London Pub Tour 51 - Victoria: Sports Bar & Grill and Wetherspoons

Passing through Victoria and with time to kill till my train I popped into two pubs in the station. My first port of call was the Sports Bar & Grill (SW1V 1JU) which is accessed from just outside the train station, where the stairs the from tube meet the station entrance. The entrance is very small and the staircase leading up to the bar doesn't give away too much. Once through the doors at the top you arrive in a large open plan pub with exposed fixings and air con on the ceiling. The windows look directly out onto the concourse below but the noise of the station doesn't creep in. The drinking section of the pub is entirely high tables with high chairs in rows of three. The bar is round to your right from the entrance, and is quite small. Where the bar ends is also where the drinking tables end and the low level dining tables begin. An open kitchen faces onto these tables and generally you can only sit here if eating, even if its just a bowl of chips.

The bar had four hand pumps will all of them off. Two of the beers they appear to sell normally are Pedigree and EPA, both by Marstons. The keg options were Heineken, Fosters, Strongbow, 1664, Guinness, Three Hop, Symonds and John Smith. The bottle selection appears limited to ciders and sol. I went for a pint of Heineken from the frosted dispenser and cool glass from the fridge (Might as well go all out), which came in at £5.50, ouch. Saturday rugby and tennis were on the screens and the pub wasn't packed but was busy. The screens are laid out all around the walls of the pub so that no matter where you sit you can see a screen. They also have the system setup so they can display different matches on different screens. Towards the far left hand wall there is a projector screen. A lot of the screens were marked with a reserved sign, but as no one was using them I jumped on and sat at one of the tables. A few of the groups that were in the pub seemed like they were waiting for the afternoon football matches to kick off, and perhaps the reserved tables were for like minded punters.

The pub does offer table service which is handy during big matches, as it saves fighting the wall of people stood at the bar watching screens. Sports Bar & Grill have certainly made a name for themselves as a destination to go at stations across London to watch sport. For big matches and title deciding games, the atmosphere is amazing, though the beer selection and pricing isn't, but you're paying for the sports bar surrounding. Their chain has also raised the level other Sports Bar should attain to, if they truly wish to make their pub a destination pub.

My second and final stop prior to my train was a pub that is a destination in its own right, not due to sports, but just due to proximity and pricing. Yes its the aptly named Wetherspoons (SW1V 1JT), by Wetherspoons. With such an original name  you can see what draws the crowd. This pub is always busy no matter what time of the day be it 9am, 2pm or even closing time at midnight. To enter the pub you can go up via the escalators by platform 11 and 12, next to Smiths. There are some stairs up from platform 10, and another set up right next to platform 7. When entering from the escalators you will see seating on the outside balcony. Entering through the doors the bar is straight ahead. One thing to note about this spoons is that there is a second bar to the rear which has a different selection of ales on, and is normally quicker at serving.

The pub is small for a spoons, and is quite light and airy. There is an impressive tiled curved wall opposite the bar, under which is a large single american style diner cushioned seating. The remainder of the pub is a mix of high tables and low tables. There is thankfully a screen displaying the train times and platforms, to help ensure you buy that additional half before running for your train. Out back is another balcony with even more tables. As standard the Spoons had more beer than I could attempt to mention, some of which were Bud Light, Stella, Roller IPA, White Riot and San Miguel. There were 12 hand pumps which included beers such as Pride, Swordfish, Roaring Meg and Wandle.

I decided to diversify and ordered 12 halves. The first half was Roaring Meg by Springhead Brewery. The beer smelt like a wet rag and didn't taste much better. I'm glad I only went for a half, but I think Spoons are probably at fault here and not the brewery, as they served it in plastic and mine was probably dirty and they wiped it. My second drink was Chalk Stream by Ramsbury Brewery. There wasn't much on the nose and it tasted very light. It was hard to put my finger on the actual taste. After those two disappointing drinks I thought I'd try one more, as odds are now in my favour it will taste good. I got a half of Exeter Old Bitter by Exe Valley, which oddly cost £1.78 compared to the £1.85 for the other halves. The beer was cold and in plastic and had nothing offensive about it, but nothing stand out. Sadly a poor visit at spoons which I'll blame on the plastic cups.