Beers For Few
Bottom's Rest, Brighton
After much anticipation Mr.Boyfriend finally celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday. Unfortunately the weather was really bad, thunders and lightnings and pouring rain bad, so plenty of people couldn't come and that was a bit stupid but nevermind. He loved his present from our friends - a bike repair stand and was more than happy to use it today already (fixing my bike...).
A lot of our friends have been talking about this pub, Donkey's Ass, and after a short Googling we discovered that it's real name is Bottom's Rest and it actually has a fairly good reputation among Brightoners and visitors. Mr.Boyfriend promptly booked a table for 8 o'clock on Friday night, yesterday, and when we arrived we were more than pleased that he did so. The pun was beyond full, there were people everywhere, some even sitting outside in spite of the pouring rain.
Since I was the designated driver for the night all I had was tap water with ice. Exciting! However, I paid attention to what the rest of the guys were having I can conclude that the pub has a nice selection of beers and ciders, among other things Guinness and San Miguel on the tab, which is a rather rare occurrence. As far as I could see their wine list wasn't extensive, just few wines written on the black board, but in all fairness pubs are not exactly known for their wine cellars, are they. The only other information I can provide for the drinks at Bottom's Rest is that their San Miguel tasted as if they had been playing cheap since the beer tasted inimpressively watery and plain. Even for Spaniards' beer.
Unfortunately I wasn't very impressed with their food menu either, Very unimaginative and boring selection of the most typical pub food, from the hallumi being the only vegetarian option to the fish fingers as an option for fishy burger. We had the classic beef burgers, because I didn't get the chance of the chicken burger since they had run out of it earlier, and they, again, were very average. The buns weren't impressive, but at least they didn't taste cheap, the burgers themselves were small and smelled funky, the ketchup they were served with was watery and the chips were old and fat. So, yes, overall, the dining experience wasn't all that great.
The atmosphere in the pub is standard for the pub type of places - stools and corner sofas, sticky tables, dim lightning and a thing or two hanging on the walls. There were four people working FOH* this evening and they didn't seem very keen on it. Two of them were trying to stick behind the bar, but every now and then they will run somewhere on the floor to do something or to greet someone. And then the other two were supposed to run the floor but they will spend time chatting with someone, so a bit disorganised I think. The only lady in the collective managed to drop few things when taking away the plates, few time and, along with the rest of her colleagues, she seemed joyfully tipsy. Not that being joyful and tipsy is a bad thing, I'm just not sure if I like it.
Oh, and the place was SO noisy, it was impossible to have a decent conversation whatsoever!
Food: 3/10
Service: 4/10
Interior: 6/10
Location: 5/10
Pricing: 4/10
Overall Grade: 4/10
Would we go back: For drinks - maybe, although the location is a bit off and it's a pain in the neck to get there with a car, but I mist be starving and dying in order to eat there again.
