Uk Barblog

The Plough (Crews Hill - Hertfordshire)

The Plough

A family dining pub, well catered to the area in the foothills of hertfordshire- it this infamous of garden-nursery villages. The place is naturally full of plant and fish lovers and young families and although it is surprisingly busy it is not too buisy to find a table in a corner and sit down for a beer and some grub. There is light background music playing and quite soft lighting with pleasent gardens. The staff are quite young and the clientell are comparitively older and are strictly in here for food and not drinks. The bar selection is reasonable however and meals in here cost a little over £5 and its around £1.50 for a coke.

Overall very fitting for the environment and bigger than it looks from the outside, so for what it is; it stands as a testement to its surroundings, there is little here for the big drinker so pop in for a sandwich (local ingrediants) and an ale. 7/10

Harvester Bar & Eatery (Arkley - Hertfordshire)

Harvester Bar & Eatery

A large chain restaurant and bar combo for lorry drivers and budget meals for families this brand feels like it has had it's day and died a rather undignified death. Inside this particular venue is a rather miserabel looking bar served up next to part of the kitchens with no barman and a mess of tables. Within the food is rather awful with servings not prepared to description, without explanation and terrible waiting staff despite the obvious attempt to cross carvery with comtempary bar with the same success as trying to milk a goalpost.

Overall a traditional dive. The waiting staff are slow and although the drinks are not watered down the variety is crippled by the fact that no-one at the place can pour a decent pint. 2/10

Ye Olde Greene Manne (Rickmansworth - Hertfordshire)

Ye Olde Greene Manne

A small, quaint country pub in Hertfordshire equipped with an old-style stone driveway and a large well primed garden. The place is difficult to get to without a car, in fact close to impossible with buses running infrequently and no other transport links for miles. This is the appeal of the place, lost, relatively close to London yet separated. Entering, there is a small bar opposite the door facing the pub to the right and to the left the pub branches off into a small non-smoking area. Around the place are dotted various works of art and formidable memorabilia of the old area, an unlit open fire place and a few small tables with chairs to eat at. The place seems to specialise in Hertfordshire ales and doesn’t feel like an Ember Inn at all. In fact the place is too small to find a romantic corner and also not good for any kind of crowd. I doubt I was able to give it the impression it deserves as I have been told it is primarily a summer pub.

However since I gave it a winter visit I still felt a lick of it’s charm and overall it gets a 5/10

[last visit: Jan 2007]

West Lodge Park Terrace Bar (Hadley Wood - Herts)

West Lodge Park Terrace Bar

Luxury has never been so out of the way or so drunkard as the night I recall drinking at this bar. Heres the scoop, my mum had got married for the second time and the after party was here. needless to say doing shots of sambuca with your girlfriend on a table outside a hotel in the middle of summer at 4am is a lovely thing to have a go at until you look up and realise you are doing shots with a couple of strangers who werent even at the wedding and the bar had closed some 4 hours before. the highlight was that this bar, centred in a lounge will serve all night if need be, at descretion. It is naturally very expensive but worth it on someone elses tab and if you ask me if the perfect night cap on the eve of a North london wedding.

Overall the bar staff, or what was left of them were accomodating and the bar was perfectly well stocked- if a little on the disused side- overall perhaps not the most fitting for a drink with close friends- 5/10.

King James (Cheshunt - Hertfordshire)

The King James (wetherspoons)

Just outside Waltham Cross sits Cheshunt, a humbled town with one of the newer Wetherspoons in the country- the King James. A veritable haven of sluts, smokers and tradesmen. The main pub is based on a wide open floor plan with bar ahead and to the left with seats for eating at the left and towards the back at the right. A set of stairs lead up to the toilets and there are booths and bar stools dotted about the place. The bar staff are pleasantly friendly but the place does get loud and cockney and on a Friday night the place gets RAMMED, expect cops and violence. The place is actually rather dirty, glass collectors being slow and lazy but it does not pretend to be an upmarket place, completely unpretentious and totally there for serious drinking and a hard man to man chat about football women and grub.

Overall a 4/10. If you carry a builders bum it's probably the best pub you'll ever go to.

Academy Nightclub (Stevenage - Hertfordshire)

Academy Nightclub
I can only claim to have been to one club in Stevenage and this was a few years back now. I am unsure if this was even the name of it but it was set in Stevenage leisure park during the height of UK Garage. I am told that now this area has moved to DnB and RnB but none-the-less it has not lost its charm. The night i went along was with a rather nutty group that insisted on hard dancing and mega drinking and sambuca proved to be a good price in here. The atmosphere was not without its attitude and trying to pull was impossible. It was expensive to get in as i recall but was very popular drawing a huge crowd and closed at about 3am. If you are a londener you should never venture out this far for something you can get just as well in Soho.

The place did have its sophistication but not without its overt decibel music and overcrowded stuffy steamy frown of attitude of the crowd. Overall a 5/10.

The Crooked Chimney (Hatfield - Hertfordshire)

The Crooked Chimney

A big lodge of a place that feels like a top market harvester more than a pub and thats really what it is. My mate was a chef there for about a year and thats why I ended up in there so many times, it gets packed on a sunday afternoon for obvious reasons and you feel like a king in the middle of a deep wood then you're there. Pricey, yes for sure but your paying for the atmosphere once again!

Overall the Crooked Chimney gets a 6/10 because i'm reviewing Bars dammit, not resturants!!!