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Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
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Detail Pages
The Butcher's Hook, Southampton
Bitterne
Postal town: Southampton
SO18 1NN
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Butcher's Hook
The main features in here for me was the Victorian wall and floor tiles. The pub has also retained the original butcher's rail system around the ceiling along with a couple of weighing apparatus. Their beers were on stillage at the rear of the pub, with no bar area. There was a young girl serving us on our visit, who poured your beers and took payment, she was very bubbly and chatty and was most interested in our little pub crawl around the area. Another quirky little piece of kit I noticed was their new addition of a wall mounted digital photo machine. So you can purchase an instant selfie for a quid and either stick it on the wall along with the locals, or take it away with you. Four cask ales on our visit, so we went for the Vibrant Forest Summerlands and the Goodens Gold, both of which were top class.
On 9th May 2019
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Butcher's Hook
Didn't get around to reviewing this after my January visit,It was of course as Ray found it in Apri except the young girl was a bloke as well as the beers obviously being different, on my visit I drank Vibrant Forest Chinook and Unity This Must Be The Place, the name of the latter I found amusing as I found the pub not the easiest to find with no external signage evident. It was an enjoyable stay and I found the the place to have a good vibrant atmosphere, well attended on a Sunday afternoon.
On 5th May 2019
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Butcher's Hook
As the name suggests, this micropub which opened in 2014 occupies a former butcher's shop, although the premises was previously used by a florist. Thankfully, plenty has been retained from its original incarnation, so we find a fantastic little room with a nice patterned brick floor and some fabulous tiled walls including checked tiles with a floral pattern on the lower section of the walls, a nice four-tone dado and plain white uppers. The highlight is a wonderful tile painting of cattle and sheep by Carter & Co Tilemakers of Poole, close to the front window - the sort of tile painting that would get the place listed as a CAMRA heritage pub in normal circumstances. This tiling makes the conversion a great fit for a pub, as it gives an otherwise standard micropub a bit of a Victorian-era pub feel to compliment what is otherwise very much a 21st Century pub set-up. An L-shaped bench has been fitted under the front window and along part of the right hand wall, liberally festooned with scatter cushions, and serves a table made from an old cable spool with padded kegs providing additional seating. Two long tables with metal framed chairs cover the rest of the right hand side and there is a drinking ledge down the left hand wall, but that is pretty much the extent of the seating, aside from the few tables on the pavement outside, which give nice views to the clock tower and bridge over the Itchen. A huge beer board to the left on entering lists the full cask, keg, can and bottle range, but you need to walk down to the far end of the room for service, where the beers are found on stilage along the right hand wall with more boards back here detailing the draught options. Some scruffy shelving covers much of the opposite wall, with an old road sign to one side and elsewhere there is a large bookcase and a few nice art prints and reproduction posters on display. The ceiling has been criss-crossed with lighting wires and boasts a fantastic collection of retro beer mats near the front window, which are well worth a nostalgic look through. There is also a rail with the inevitable butcher's hooks hung from it. A good rock soundtrack played quietly throughout my visit and I noticed a 'Shut the Box' game on one of the tables.
There is no bar here - just the landlord who patiently waited for me to choose from Vibrant Forest Metropolis, Tapstone Soma, Flowerpots Perridge Pale and the clunkily named Big Smoke Chinook, Rakau & Azacca. Five kegs from Northern Monk, Vibrant Forest, Tiny Rebel, Eight Arch and Cloudwater made a good alternative to the cask options and the bottle and can range covered products from similar high quality UK micros plus a few Belgian, German and Czech brews. The Metropolis was £3.80 for a 6.0% beer and tasted divine - excellent cellarmanship which has helped the pub into the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide.
This is a top quality micropub that has benefited from inheriting a beautiful premises and is reaping the rewards from providing high quality beers in top condition. I made the walk out here from St Denys, which didn't take too long and was very pleasant with the river crossing, so the pub can easily be added to a crawl of the fine pubs in this part of town. An enjoyable visit and another Southampton micropub I had to tear myself out of in order to continue with my crawl.
On 6th May 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]