Weatherspoons

I bet you get a lot of conflicting opinions on ‘Spoons’.
DD1 and family love an occasional breakfast at their local - a tastefully converted old post office with polished wood floors. However, when I went into another Spoons to buy a gift voucher, it was dark and dingy and I almost stuck to the carpet - yuck!
I’ve only ever eaten in one once - it was awful, some sort of curry, stone cold in the centre. Only went there, to please a friend.

We used to have a Weatherspoons here, but unfortunately it closed last year. The loos were lovely! I liked the Lavazza coffee and the food wasn't bad either. Shame it's gone.

We’ve stayed in one of their hotels, very smart, ate there too, no problems and reasonably priced.

We love Wetherspoons. We use them a lot. We have quite a few in our area and most are lovely. The staff are usually great. I can honestly say we have rarely had a bad meal. Two lunches and two large glasses of wine for less than £20. You can check their hygiene rating. They are usually in the top five.

We have also stayed in the hotels. They are great.

We very often have a breakfast at Spoons. never had cause to complain. Very friendly staff, very clean, food and plates always hot and very reasonable drinks. My OH loves the coffee and usually gets two free refills.

We’ve eaten in several around the country and for what you pay for meals it’s good value. Drinks are cheap, alcoholic and non alcoholic. I’ve heard that their kitchens aren’t great but we’ve always been ok after eating in the restaurants.

I admire their commitment to maintaining older buildings. The food, in my experience, is at the basic end of the standard pub chains offering - mainly mass produced centrally, delivered pre-packaged, reheated at the pub, with some fast food cooked on site. It’s generally not my cup of tea, but I have been to five or six with friends who have kids, and it’s been fine for what it is, and reasonably cheap.

As far as I’m aware, they don’t restrict the use of their loos, so that’s a mark in their favour - I’ve popped into a few for that reason.

We went to see 10cc in Halifax, we went to a lovely whether spoons there, just had a burger & fries, lavazza coffee- unlimited refills as we had time to kill! Noticed few business people working on lap tops, drinking coffee- good idea, if it doesn’t cost an arm & leg

'Spoons' is a franchise and although their menus are fairly standard the ambience varies quite a lot.

I have two quite close to where I live. One is the sticky carpet, early morning drinkers variety although the food and service are very good. The other is very pleasant, clean and quiet. The service is also very good but the food is almost the same. As it is becoming increasingly difficult to eat out without taking out a second mortgage, Wetherspoons offers very good value but nobody would claim it is haute cuisine.

Surprised they are still opening new pubs - they have closed ours although we still have Lloyds which I believe is the same chain.

I meant, hopefully obviously, that they don’t restrict the use of their loos to customers.

I love Wetherspoons and go in one wherever I travel. They do vary but I've found very few that I haven't liked. Yesterday a friend and I sat on the first floor of my local one overlooking trees, drinking refillable coffee - I always have the decaff mocha - currently £1.04 each. On Sunday night my son and I ate there. He had a lovely rare steak and I had the Ramen noodle bowl which was delicious. The decor always reflects the local area; ours has tall ships woven into the carpet to reflect the Packet ships that were part of the town's history. It will be interesting to see what the interior of yours will incorporate. I hope you enjoy your new Wetherspoons!

I'm also a fan of Wetherspoons. There are some lovely ones around south Devon. Apart from being cheaper than some pubs, there is a nice family atmosphere in them; the food is pretty good in my opinion. I've never come across sticky carpets at all, and I like the fact that the decor reflects the local area and it's history.

Love Wetherspoons but sadly our favourite has now closed. It was a great place to eat alone or with our grandchildren.

Really miss it.

My one and only Weatherspoon's experience was most definitely the sticky carpet variety. The pink upholstery on the chairs was black with stains. Although no smoking is allowed the air smelled of stale nicotine. The food was below standard and I thought the wine was watery.
I only went to please a friend and I shall not be returning.
There are clearly better branches from reading other people's experiences on here, but I've been put off trying another.

Not my experience at all.
Great place, very reasonable prices, no piped music.
Very much a community centre.
We are desperately hoping ours doesn't close as we have loads of expensive coffee shops and bistro bars.

Varies. The one near where my sister lives is fine, clean welcoming and OK food.
We tried one in Blackpool before a Strictly Performance and that was fine. I wouldn’t recommend one near us to anyone.

I only have warm drinks there. Pay for first and all refills are free. Places tend to be drab and dingy in my experience. It's a convenient venue for my weekly friends gathering.

I have only been into one spoons I was at a conference in Llandudno, a few of us went in for lunchtime snacks.

We chose a mixture of picky bits all hot and tasty, I have had better pub wine though.

It was a restored theatre (could have been cinema) a lot of the original features remained, it was clean with very helpful and friendly staff.

We go to one when we have a rugby weekend the carpet is often sticky to be honest. It is an old pub supplying hundreds of fans with cheap beer it could do with a makeover though. We usually go there for a breakfast before our nearly four hour journey home it does us fine. It is a family friendly place the staff are always polite and helpful.
If you have a new one opening up give it a try you might be surprised and there may not be sticky carpets. We went to a large cafe in our city centre that had horrid carpet too. I have never understood why public places have carpet it’s a cleaning nightmare.

I think these places are very variable and a lot depends on the area. My local Wetherspoons is in the High Street in a converted Argos store so not pretty. The food and drinks are excellent value compared with other places in the area.,
Unfortunately because of the prices, location in the town and being next to the bus stop it attracts a few noisy people who stay a long time and hang about smoking outside and using bad language. It’s such a shame as it spoils it for others.

dragonfly46

Surprised they are still opening new pubs - they have closed ours although we still have Lloyds which I believe is the same chain.

We still have one dragonfly. I went to the one that recently closed and vowed never to enter another one!! I think they are opening another in our town.

Didn't know about Lloyds being the same group.

The new one in Grand Central, Birmingham is fabulous. No sticky carpets there.