The World's Best Pubs and Bars

[CaledonianGonzo]

Whether at home or abroad, which bar do you like propping up?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Szimpla Kert - Budapest





A large complex based on two floors with a large garden. A 'ruin' bar, ie, crumbling, filled with grafitii and seemingly under constant redecoration. Good beers for between £1-£2, excited friendly crowds wandering around it like a museum, people that come around with shaven carrots you can buy, shisha, table football, lots of secret rooms to explore, and my favourite part, the view of an enormous chimney stack from the garden.

It's really amazing. I've been three years running, though nothing quite beat the very first time.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Robin Hood Inn - Cragg Vale  (not the one in Hebden Bridge/Pecket Well)



Not too many picture of the inside but it's a real country pub, ie feels like someone's house. Cosy and old. Best Timothy Taylor's Landlord I've had anywhere. You can get 4 pints for £11. Also did Flensburger and Krombacher on tap which was quite unusual.

The home cooking is home cooking, you can see the bloke by the stove in the kitchen making it from scratch, nothing fancy.

Old, damp, authentic, ordinary and great.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with your first choice Shoulders. I've been to Budapest a few times now and have nearly always found the ruin bars there, including that one, to be a bit rubbish.

They do indeed look stunning and are a hodge-podge maze of different ideas and themes. However, the vast majority of their clientèle are tourists and they feel utterly charmless because of this. They have no atmosphere, instead feeling like high-end hostel attachments rather than incredible places to drink. The music is terrible, the booze (for the area) is overpriced and they just feel like a backpackers hangout, which is never a good thing for a bar.

Someone mention some decent pubs to visit in London. I need some top local boozers.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Silver's Bar, Moscow. Fit barmaids. At least one of them is a fan of top Johnny Vegas drug-dealing surrealist sitcom "Ideal". Which is nice.

[Grass Mud Horse]

Actually it's a terrible bar (despite the slogan "CHEAP & MORE FUN"), but if you're in Japan and want a bar with that Ron Manager vibe then there's only one choice.

[Pseudopath]

Booze Cooperativa in Athens is pretty special. For a start, they managed to get around the smoking ban by registering the place as a political party headquarters (I got the sense that they were fairly left wing). Then they set up the main drinking area as a massive long table so local Greeks of all ages flock to the place to philosophise (and thrash tourists at chess and backgammon):



That photo makes the place look tiny, but it's actually a massive hive of sparsely-decorated rooms, galleries and performance spaces (I actually got lost for 20 minutes trying to find my way back from the bogs).





Mental. If you're ever in the vicinity, I highly recommend it (although the rest of Athens is an absolute shithole).

[black_betty]

Szimpla Kert - Budapest

All fun and games until your bonce gets caved in by a falling TV. Careful etc.etc.

[madhair60]

Cambridge Wetherspoons

[MoonDust]

Silver's Bar, Moscow. Fit barmaids. At least one of them is a fan of top Johnny Vegas drug-dealing surrealist sitcom "Ideal". Which is nice.

[Blinder Data]

The Laurieston, Glasgow



Looks rough as houses, and it's not in the greatest area either (just over the river from the city centre). But it's got a wonderful 60's interior and is as friendly as pubs come.



The brothers who run it must be in their late 60s if not early 70s. They usually alternate, doing shifts with their sons. They don't charge for a dash of soft drinks, offering you to help yourself to a big glass Barr bottle. They serve tea in big mugs with a big plate of biscuits. There's a free jukebox, filled with crooners, 60's classics and strangely the Trainspotting soundtrack. Their incredibly cosy smoking area is almost certainly illegal, but it's the best one I've been in.

Their prices are reasonable; their drinks selection is impressive but not overwhelming. They don't show sports. They do pies and crisps, but that's it for food. It retains the old pub standard of the Bar, designed for men only with tables bolted to the floor, and the Lounge, for couples.[nb]You can see this by the way the Women's toilets are only accessible from the Lounge, while the Gents' is accessible by both[/nb]

One of the landlords tends to pour a couple of drinks and then sits down for a natter or a game of draughts with the locals. They've given my brother a lift down the road after lock-ins. They've plumbed their Guinness line a certain way to make it taste like how it's meant to - if you're in, ask for it off the 'middle pump' *taps nose*

It's right near the academy and the Citizens Theatre, so it can attract an arty crowd at times. It's also part of the Subcrawl, and so sections can be momentarily taken over by hordes of tourists and stag dos. But for the most part it's your classic Glasgow old man's boozer. My sister-in-law once saw an old couple in there: the man was sat down, conked out with a half-drunk pint in front of him; his wife next to him with a cup of tea in front of her, staring into space, happy as Larry.

It's my favourite pub.

[Blinder Data]

On the topic of pubs, this is a fantastic read: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/13/the-death-and-life-of-a-great-british-pub

It'll make you immediately want to go to the pub, mind.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Is that the lounge? 

Otherwise, it looks like the public bar's been refurbished since I was last in there and they've done away with all the Unionist / Red Hand paraphenalia and the big oil painting of the Queen.

I remember one time I was in there and the bloke at the next table was covered in blood.  Dripping with it.  Charitably he could have been an abbatoir worker stopping for a crafty one on the way home from a hard shift but, er, he probably wasn't.

[BOBBY FLOWERS]

Gentrification spoils everything.

[Blinder Data]

Is that the lounge? 

Otherwise, it looks like the public bar's been refurbished since I was last in there and they've done away with all the Unionist / Red Hand paraphenalia and the big oil painting of the Queen.

I remember one time I was in there and the bloke at the next table was covered in blood.  Dripping with it.  Charitably he could have been an abbatoir worker stopping for a crafty one on the way home from a hard shift but, er, he probably wasn't.

That's the Bar.

Think you're getting it mixed up with this place:



Which definitely doesn't belong in this thread:

SPENCER MELLORS earned the nickname Hannibal the ­Cannibal after being jailed for repeatedly biting a prostitute he raped and held hostage, but he is now working in Glasgow bar.

[doppelkorn]

London boozers? Depends what you like and where you are.

Old man places or trendy gastro wankeries? Cheap and cheerless or will you pay through the nose to fall through the bar?

[CaledonianGonzo]

That's the Bar.

Think you're getting it mixed up with this place:
Which definitely doesn't belong in this thread:

Granted it's been about 10 years since I was in either of them, but I'm definitely not getting the two mixed up. 

Comparatively,  and again a while back, the Sou'wester always seemed like the least dicey of the two.

[Blinder Data]

Granted it's been about 10 years since I was in either of them, but I'm definitely not getting the two mixed up. 

Comparatively,  and again a while back, the Sou'wester always seemed like the least dicey of the two.

I don't want to say you're wrong, but I'm pretty sure you're wrong. I think the Laurieston's landlords' have Irish heritage and I've never witnessed any moments of sectarianism there.

I am baffled that you'd think the Sou'wester is less dicey - admittedly I've never been in it but that really does look rough as houses.[nb]I support Celtic though, so consider my opinions totally biased[/nb]

I think we need to make the Glasgow Meet at the Laurieston to disavow you of your notions.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

The Ship Inn Porthleven.



Lovely old fashioned pub that you can sit in and watch massive waves batter the harbour from in the warmth while sipping St Austell's ale.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

That's the Bar.

Think you're getting it mixed up with this place:



Which definitely doesn't belong in this thread:

Both textbook examples of the great Glasgow tradition of chopping off the top floors of an old tenement when they become derelict/too cash-draining to maintain in order to create the classic flat-roofed[nb]ideal for the local climate[/nb] bijou boozer.

If you prefer a traditional boozer which has an upper floor and isn't in the Gorbals, you might prefer The Doublet -I see this is up for sale after being in the same family since 1961 (and seemingly being largely unchanged) so hopefully it won't become some godawful hipster howff. 

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Looks like the kind of place that advertises "FINE LAGERS AND WINES & GOOD PUB FOOD SERVED" on the board outside. A proper boozer.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Penderel's Oak

[canadagoose]

Around these parts, I like to go to...


The Leith Beer Company - sure, it's owned by Belhaven, and has those signs that The World's End took the piss out of, but it's probably the only pub where the staff recognise me, and it feels a bit like a home from home for me. It allows dogs, and has a small but good selection of Belgian bottled beers, and a half-decent selection on tap. It's good fun sitting up the back and getting pissed on fruit beers.


The (Portobello) Palm Tree - a peculiar little place with an interior which is a cross between a traditional Scottish pub and, er, some kind of skater club or something. It's usually pretty quiet during the day and has live music at night. The bit out the back has a Jamaican-style grill, which is actually really tasty. Not that much on tap but they have their own home-brewed lager (good) and they seem to have a different ale every time I'm there. Seems to have passed the hipster crowd by, so it's a good place to escape from them.

Oh, and Wetherspoons (Foot of the Walk, David Macbeth Moir, occasionally the one at the Omni Centre, whatever that's called), but you can guess what they're like.

[hermitical]

The Square and Compass, Worth Matravers. Used to go there every Sunday when I lived in Bournemouth. Been in the same family for generations, a serving hatch not a bar, sea views, you can stroll down to where they filmed Dr Who and go for a dip. Museum in the pub.

Here's the pumpkin festival, they are then left to the elements for months....

[BOBBY FLOWERS]

If you prefer a traditional boozer which has an upper floor and isn't in the Gorbals, you might prefer The Doublet -I see this is up for sale after being in the same family since 1961 (and seemingly being largely unchanged) so hopefully it won't become some godawful hipster howff. 

The Doublet's been bought by Paul and Claire Butler:

Paul and Claire have told me they plan to keep the pub as a pub, which I am happy about. Obviously they will be making a few changes, but they are also keeping on the staff.

http://dramscotland.co.uk/2015/10/30/the-doublet-is-sold-to-the-smiths/

Sounds promising but it remains to be seen if you're better off staying in the Gorbals. It hasn't been bought by West so that gives it a decent chance of not being turned into a place for cunts.

[ThickAndCreamy]

The House of Trembling Madness in York




One of the most beautiful interiors of any pub I've ever frequented. A stunning and impractical medieval building with a trophy wall and a great selection of beers. A simple upstairs room that's designed for about 10 people yet fits 50. The upstairs 'kitchen' is that guy on the left of the bar, working on a tiny table top without any room to move or breathe. The food is unpretentious, cheap and delicious. It would never be a regular pub to visit but one to pop to once a month to really savour. I love the place.

[MoonDust]

I'd sometimes go to the Auld Triangle in Finsbury Park, London.



Not much of a looker but it's lovely inside, though very quiet. I never saw it busy.

However, you get yourself down there every Friday and you can delight yourself in listening to folk music from the musicians in the corner. They come and go, people would come and join in for a bit, others will leave to get a pint, then come back and pick up their fiddle, but the music never stops.

Lovely place.

[holyzombiejesus]

Robin Hood Inn - Cragg Vale  (not the one in Hebden Bridge/Pecket Well)

Huh? The photo is of the one in Hebden (well, just past Mytholmroyd).

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Tan Hill Inn, North Yorkshire.




Another perfect place to spend a wild winter's night. It's the highest pub in England and sits alone 4 miles from anything else.

My choice of beer at this one would be Theakstons Old Peculier which is sometimes available on tap as Masham is only 20 miles away.

[MuteBanana]

I've only been to one pub abroad. It was an English pub that played pirated Hollywood films on small TVs hung around the walls. It was connected to an English greasy spoon next door. You're basically set for the day. Breakfast in the cafe, few beers in the pub, lunch in the cafe, few beers in the pub, dinner in the cafe, few beers in the pub. When I was there they were playing The Matrix and Cruel Intentions. This was 1999. So imagine.