside it's a smallish room with lighting rig and an upstairs that I didn't visit. Although the decor is fairly modern it has fairly typical furnishings. The beer choice was poor with only four available from the six hand pumps. These were GK IPA & Abbot, Doom Bore and JW Lees Kaleidoscope. I had the Abbot (£2.49) which was in good nick. I thought this was a poor Spoons as are many Lloyds outlets.