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Disappointment of the week with Tris39
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Detail Pages
The Phoenix, Bristol
Portishead
Postal town: Bristol
BS20 6AG
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Phoenix
Not much has changed in the 12 years since my first (and only) visit. Essentially it’s the downstairs of a house turned into a pub with a conservatory tacked on the side. A bit of redecoration, we now have white and mint shades with fake brick wallpaper. Pretty busy compared to the other High St pubs so they know what their clientele want. Three cask ales from the Marstons stable (Pedigree, Banks Bitter and Bombardier) seemed a stretch given the capacity and general post-COVID cask malaise; indeed my Pedigree was a bit warm and flabby (NBSS 2.5). It's a decent little local nonetheless.
April 2009
A funny little place, a bit like having a beer in someone's back room conservatory. Quite a small bar internally but it manages to pack in a couple of Marstons beers in fair condition and you get offered the choice of sparklered/non-sparklered pump before you order which is a nice touch. Clientèle are mainly the middle-aged old-skool 'Head residents, generating an atmosphere even if some of their conversations are close to indecipherable. Wouldn't necessarily be my no.1 destination in town but you could do a lot worse. Rated 6
On 1st September 2021
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about The Phoenix
An unusual pub tucked down a small side street but only a few seconds stroll from the bustling High Street, it looks quite conventional from the outside with a garden and car park at the front, but internally it feels very much as though you’ve just wandered in to someone’s living room.
It’s divided in to a few different rooms, the first one when you get in being the lounge with plenty of tables packed in as well as a darts board, and beyond this a hallway with some stairs leading up. The small corner bar counter was off to the left, and there was also a conservatory that provided extra seating and had heavy red drape curtains at the window. Whether it was a house at one time that has been converted I’m not sure, but it certainly has very much that feel to it. Décor wise it was all fairly conventional with red patterned carpet on the floor along with some lino near the bar area, cream plasterwork on the walls and pale brown and green paint on the woodwork. A few old black and white pictures of Bristol were on the walls, including some of the suspension bridge, and there was a TV mounted on the wall at the back, although this was not in use on our visit. Unlike the youf’s in other nearby pubs, this one seemed to attract an older clientele, with the majority being pensioners I would have thought.
Beers on tap were Marston’s Saddle Tank, Young’s Special and Pedigree. The solitary cider meanwhile was Thatcher’s Gold. There’s not really much about this pub that would draw me back, but I can imagine it’s a solid enough local for the regulars and certainly had a more relaxing ambience than some of the other rather noisy options nearby.
On 23rd February 2018
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1947 recommendations about 1860 pubs]