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Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
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Detail Pages
Poetic License, Sunderland
Roker
Postal town: Sunderland
SR6 9ND
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Poetic License
With time for one last pub in the North East, we headed to Sunderland to try this hotel bar which looks out over the beach and the North Sea.
You enter through the Roker Hotel lobby and have to wait at a podium to be greeted. You wait and wait and wait.
Eventually a chirpy waitress arrived to show us to a table. There are 5 handpulls. But none were clipped. After another wait, I asked what real ale they served. She started listing some beers. But alarm bells started ringing when Beavertown Neck Oil was mentioned. I'm not aware of that being sold in cask.
Nevertheless, I plumped for the S43 Trail Blazer, which arrived as a cold keg beer, as I'd anticipated.
Service in this place was clearly very stretched, with a severe shortage of staff. Those that were there were very accommodating. But we witnessed a number of customers come and go without being served due to the lengthy delays.
The entrance from the hotel into the bar leads into a nice area overlooking the coast. Beyond that is a darker area with much more seating. There was also a popular covered area outdoors, jutting into the car park.
A little disappointing. It would certainly benefit from a real ale or two.
On 1st November 2020
- rating: 3
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Poetic License
Visited again yesterday lunchtime. Five hand pulls, all on, all offering Sonnet 43 beers. Pricing was between £3.88 and £4.58 a pint. On the keg taps were two Sonnet 43 beers plus Beavertown Neck Oil.
On this visit I discovered that Poetic License has its own toilets towards past the bar, so I needn't have unwittingly ventured into the lobby of the Roker Hotel on my previous visit.
Nice beer and I'm sure I will pay another visit at some point.
On 22nd January 2020
- rating: 8
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Poetic License
Visited last week, early afternoon. There were two Sonnet 43 ales on cask plus Double Maxim, and a couple of blank pumps if memory serves me correctly. There were a couple of keg options too, though I didn't pay much attention to those.
It's a nice modern feeling place, bare brick feature walls, a big bar area. As the previous reviewer has noted, it appears to be attached to the Roker Hotel - something I only discovered on nipping to the loo and finding myself in the hotel lobby to get to the gents.
I didn't make a note of the prices but my Newton's Lowdown (Tafelbier) by Sonnet 43 was a decent beer in good nick. I noticed they also had on The Raven Bourbon Milk Stout which I have had before and found to be very enjoyable.
I'd happily visit again.
On 20th February 2019
- rating: 8
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Poetic License
Not immediately clear whether this is a free-standing bar or part or the Roker Hotel (although the latter appears to be the case). However, it stands as a pub / restaurant on its own merits, and the distinctive, part-covered, split-level front terrace overlooking the beach and piers at the mouth of the River Wear is a fine spot if the weather is clement. The partially opened-out 'T'-shaped interior still retains a feature window but is otherwise thoroughly modernised in a dark craft / alehouse style. Three of five handpumps in operation, all with Sonnet 43 beers, from which selection I went for the Seraphim (£3.20, that tasted fresh, but which was definitely served too warm). Also has an in-house gin distillery.
On 25th August 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Poetic License
Large modern bar/kitchen format and a lot of money has been spent in here. Was - until a few weeks ago - called R Bar. Main area is L shaped with exposed brick (the bar name is in white neon here) and a combination of wood and pretty black and white tiled flooring. To rear is what looks like a brew kit though there seemed to be no signs of it being used, barmaid said it will be running soon but will be producing spirits(?). To right is a large separate dining room with wood planked walls. At the front of the building is the star - a large, old style sun room with cracking views over the North Sea coast. Gents were A1, nicest in Sunderland. Eight pumps at the bar with five ales on; four from Sonnet 43 and Marble Ginger 5.1. My Sonnet American was OK but a little warm, clearly the first one out for a good while and I get the feeling the barmaid had little real idea of what she was selling. Lots of keg fonts though not a huge amount out of the ordinary noted. On a sunny day it’s worth the journey out if you can make it away from the superior Harbour View.
On 25th June 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]