The Canteen, Stokes Croft, Bristol

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Blackthorn _ left this review about The Canteen

A popular student hangout on the Stokes Croft strip, this looks a fairly uninspiring venue being housed on the ground floor of an unremarkable sixties office block. A paved terrace runs along the entire front of the pub, and this was very busy despite the rather chilly weather.

Internally it’s all one long open plan room, with a fairly basic appearance. The flooring was some type of black screed, whilst the plain whitewashed ceiling had a cable tray running down the middle. Much of the walls were whitewashed brickwork, although the front wall of the pub was entirely floor to ceiling windows, which did at least give it a somewhat airier feel than would otherwise be the case. A long bar counter ran along the back wall, and at one end there was a small selection of sausage rolls, cakes and “freshly baked organic bread”. The semi open kitchen was off to the right, and a large chalk board menu (large as in size, not number of options which were only five or six) was hung here. To the left was a stage area with a few lighting rigs, speakers and so on, and the backdrop to this was a red velvet curtain with the pub’s name on. A bookcase was off to the right, and despite the presence of small candles on all the tables, this is not what I would describe as a cosy pub by any means. A vending machine contained a very eclectic selection of goods including packs of tea, badges, watermelon seeds and pregnancy testing kits! Further to the right was some sort of games room including a pool table, and although this had it’s own entrance it was also accessible from the pub.

Beers on tap were Sharp’s Atlantic, Bristol Beer Factory’s Beam Me Up and Russian Hill, New Bristol Brewery’s Crème Brûlée Stout which sounded intriguing and Butcombe Gold. Ciders on tap were North Street Cider and Ashton Press, whilst a stack of boxes behind the bar added Big Apple and Devon Blush from Ashridge and Wide Eyes Medium. Overall, whilst this isn’t really my sort of place, it’s always very busy and I’d have no objection to popping in again if passing.

On 4^th March 2019 - rating: 5
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