The Bryn-y-Mor, Swansea

Refurbished Greene King pub, which - very annoyingly - had sent the chef home early on a Saturday evening "because nobody was eating" before I arrived looking for a meal... Having checked out the other local pub (The Mill, that was still doing some basic food, but nothing that looked very appetising) I returned here for a consolation pint as it otherwise appeared a reasonable place. Opened out at some stage to leave a variety of seating / dining areas, it has semi-modern furniture and generally light decor. The tables out front were all full in the late sunshine too. Five real ales on handpump: IPA, the Radio X 'Amplified' collaboration, Doom Bar and two from Boss Brewing: Blaze and Blonde.

This large pub in the student friendly Brynmill neighbourhood has tended to be the local's pub of choice, with the students preferring the nearby Mill or Wig, and a recent visit suggested that this was still very much the case. You enter directly into the bar area, with the servery running down the right hand wall and a bright seating space opposite along the left hand side. The bar has a fairly standard counter and bar back and seemed quite cramped due to the way the furniture had been arranged opposite it. Most of the seating to the front comprises standard and tub chair options under pastel shaded walls with a few short padded banquettes a little further back. As you move past the bar, a part-raised seating area appears with lots of high tables and stools and a few benches. A small, lower snug-like space can also be found here, admittedly opened out towards the rest of the room, but offering some nice, traditional banquette seating nonetheless. The rest of the rear section is dominated by a pool table, with space set aside for a dartboard. There are a number of pleasant old black and white photos dotted around the place which are worth a quick browse and there were a number of TV screens showing muted darts and boxing coverage. A loud and quite frankly rubbish soundtrack played throughout my visit and I also noticed a DJ booth, although this was not being used late on a Saturday evening. I'd heard that this place was serving two or three ales nowadays and was initially encouraged to find a set of Gower Ales bar towels on the counter, but upon enquiry, the barman advised me that they only had Greene King IPA available at that particular moment, so I begrudgingly ended up with a pint which was thankfully kept well enough. This is a fairly basic pub, typical of so many in South Wales, where anything of interest has been ripped out and replaced with a corporate vision of what a local's pub should be like. There is nothing particularly unlikable about the place, but it's almost impossible to warm to and whilst it was nice for me to visit again after a sixteen year absence, I couldn't work up any enthusiasm to come back again any sooner.

Bryn-y-Mor page at the Original Pub Co site - www.originalpubco.com

Bryn-y-Mor page at the Original Pub Co site - www.originalpubco.com