tldr:
pros: options for dietary constraints, service is relatively fast even during high time, servers are laid back but still attentive, fairly decent prices on the "snacks" and alcohol
cons: very heavy handed on the salt with most dishes, uneven cooking for steaks, can be a bit loud during hightimeif you're looking for a romantic night (but i mean it's a pub so...)
whole review:
food (rate: 3/5)
i've been here 3-4 times already, and i've been fairly satisfied with their dishes (i've had the fish and chips, marinere mussels, cream of mushroom soup and their surf n' turf special). one thing i've found consistent across each visit is how heavy handed with the salt they were. i actually found that their fish and chips were a bit oily, and had a great crunchy texture on the outside. the mussels were cooked perfectly, and the sauce was fantastic -- not too heavy on the lemon, but just enough to give it a bright tang to the wine reduction. the only thing wrong with this dish was the amount of salt that they had in the sauce. i love me some salt, don't get me wrong -- but they're pretty heavy handed with it here. the same can be applied to the soup, but it had some great flavours in it.
*surf and turf special: i wanted to put this in its own category, just because i really loved it... but there were some issues. the steak; our table ordered 3 of the surf and turf special (char-rare, medium and medium-well). the char-rare came out beautifully, but the medium was done more like a char-rare and the medium-well was done more like a medium-rare. granted this was done during high time, however my family didn't have the heart to send it back to the kitchen and get it re-cooked when they were so busy, but certainly were not too happy with their cut. the big problem with the steak was how uneven the seasoning was -- and when i mean un-even i mean one end of the steak was seasoned, and the other end was not. so basically you would be cutting into this steak and have over-salted meat for the first half of the steak, and then the second half is just... steak. the shrimp had a lot of salt and garlic on it, but the veggies that came with it were fine. baked potato... meh. it's a baked potato.
service (rate: 4/5)
pub service in general is my preferred style -- it's not in your face, and doesn't give off the feeling that they're tying absurdly hard for more tip. the server we had was well-versed in the selection of beers they had available, and had great advice on the best beers to go with which dish. surprisingly enough, high-time service still had impeccable attentiveness even though they were basically packed; i was extremely impressed!
atmosphere (3/5)
typical to a british-style pub, you see the typical dark wooded furniture, walls and floors. a tad bit dark in there, but i wasn't particularly bothered. it was just.. ordinary. so nothing much to comment on it. the music becomes fairly loud at night, so if you're looking for a quiet night out this probably isn't the place for you.