I’m so excited to be meeting pubs legends Richard and Simon today it’s another short post, I’m afraid. I could almost have fitted in within the new Twitter limit.
Two posts on Wath in a day, too. This is the impressive looking Spoons.
Despite seemingly having lost my remaining 50p vouchers, I reckoned the Church House was worth a visit because
- I wanted to see if the food was as bad as “they” say.
- I was intrigued to see if beer quality had dropped since my last visit in 2005.
- I needed a picture of a Yorkshireman drinking Bud through a straw.
- It was there.
No straws, perhaps they’ve been banned. Just a cheery open space with a good selection of pub life on a Tuesday lunchtime. The sort of mixed crowd some CAMRA folk seem to detest, in fact.
Spoons are no longer the Beer Guide shoe-in they were a decade ago in “emerging real ale” places like Wath, the Church House edged out by the Wath Tap this year.
And certainly I’m seeing a much tighter (some may say duller) ranges in Tim’s empire of late. These were the beers in St Neots (Hunts) last Thursday;
In contrast, Wath has some appealing beers, unless they’re survivors from last month’s Beer Festival.
Because I’d lost my vouchers, I went for the meal deal. Picking a beer between Ossett, Bradfield and Kelham Island isn’t easy, so I went for the one for the pretty label, as all #PubMen do.
A superb medium -rare sirloin steak and a top (NBSS 3.5) pint of Bradfield for well shy of £7, in a clean and cheery pub. As good a pub lunch as you’ll get at that price.
There’s some good discussion about Spoons food on CAMRA Discourse, which can be a scary place for unaccompanied adults to venture. As Pub Curmudgeon notes, stick to the steaks and you’re quids in.
The best thing to do about our national newspapers, now no more than expanded Twitter rants, is to ignore them and let them die.
retiredmartin 
Of course the preferred food use for Spoons is to get breakfast when staying in a budget hotel that doesn’t include a cheap brekkie in their deal.
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Indeed, though the Eggs Benedict has fallen a bit short recently, and you can’t have a 1,457 calorie full English every day.
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Well you can, it just wouldn’t be for very long.
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Love ’em or hate ’em. I don’t think you can go wrong – it does what it says on the tin! Smashed Avocado with a poached egg on top is a very pleasant breakfast dish when staying ‘room only’ elsewhere.
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Smashed avocado is my favourite, but I’ve been served the cold avocado cut in half a couple of time recently 😱
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Not sure I’ve ever sung the praises of Spoons steaks, tbh. Although from my point of view, the main drawback to eating them is the horrible chips 😦
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It must have been someone less eminent than yourself then, Mudge, in response to that food snob.
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We went in our local Spoons this afternoon,a good choice of Nottinghamshire beers on the bar we had Navigation New Dawn,very nice too,there was also Lincoln Green Hood,Springhead left Lion and Nottingham Admirals Ale on the bar.
I have no problem with Wetherspoons food and the wife also likes it,sadly i am down to eating soft food only,so i had the chilli con carni,which was still hard to get down.
The pumps in Stapleford’s Wetherspoons are virtually always all in use,the Admiral Ale is a regular along with Abbot IPA and Doom Bar.
I had done all pubs in Wath until yet another micro appears on the scene.
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Sorry to hear about the soft food only Alan.
Don’t take this the wrong way but that’s all the more reason to do pub crawls and stick to the ultimate in soft food… beer! 🍺😉
Cheers
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Sorry to hear you’re suffering Alan, I won’t pry.
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Steak and chips and a pint for seven quid !
The robbing bastard.
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And all the trimmings, mind 😉
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There’s a reason for the straw, from back in my youth. You get drunker quicker when drinking through a straw. 😎
Cheers
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You know all the important stuff Russ !
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Martin, may I congratulate you for acknowledging St. Neots is in Hunts. Now to get Simon to accept that the GBG is wrong and Warrington is in Lancs.
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Paper straws now, of course. Maybe the true connoisseur has their own plastic supply.
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I see nothing wrong with ‘spoons food: it is what it is- nothing haute cuisine, good value, perfectly acceptable. I’ve also recently noticed that the beer range seems to have contracted a little- is this a chain-wide thing?
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I don’t think range contraction is universal, I still see 3 or 4 guests in odd places like Ilford or Watford. I hope that’s down to manager choice rather than lazy ordering. A range of Doom Bar, Ruddles, Abbot, Adnams is being seen quite a lot now; bigger range in the ’80s !
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Range contraction can be a good thing, as some branches were clearly selling more beers than the local demand could sustain. From the reports I hear, some of the Scottish ones struggle to sell one cask beer, but it would be a bit of a drastic step for a Spoons to go keg-only.
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