The Ship Inn, Exeter

Very nicely decorated nautical themed pub.Very busy with diners on my lunchtime visit.Doombar,Hooky bitter,GK -ipa and GK -Carnival.

An old and historic looking pub just off of the Cathedral Green, it’s a large pub covering two floors and seems popular with a younger crowd late on in the evening with a DJ playing music and bouncers on the door. It’s not exclusively aimed at that market however, and I suspect it may have a quite different feel at other times. The downstairs bar has sanded boards on the floor at the front and flagstones at the rear. There was plenty of wood partitioning around and the colour scheme was a khaki green. As there was no seating here we ventured upstairs where there are a further two rooms. This is perhaps slightly more intended for dining with menus on all the tables, but did not appear exclusively so. Décor wise these are fairly similar with leaded windows and copious wood panelling on the walls, presumably to resemble a ship’s cabin. To reinforce it’s nautical credentials, a ship’s rope was strung along the balustrade and wrapped around a pillar. The menu offered a fairly standard selection of pub grub such as Sausage & Mash, Pie, Lasagne, Fish & Chips, etc., as well as other sections covering burgers, grills and salads. Most of the main courses were somewhere around £5 - £7, although as we didn’t eat I cannot comment on the quality. Beers on tap were Greene King IPA, Greene King Carnival, Black Sheep Velo and Abbott Ale. I think there may also have been something else, unfortunately my notes appear indecipherable. Ciders were Blackthorn, Thatcher’s Gold, and both Strawberry and Apples & Pears from Lilleys.

From the outside it looks really promising, shame about the inside. Shame too about the huge sour-faced barman with matching demeanour who spent most of the time we were in there bemoaning how busy he was, while allowing glasses and bottles to mount up on every table simply because the area of the bar reserved for dirties was stacked about a foot high with absolute shed-loads of dirty dinner plates. Only saving grace of the place was the pleasant young barmaid and the beers (Abbot Reserve, Abbot Ale, Otter Ale and Old Speckled Hen) - so not a complete waste of a visit! Well below average.