The Dark Horse, Bath

Well described by Blackthorn, below.  It appeared closed on approach down the litter-strewn steps from the busy sunlit square, and indeed the door was locked, but as we turned to leave it opened and we were invited in.  It is indeed gloomy, dark but somehow appealing.  The staff were very friendly, and I could see the attraction.  It would be a great place for a Halloween party, dungeon fetish event or the mother-in-law’s birthday, though the food did look a bit pricey for what it was.  There is still no real ale, and apart from overpriced wine or cheap cocktails the best thing they could offer was canned lager, which has no appeal whatsoever, or Keller Pilsner in bottles.  A fun place, potentially, but not for a beer and certainly not for a crawl. 

A subterranean venue in the heart of Kingsmead Square, I’ve been in here previously but not considered adding it as a pub as it seemed to be very much a cocktail bar. Whilst that is still the case, it does nonetheless have a couple of drinks on tap and it should therefore technically qualify for entry, even though it is unlikely to be somewhere that the true pub aficionado is going to make a beeline for. The pub’s website makes much of their use of local produce, as of course do many establishments, but I was interested to see that this even extended to their Naim sound system made down the road in Salisbury. Clearly the developers behind this had some considerable cash to spend. Entry is via a mic’d up door person at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement entrance, who will check with their colleague if there is a table available before permitting entry. At the bottom of the stairs, the main bar area is to the left, with a further section to the right in vaulted cellars extending out under the square. Apparently there are future plans to develop this further, according to the friendly and chatty barman. It was difficult to make out much in terms of décor as the lighting levels were so low it was almost dark. Even with my glasses on I struggled to read the menu, but then my age group is probably not their target demographic. From what I could make out, there was dark tiling on the floor and dark green paintwork on the walls, whilst a large eagle was sat on the bar. The pub extends away from the bar area through an archway in to a further room, although we did not investigate this. There were no real ales on tap unfortunately, just keg Pogo from Wild Beer whilst the solitary cider was Orchard Pig’s Reveller. Since cocktails are the speciality though, that’s what we went for and we both enjoyed what we had. A cup of complimentary popcorn was regularly replenished and as we were seated at the bar, the barman spent some time chatting to us whilst he was working. All in all I quite liked this, but it is, as mentioned, primarily a cocktail bar. A good bet though if that’s what your other half wants, as they did at least have a couple of draught options as well.

Official site of The Dark Horse - darkhorsebar.co.uk

Official site of The Dark Horse - darkhorsebar.co.uk