It was 6pm now, on a Saturday, and we suddenly began to wonder if we’d better eat.
I’d booked a £30 Travelodge room at Exeter services next to the Rugby Club, and didn’t fancy diverting into the city centre looking for a free parking place next to a curry house.
Ah, that’ll do. Don’t see enough brown tourist signs on A roads these days.
Not a GBG pub, but not a Brewer’s Fayre 2-for-1 Carvery either, I guessed.
Correctly.
A massive car park, half dozen lads on tables outside directing us to the new entrance, a couple of dozen middle-aged couple (oh, that’s us) reading out the menu (not us).
Some parts of the King’s Arms looked quite ancient.
But not the overflow bit we were shown to, a modern square box with 1980s styling, Dad jokes and inevitable Ed Sheeran soundtrack.
BUT. The waitress was superb; cheery, conversational, efficient.
We can’t blame her for the head on Mrs RM’s Guinness (traitor), and the Teignworthy Thirsty Blonde would have graced the Beer Guide. Perhaps I’d squeezed in an injury-time pre-emptive, after all.
Dining pubs are usually rubbish for blog material, but here we had the joy of two “Loud Customers“.
An old guy over-emphasised his hatred of greens, while a pashmina lady (are there pashmina men ?) gave us the life history of her fear of ice, which the waitress skilfully evacuated from her orange juice.
The food came quickly and without fussy presentation. Liver and onions is the new quinoa salad, you know. I cleared Mrs RM’s plate.
Outside, it was suddenly very dark.
retiredmartin 
Those unexpected (expect to be sh***) pubs are often the best. No chance of GBG ever but solid, workmanlike and full of character….a bit like Citeh in the nineties
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Good analogy.
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Oight!
If you can stay up past midnight, you can bloody blog mate!
(just kidding – waves) 🙂
Cheers!
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Good point well made 😀
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“I guessed.
Correctly.”
Blimey! Are you going to be 2 for 2?
“a couple of dozen middle-aged couple (oh, that’s us) reading out the menu (not us).”
Says the man who can’t read the blackboard for what beers are on. 😉
“We can’t blame her for the head on Mrs RM’s Guinness (traitor)”
Indeed! I was a true Guinness fan until 2012. Power to the Crafties!
“Liver and onions is the new quinoa salad, you know.”
You’re making me hungry.
“Outside, it was suddenly very dark.”
Blimey! UFO!
Cheers
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Pashmina Ladies, Barbour Men in our house. Nice capture of the ISS there.
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Yes, a surprising new Beer Guide entry on the International Space Station, but I expect the darts and billiards will be interesting.
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I dread to think of the BRAPA toilet stop on the way back from that one….
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I’d claim to be middle-aged too, but I’m not realistically expecting to live to be a hundred and thirty-odd, you young whippersnappers.
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It might not be your choice, mate. Science aims to keep you alive well past your “Use By” date (mine is 110).
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My dentist told me that teeth are only meant to last for about sixty years, so that’s probably hinting that I might not have long left.
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Reminds me of the newly-wed second-timers at ninety-eight and a hundred.
“Why did you leave it so long?” they were asked.
“Oh, well…er…we were waiting for the kids to die”
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