Yates’s

Okay, I know that Yate’s is basically the UK version of Shari’s. But they have full bars, so that’s cool. And it was new to us, so we loved it. We got two full meals plus beers for some crazy price and were in heaven. Three words: chicken curry pie. I would eat it every day for the rest of my life. Can we get this in the USA please?

Oh my god, what an experience. I was today at Yates’s in the Bold Street to have a lunch there. I ordered the burger with a drink deal and asked for a beer. The barman told me that it was only possible to have a beer with this deal if you take a Carlsberg, which is most obviously one of the cheapest beers. I asked again, if Carlsberg would be the ONLY possibility for the deal, as I remembered that this was not the case. When i went back to my table i had a look at the menu and saw that other beers were available although some were excluded. I asked for a Guinness instead of the Carlsberg, but the barman Chris who was falsely convinced to be smart argued that Guinness is not a beer, but a stout, ouch. Even if Guinness was not a beer (though it clearly is, as stout is a sort of beer) I wouldn’t have argued against the customer when I do a mistake. This smarty boy was so pissed, that we got our food 45 minutes after the order. 45 minutes for a burger, seriously. And then the burger was burnt and the chips were not salted, it was disgusting and i haven’t felt so uncomfortable a long time.
Avoid this place! Go to Wetherspoons and get quicker a better food for less money with more friendly staff.

Why are chain pubs so rubbish? Is it because their template design will always fail to take into account any of the surrounding area or is it because they have to spread themselves so thin and therefore can’t savour the joy of letting a place germinate, as happens with independent businesses?
The Bold Street lump of the Yates’ franchise probably falls mainly into the latter option. This is the kind of place where, no matter where you put them, your elbows will come away wet with beer. Come on, it’s not that hard to just wipe round with a rag. The drink selection is beyond lazy and the staff will most likely be chewing on gum or their own arms when you go to be served. Go anywhere else.

Wow, Yate’s, their slogan should be ‘Where Misery and Low Quality Collide’. Like a cheap sister chain to Wetherspoon’s, these are the pubs where people wander in and out with duffel bags trying to sell socks to amputees!
Given that, if you’re down to your last £5, you can probably get bladdered in here for this small amount of cash. You can also get a full meal for £2.99, but don’t expect quality. Don’t expect to drink amongst the friendliest of people either. Don’t expect anything, go in here without presumptions and make your own mind up.
In terms of atmosphere, out of all the pubs I’ve been in on Bold Street, this place seems to lack it the most. The staff seemed more interested in talking to one another than serving last time I visited here.
I’ll give them this though; they do serve a cracking full English to grease up the arteries after a night out!