Customer Rating: 
Summary: Keep it in the car
Comment: At my request, The Good Pub Guide is the standard Xmas present from my daughter. The introductory narrative is firstly read, then the local (Devon) section is scanned for any "Main" and "Lucky Dip" ins or outs, and then the previous year's Guide comes out of my car's "glove compartment" (to go into our home's bookcase with the previous incumbent going from there to the local charity shop) and the new one goes in.
At least once every year and often several times, I find myself away from "base" somewhere in the UK and where I need to be "fed and watered"; invariably the Guide points me in the right direction. Add to this the ability it gives me to book a table at short notice for a meal in a listed pub anywhere in my home locality, with a high degree of confidence that I will not be disappointed, and it more than earns its corn.
It is arrant nonsense to opine that the layout is somehow outdated or that there are too few year on year changes to warrant an annual purchase. Firstly, it is a guide pure and simple, not a fashion accessory. Secondly, there is always a proportion of changes and woe betide anyone using "last year's Guide" for, say, an important business or social reason, only to find that the pub has changed its management and is rapidly heading out of the "Premiership" as a result!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Never suffer a dodgy pub meal again
Comment: As soon as the leaves start to fall it's time to get the new copy of the Good Pub Guide. Other reviewers have complained not much changes, but for me it's the small changes from year to year which are the pleasure. Which pubs are newly inserted, which ones are out?
If a pub you like isn't in there then why not submit a review (you can now do this on the web). The GPG team do take notice and you might even see your name in print in the 2010 edition...
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great but needs to be refreshed
Comment: If you do not own any pub guides, including previous editions of this one, I would recommend this one highly - it only includes pubs of a high standard (and doesn't just focus on the BEER) and covers the whole country with impressive breadth. Even the lucky dip pubs are usually the better pubs in town - I've rarely been disappointed by one.
BUT... if you own any of the previous few editions of the Good Pub Guide I see absolutely no point in buying this. It is slightly frustrating the way the Guide never changes much. This could be a signifier of good standards, but it isn't flexible enough. So many great pubs are not included (this edition has no place for The Flask in Highgate, one of the best pubs in north London) and yet year after year many of the same ones are, like that dubious Wetherspoons near parliament.
There are very few changes to the previous edition, and that includes the layout and paper stock, both looking a bit old fashioned now. The Good Food Guide underwent a radical revamp two editions back - it's time the Pub Guide did too.
|
