Torquay – Apple & Parrot

The outside of the Apple & Parrot, known for its live music and sports that are shown on the TV, which has been trading since 2010. The venue has door staff it seems on most evenings, but they’re open until 03:00 every day of the week which explains their frequent presence. The venue was previously known as the Royal Vic Lounge and then it became the rather decadent and fancy Cafe Royal in the 1980s.

I’m always happy with this, especially when there’s an orange slice in it. There aren’t any real ales available, but there’s been a sort of effort made to have a variety of keg beers on. The service was friendly and polite, with everything feeling clean and well managed.

The stage area where there’s a fair amount of live music played. There’s a pool table down the stairs and more space upstairs, so it felt quite spacious, although that was when it was a quiet weekday evening in February. They don’t offer food themselves, but they have an arrangement with a nearby third party which specialises in chicken related items, the same provider as the nearby Yates. The on-line reviews are a bit mixed, there seem to be a lot of issues with their door staff, although there are usually two sides to stories relating to those.

I rather liked this venue, it felt safe and had a certain amount of atmosphere without getting too vibrant. The drinks range was reasonable, the service was friendly and things felt generally clean and organised.