The Old Ship, Hammersmith, W6

I have mixed feelings about this place as I’ve always found the staff to be friendly and they have taken it well when I try out my very limited Polish on them, but I do feel that this place exists to serve food. I suppose that it’s ok for a stop off during the annual pub crawl from the Fullers brewery to Hammersmith that my work holds every year, but I wouldn’t plan to go here at any other time.

They had Bombardier, Young's Bitter and Kew Gold on. I had the Kew Gold which was fine, and at £3.20 a pint much the going rate for the area. It gave me the impression of being more of a restaurant than a pub – perhaps it was the waitress offering table service that made me feel that way! It's a typical Young's style made-over pub – sofas and magenta painted ceiling and walls. But it was fairly comfortable in there with some banquette seating with normal, but quite large, tables inside. There's also a handful of tables outside at the front on a small patio area. The music was low-key and restrained. Not really my kind of pub, but it's OK if you like these sort of gastrofied pubs.