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Beer of the Week (w/e 14th April 2024) with Mobyduck
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The Fork 'n' Ale Taproom & Kitchen, Weston Central, Weston Super Mare
Weston Super Mare
BS23 1UG
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Quinno _ left this review about The Fork 'n' Ale Taproom & Kitchen
A trendy modern place - scuffed looking floors and tables with a preponderance of high seating. Two rooms knocked-through, with a weird but 'kind of works' mint green and greyish blue tones of paintwork which gives the place a light and airy feel; fine on a hot early summer day, maybe less so in the winter months. Laid back muzak which complemented proceedings. The place is GBG’23 listed, five pumps with four on from a more unusual set of breweries (note – no Pitchfork or 3D now the breweries are defunct). My VOG VPA was slightly under-par possibly due to it being barrel-end (NBSS 2.5). A choice of straight or handled glass was proffered by the friendly barmaid, something which seems to be a thing in W-S-M. Noted some unusual lager options with a few proper ciders also in the mix. Overall, it's fine, but not essential. Maybe a better pint might have swayed me. I suspect this got in the GBG based on breweries who no longer function? 6.5
On 5th July 2023
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Fork 'n' Ale Taproom
Seemingly a 'normal' town-centre, corner pub, but in this case also the Pitchfork tap. The slightly split-level, elongated interior with semi-traditional furniture and decoration is usual enough, but it was doing excellent business early on a Friday evening. I found three of the brewery's beers on the six handpumps, including an excellent Mild (£4.30).
On 1st December 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Fork 'n' Ale Taproom
This pleasant street corner pub just across the road from the Town Hall, is run jointly by the Pitchfork and 3D breweries. You enter to a bare boarded main bar area with the servery over to the right along the back wall. This space has some nice seating options, with comfortable chairs, plus one or two less comfortable looking high stools, serving a mix of tables whilst over to the right a couple of very nice sofas and a hard, backless bench have been formed around a large low table. The lighting on this side of the pub is quite muted, mainly coming from low-wattage bulbs strung around the ceiling in a complex pattern. The end wall has been covered in lots of art by local painters, most of which appeared to be for sale. The bar has a traditional wood panelled counter and rather dull bar back and, on our pandemic-era visit, we found all the handpulls had turned clips, but this was just to discourage people from approaching the bar, as the beers were instead all listed on a blackboard propped up in the middle of the room. Over to the left, there is a nice raised lounge area with a further mix of seating including a few high tables and chairs positioned in front of the windows, offering nice views out to the Town Hall. The walls have been decorated with book shelves and an unusual display made from cog wheels, whilst there is a nice fireplace on the back wall. The toilets are accessed via a very narrow staircase which has necessitated the introduction of a ‘Stop/Go’ road sign at the bottom of the stairs, which punters were diligently remembering to turn each time they went up or down. Lounge-style pop tunes played quietly in the background during our visit and there was a reasonable crowd in early on a Sunday evening.
Pitchfork and 3D ales dominated the handpulls, with a good range of styles and strengths represented. Options on this visit were Pitchfork Golden Ale, 3D Crane Kick Pale, Blood Shot and Beertle Juice plus a guest ale in the shape of Pinkers Birnbeck Vanilla Porter. I tried the Beertle Juice, which was a very rich, luxurious milk stout that I could’ve sat drinking all night. The other half tried the Birnbeck, which was a little thin and overall quite disappointing despite being in good nick. The staff were very friendly, helpful and happy to have a chat when time permitted.
I really liked this place, which I thought was a nice example of a brewery (or two breweries in this case), using a traditional pub with contemporary stylings to showcase their beer – much more preferable to sitting in a factory unit or railway arch. The friendly service and well-kept ale made this place really stand out and I’d say this is an essential stop-off when visiting Weston.
On 19th November 2020
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about Bonds
A decent sized, street corner pub, it looks as though it may have been spruced up a bit recently and has a reasonably contemporary feel to it. and is certainly a great improvement from the time when it was known as the Town Crier.
Internally it’s been opened out in to one long, single room, although the smaller area to the left is up a couple steps and has a rather different feel to it. The main part of the pub has a sanded wooden floor, dark grey wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and very pale green paintwork up above. A feature wall at the far end was a much darker shade of green, and this had a couple of old pictures hung on it. Lighting was multiple exposed filament bulbs all strung out from a central rose much like a spider’s web. Seating was all tall tables and chairs, and some arched windows to the front were quite an attractive feature and included some stained glass at the top. The smaller area to the left felt somewhat cosier with carpet on the floor, bookcase effect wallpaper on one wall with deep red paint elsewhere and low leather sofas. A couple of arm chairs and a small table were in the bay window, and a disused fireplace was off to one side.
Unfortunately there were no real ales available, and I’m not even sure that there was anything on keg. Ciders fared slightly better with Thatcher’s Gold and Thatcher’s Haze being available, and there was also an extensive cocktail list if that’s more your thing. All in all I thought they done a decent enough job with this, and it certainly feels a little classier than many places in Weston, but the lack of any beer means that it is unlikely to appeal to the pub aficionado.
On 8th March 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1945 recommendations about 1858 pubs]