Star Inn, Lewis

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Will Larter left this review about Star Inn

Standing on the harbour front and with a plaque declaring it to be "the oldest inn in town", the Star is a big let-down, with loud modern pop music assailing the ears from the video screen and a general air of indifference and neglect. One of the customers had to call the bar person from whatever she was doing out of sight to come and serve me - there were only two other customers, in contrast to both McNeills and the Criterion, which were relatively heaving. In a similar sized port on the mainland this would be a destination pub, with half a dozen real ales and family meals served all day long. Stornoway is not like that - cars arriving on the ferry soon disappear into the countryside. Too be honest, there's not a lot to encourage them to stay.

In the absence of the aforementioned six real ales, I had a half of Caledonian 80/-, which was both more expensive and colder than the same beer I had drunk in the Criterion half an hour before. I took my beer to a table and sat on the leatherette banquette, ignoring the ripped material as far as possible. They say alcohol acts as a depressant, but I think even a soft drink in this pub would have lowered my spirits. On reflection, there is probably not enough drinking trade in this small port to support the number of pubs (two are closed at the time of writing) and even an enthusiastic tenant might struggle to revive this one.

Date of visit: 15th May 2014

On 3^rd July 2014 - rating: 3
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