Sheffield – Banker’s Draft

The final stop of our first night in Sheffield was at Wetherspoons, for a number of reasons, but not least because they open late.

The beer selection was fine, although unusually lacking in darker beer options. The service was though top notch, a friendly and engaging staff member who was keen to answer questions and to comment on Ross’s ridiculous beer selection. The Riders on the Storm beer was also fine, a decent enough golden ale.

A spacious building with high ceilings, as can be guessed from the pub name, it was formerly a bank. Originally operated by the York & County Bank in 1904, it was used by the Midland Bank until 1989 and the building then became redundant. Wetherspoons have helpfully taken photographs of inaccessible parts of the building, including the stabling area in the cellars and the upper offices, a marvellous idea given the history of the pub.

Anyway, onto TripAdvisor. The Wetherspoon’s Christmas meal has, I understand from listening to staff, been a repeat of last year’s debacle, where there’s no gravy provided and it’s all reheated in one go. But, it’s £8.75 including a drink, so there has to be some expectation management going on here. Anyway, one customer from last week isn’t pleased:

“I came in bankers draft with my wife and my parents we all had Christmas dinner and the gravy was like water on 3 and my one had no gravy and told a member of staff about it they said they will get me some gravy but never did and the staff are incompetent as staff never came and asked if everything was ok and you should train your staff in good corporate hospitality and the meat was not from a turkey joint and it was processed meat you need to retrain all your staff from back of house to front of house”

Not from a turkey joint, I can’t say that I’m surprised…

Maybe we got lucky, but the service was some of the best I’ve experienced in a Wetherspoons, so all very lovely.