Pubs in Exeter, Devon*

The place to go for a lazy afternoon, pub quiz or last call

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• The Oddfellows 60 New North Road, used to be the dirty camel oh sorry the thirsty camel, now it has changed, they have even got a cocktail bar upstairs now.
• when i was 15/16 years old you could get in most pubs in exeter
• The Angel has friendly staff. Wetherspoon's 'The Imperial' is cheap, and reasonably spacious.
• The bowling green is by far one of the friendliest places to be. Fussball, Pool, and a pub quiz on a sunday night (1st prize a WHOLE crate of beer... mmm). Also Rick the landlord is lovely and if you frequent it on a regular basis he will become your adopted cheeky uncle!
• The Locomotive Pub in New North Road is very inviting to those on a low budget.
• The Thirsty Camel has now gone. It is now a spanking gorgeous place with great food, real ales, and staff, well worth a visit.
• Queens Vaults..just for ur info it is a gay bar(don't want u to be suprised!!) it is great, thats in Gandy street..Coolings (although squeeze in on a fri/sat nite!!) and John Gandy's..both in Gandy Street are all good. The Mint is usually packed full of teeny boppers tryin 2 get served.
• the Bowling Green on Blackboy Road, does live music too. the Old Fire House near Debenham's is funky. Amber Rooms on Sidwell Street has a 4am licence woohoo. North Bridge Inn also has live music. The Double Locks down on the canal is cool.
• im a townie , n drink in butlers, aussie bar, the mint, hogshead... pile o f crap, but always a laugh! Ricocos, pile of dung.. warehouse, very young crowd, but i still go ! and im 26! it is what u make it, full of locals
• You really ought to bring some of these comments up to date, i.e. "crazy horse is crazy when it comes to asking for id" - it closed in 2001 (mainly because of selling to under age drinkers). Also The Roadhouse has been shut for ages, but is just about to reopen (called The Showman of Exeter)
• North Bridge Inn, Iron Bridge, St. David's Hill. Nice community based alternative pub, just outside the city centre.
• The Fire House is great for cheap doubles and cheap wine and still not a towny in sight...yipee!!
• good to see more non smoking pubs opening up
• IMPERIAL -cheap drinks and you gotta love those vodka pitchers!!!
• The City Gate is now very smart. The Jolly Porter, near the station had, until recently possibly the cheapest real ale in the area at £1-62 a pint but they've just put it up to more realistic levels. Still an amazingly tatty place, though. The Artful Dodger a short distance away has a bar billiards table (so much more skilful than pool) and the Great Western Hotel just over the road has over 12 real ales on at the same time - more at the weekends.
• Time Piece
• Hole in the wall on a thursday night -students night (£1 a pint). Proper quality night, everyone's there. Three Fat Fish -usually a laugh. Impi on a monday.
• Mostly Thirtysomethings at the NBI but when the students get back get there early for a seat...
• There are plenty of pubs in Exeter - it just depends what kind of pub you want. Pissholes are a plenty. However, there are some cracking places for us real ale fans. I won't bother repeating pubs already mentioned. I really grudge giving the secrets away but these guys deserve credit and custom: Great Western Hotel, nr St Davids - Unsurpassed in selection - food is superb whether having a bar meal or eating in restaurant. City Gate, North Street - good bar food, no smoking area available, great beer, quite chilled out. For us old yuns, Honiton Inn, 50's decor, Otter Ale. The Oak, Fore Street, Heavitree - Otter Ale - A real, real ale pub with a traditional atmosphere. Seems very popular. Only thatched pub in town.
• The Bowling Green-most likely to go unoticed cause its not really a towny place! The Angel: good for music and atmosphere but a bouncer on the door: mean looking guy. Timepiece: sound place. The Firehouse: no football ever played, not much of a towny haunt either which makes good.
• Starz Bar & Restaurant, Lower North St. is one on Exeter's best Cocktail Bars, relaxed and very friendly.
• yes bar (used ot be fermats number), walkabout, the mint, thirsty camel and imperial. the ship inn is nice and cosy tho, and the vaults is a pretty good gay bar. there r quite a few decent pubs like hogshead near fore street which r worth a try
• great veriaty of pubs in town and out by far the best pub has to be the Longbroke (the old Valient Soldier) in cowick street. this pub has been renivated and looks superb, the food is good and best of all it is the cheapest pub in exeter as far as i can tell. some people are put off because of its reputation, but you will soon see that it is all a mith.
• The worst pub in exeter is the imperial. its super bland.
• Bishops Blaize - great karaoke on Friday night, Hole in the Wall, The Ship (Franny Drake went there!), The Mint for old times sake, Turk's Head if you're desperate. Hogshead if you're really desperate.
• I can't belive HogsHead has been overlooked here.... An excellent pub with plenty of room, good food and some great bar staff ;) As for the marines, most of them are out for a good time, but boys will be boys (and some girls) and they do tend to get a bit drunk and ott - just laugh along with them, and you'll have no problems. Agreement with all others here- Turf Locks and Double Locks are great. You can get on a boat and coast down the canal to the Double locks at the weekend for a quiet pint too!
• north bridge inn has it's own website - www.northbridgeinn.co.uk - so you can see what's on. mixed crowd, relaxed and attitude free. (unlike some pubs in exeter!)
• the aptly named WHOLE in the wall is fiarly cheap and above all, next to timepeice
• Jolly Porter
• they r all good except thirsty camel with its freaky reptilian decor!
• North Bridge Inn, Live music every week, pool table, beer garden and pub quiz Sundays
• Angel every time. Its such a quaint little place. Yeah you get loads of 40 year olds in there but theyre cool and sometimes students chill out there.
• The NORTH BRIDGE INN, St. David's Hill just over the bridge from the centre of town. Great for an afternoon's drinking or meeting your friends before you go clubbing. Lovely pool room which MUST have been purpose built and a jukebox that is, well don't take my word for it; go and see for yourself. Don't go too early or you'll end up staying there all night. Needs more live music though.
• I like the Angel. It is fairly cool and has some sort of boudoir arrangement at the back with a disco ball. Also the Hole In The Wall (it's great, they go rounf kicking out the sixteen year olds who got in before the bouncers arrived. This always means that if you wait by them for a little while you are guarenteed a seat). Fermats Number has turned into the Yes Bar therefore shall not be visisted. The Imperial is good for cheap things. And the Thirtsy Camel used to be good, now it's full of sleazy old men.
• THE ROADHOUSE
• Double Locks down by the canal is a good pub. Got lots of beers to choose from and is nice for a relaxing night out on a summers evening. You can also pitch a tent on the grass outside if you don't want to drive home.
• The City Gate has now been taken over by Youngs (of London) - I've only ever found one urinal there, one door away from the food serving area. Apparently the ladies toilets are pretty cramped as well.
• Fermats Number is nice...and the Angel, the Hole in the Wall (sometimes), Turks Head, but by far the best...the THIRSTY CAMEL!!!
• Fermat's number (some drinks for £1 on a thurs), The Turks Head, The Thirsty Camel, Timepiece bar, not really the Hole In The Wall because it's full of very young people.
• I can't beleive no-ones mentioned the FIREHOUSE. Just down from Debenhams, this is a brilliant pub. As well as the bar downstairs there's a large room upstairs. There's a wide range of exremely well priced drinks and the food is good too. Excellent atmosphere and excellent value.
• Adult pub crawl: Imperial, Fermats Number, Chumleys, Hogshead, Walkabout, Metzo Cafe Bar, Mud Dock. End at club of choice on quay. Alternative pub crawl for habitual anti-wrinkle cream users: Hole in the Wall, ship Inn, Turks head, Butlers, The Mint, Coachmakers, Waterfront. End at club of choice on quay. Both groups meet with interesting results. Ever feel like you're snogging your dad?!
• Turks head is cool, even the Nods (Marines) dont cause that much trouble any more! The Duke of York on Sidwell St. is good for a weeknight drink, and even though Crazy Horse has closed down there is still a variety of mad pubs. The Walkabout is cool for sport. You wont have any trouble with soldiers in Exeter just some baby Marines still in training but theyre nothing to worry about.
• COOLINGS in Gandy Street is GREAT all day !! coffee in the morning, fantastic lunches, afternoon food and a great bar in the evenings, not expensive but NOT cheap, therefore keeps the trash out, very female friendly and they wiil also let you hold your parties in the Cellar Bar. Well worth a visit, gets VERY busy at weekends !!
• Chumley's does NOT let in single blokes at the weekend . avan whan part of a group. also scene of dodgy hen/stag night capers
• Just reading some of these reviews make me want to move back again. Truely, 3 of the most wonderful years of my life were spent frequenting the pubs and clubs of Exeter, but the one pub that every time i think of it has me longing to return is The Double Locks. Easiest to reach by foot, by heading south from what used to be the maritime museum, along the side of the canal & river Exe. Can also be reached by car via Marsh Barton Industrial Estate, over a rickety narrow wooden swing bridge and along quarter of a mile of 15mph speed limited road. Great for lazy summer days, especially when a live act is playing, very good beer, but extremely busy on bank holidays and weekends.
• crazy horse is crazy when it comes to asking for id
• Check out the CityGate (currently being rebuilt after a fire) for a classier kind of pint. The beer garden out the back is great.
• Give us some decent wine bars! Chaucers used to be excellent, The Ship is full of stuffed shirt bankers and estate agents - steer clear - St Martin's Cafe and Cafe Rouge sell excellent wine but have zero atmosphere. I'll have to open one myself I think.
• Barts used to be really grotty but fun, now it's clean and lots some of its character/characters. I remember when the upstairs of Barts was the Loft, gay club, but now it's Liberty. Both did really good food. Iron Bridge is a really friendly gay pub.
• The Nobody Inn in Doddscombleigh (just outside Exeter) is a great country pub, with a roaring fire, huge cheese selection and the most expensive Whiskey Bottle in the country!
• I think Exeter has some of the best pubs around! The Ship being one of the best! It's one of the oldest pubs in Exeter, situated in St Martins Lane and used to be a favourite of Sir Francis Drake! It has a friendly cosy atmosphere and serves great food at lunchtime and also has a restaurant upstairs. Friday and Saturday evenings from 9,00pm onwards it can be very busy!! Cheap drink and good music!! Chaucers has a very similar atmosphere, situated in the High St. and has great food too! Chumleys (a very new 'posh' pub!) situated in Queen St, gets very busy at weekends, also serves good food. Well known for their killer cocktails they serve upstairs! Bit pricey but great place to be!! Gandy Street has some great pubs, also busy at weekends, Vines, Volts and Coolings, check out Vines for their live music they have on!! A variety of bands play here! The Austrailian Bar in Fore Street, usually the last stop before the clubbers head toward the Quay! Very busy from 9.00pm onwards, sometimes a que, but a great Aussie atmosphere!!! And a good place to buy cheap 'shots' of alcohol!!!
• I lived in Excrement for three years and hated the place. Very middle class and too many pissed up soldiers on Friday and Saturday nights who's hobby is beating up students and locals (Prince Andrew did his Commando training down the road at Lympstone). So mid town drinking at the weekend tends to be out of bounds unless you belong to the University rugby team. However it does have a couple of saving graces in the form of the Double Locks and the Turf Locks. Hard to get to but well worth the hike. You can walk along the tow path down the Exe towards the sea behind the Art College and over a couple of fields; there you will find the Double Locks. If you catch a ferry from Topsham (also a very nice place - Trevor Macdonald has a house there you know! and it has a high percentage of pubs per head) you can get across the river and walk a few miles to the Turf Locks (it can also be reached by road but it's car park is half a mile away from the pub). But on a sunny day it's well worth checking out these pubs for their beer and good food. Bank holidays at the Double Locks tend to have campouts in the garden with lots of kids and students (especially on last day of term) and clean honest working people running around and playing volley ball, eating barbecues and drinking lots of good ale by the canal side. A drunken suntrap - I've got sunburn many a time there.
• Whilst Exeter itself offers some fine bars, for 'real ale' enthusiasts, the best choice is to be found at the Beer Engine in Newton-St-Cyres (approximately 4-5 miles) out of town. The pub also provides entertainment (mostly bands) a number of nights each week.
• The Turks Head is the Townie/Marine pub, if you don't fit into either class don't go! The stiudent pub is the BlacK Horse which also has a few regulars who are not students. Quite a few new pubs have opened in the last few years O'Neils, The Imperial, The City Gate plus more Irish pubs.
• A really good pub is the Black Horse (near Debenhams) and a newly opened favourite is Chumleys on Queen Street. I really like the "Hole in the Wall" too because there's a large number of pool tables and decent bitters. For a more romantic atmosphere, "The Mill on the Exe" and "The Exchange" are nice.
• The Roadhouse in Cowick St. Run by the Satans Slaves MC for the past four years. It offers a 1 O'clock licence at weekends in it's club bar, The Bunker. No dress code. Never any hassle. And brilliant music. You don't have to be a biker. Anyone welcome. Tel 01392 202035 for details.

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Last updated: 2008-01-22