Crab Apple Inn, Clevedon

Official site of Crab Apple Inn - www.crabappleinn.co.uk

Official site of Crab Apple Inn - www.crabappleinn.co.uk

A fairly uninspiring looking estate pub in the suburbs of Clevedon, it was, as far as I recall from my last visit, quite run down and rough around the edges, although that was admittedly many years ago. Now it’s certainly had an extensive refurbishment, perhaps quite recently, and is quite tidy and up together, although it does have a very bland, corporate feel to it with nothing much in the way of any character, and is no doubt very similar to numerous other identikit chain pubs up and down the country. The white UPVC windows also looked somewhat out of place and rather tacky I thought. Internally it’s surprisingly big, and is basically an L-shape pub with separate bar counters serving each leg. A number of TV screens were showing a sports channel but these were confined to one of the legs which is presumably intended to be more of a public bar than a lounge, although the décor was much the same, and there was in fact a rolled up projector screen in the other leg so I imagine at times sport can be rather dominating. There was also a pool table at this end. Flooring was a mixture of laminate and carpet, whilst the walls were painted in numerous shades such as maroon and grey. A number of large colourful photographs of Bristol landmarks adorned the walls, although not, as far as I noticed, any of Clevedon. One section had some wood panelling on the walls making it a little more elegant perhaps, and there were a couple of large brick fireplaces with wood burning stoves. The menu looked to be a mass produced, laminated affair and was divided in to numerous sections such as steaks, mains, burger, baguettes and even chicken buckets which you could apparently customise to your own requirements. The mains listed a selection of pub staples such as ham egg & chips, lasagne, Chicken tikka masala, scampi & chips and so on, and these were mostly priced at £7. Beers on tap were predominantly from Greene King and included their IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Abbott Ale. They also had St. Austell’s Tribute. Ciders meanwhile were Thatcher’s Gold and Strongbow Cloudy Apple.