Bermuda Triangle, Poole

Music bar with front room split into areas and darker back room. Upturned boat above the bar, quirky but nice

Funny little place that can be hard to describe…! Very dim with sodium-style lighting on my evening visit alongside a bizarre large inlit green triangle in the left hand room. The rear room is wood-clad and both seemed to have cabin-style add-ons which are timber-clad. Various bits of Bermuda triangle ephemera, especially around the bar area and ceiling (but no Barry Manilow single?). Four ales on; a Sharps beer (didn’t note name but not Doom Bar!), Great Heck Voodoo Mild, Exeter Lighterman and (yawn) Cottage. Both the Exeter and Great Heck drank well. “Too trendy for its own good?” it says in my (beer-addled) notes. Memorable though and I’d happily give it another go. Somewhere between a 7 and an 8. I’ll be generous.

Well described below, this iconic pub is a GBG regular and rightly so. It's a proper ale house in a large Victorian property on a busy junction so is appealing to the eye as well as the palate. The bar and its annexes are atmospheric, though the Triangle Room is a bit 1960s touristy; maybe that's part of the charm. But the pub isn't a turkey so doesn't need the trimmings - it stands on its ale quality. Today there were four ales on draft, and the Hophead American Pale Ale was in perfect condition, well enjoyed despite the boorish behaviour of some lager louts who appear to have come into the wrong pub. I would be happy to lose myself here anytime.