Mike
Often we talk about pubs that look like pubs, have a local feel, and friendly staff. A real treasure of this category has to be the Colston Arms.
Where good service ends for some with drinks recommendations, the gents here went off-piste to brew up a cup of tea specially for our under-the-weather Adam, with the promise of extended their now newly founded hot drinks menu to mulled wine on the morrow!
The morrow at time of writing being today at time of posting.
I’ve walked, driven, and ridden past this place countless times, it being on my way down the hill to the harbour side, or by road to get to that dreaded M32. Finally, after over a year of living here, I popped in.
It’s location then is quite convenient – you’ve barely commenced the monumental task of ascending St Michael’s Hill when Colston Arms’ doors are there to welcome you like open… arms.
Considering I saw this almost immediately upon entering, “welcoming with open arms” may not have, in all honesty, been my first thought.
Sportsball a-plenty to be watched here, with a board detailing upcoming features and suggesting that clientele should feel happy to request any sport televised. This evening is the Premier League match-up between Saints and Man U, which I – born and raised in Southampton – am blissfully ignoring at time of writing in the name of stress management.
One thing that was drilled into my head from all my journeys past here – they pride themselves on their food. And bloody hell are they right to do so. Meals are decent value, ranging from around six to nine quid, and it is hearty “home-cooked” stuff. Their “Proper Pie” is aptly named, being one of the most meat-filled phenomena I’ve encountered since… well, maybe this anecdote’s best kept to myself…
“Just like the cartoons,” the menu claims, and it’s not far wrong.
After an initial cup of tea to prevent his inevitable death-by-cold, Adam and I went for some ale. Not-so-subliminal coaster-based advertising convinced me I wanted an English Pale Ale, meanwhile Adam struck out down under with a New World Pale Ale. Both highly drinkable, and Colston Arms is charging pretty fairly for its not-so-far-from-the-centre drinks with pints in the three to four pound range.
We left before I got absorbed into a nail biting sports ball match, and before we did something crazy like try to tackle their Monday night pub quiz – featuring a Play-Doh round! – as a two-man team. Hopefully, however, it won’t be another year of living round the corner before I go back.
The Colston Arms (24 St Michael’s Hill, BS2 8DX) is open 12 noon – 11pm daily, and until 1am Fridays and Saturdays. http://www.colstonarms.co.uk/
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