My Favourite Pub...
The Traveller’s Rest, Mount Road, Higher Bebington, Wirral.
This used to be a regular Saturday afternoon venue 7 or 8 years ago (the constant hassle with taxis, and the smokiness of the place eventually proved too much), and we were very happy to see it hadn’t changed a great deal, except that it now focuses more on food than it did previously and, of course, it’s not full of smokers trying to kill everyone around them.
The old no-smoking area
The food looks pretty damn good, though we haven’t ventured beyond sandwiches and toasties so far (I, these days, have a very small capacity for food, sadly, and the portions are large - one day, though…), and it can get very busy. What we’ve eaten so far - apart from one unfortunate cheese and ham toastie with really dire, greasy, cheese (though a previous one had really good cheese and was toasted to perfection) - has been fine, so maybe that was just a glitch. The ham in the ham sandwiches - my usual choice - or in the H&C toasties, is excellent and not stinted. Portion control, that profitable wet dream of parsimonious managers everywhere, seems not to exist here, which is a refreshing change. From what I’ve seen - empty plates coming back to the kitchen is always a good sign - the food is as good as it looks
The service is prompt and friendly, and we never have to wait for long; or at all, mostly. Indeed, getting served is laughably easy, unlike some other pubs I know, where first you have to find the staff!
The Bar
The beer is almost invariably in excellent nick - in fact so far I haven’t had to send a single pint back, either because the beer was faulty or because of a dirty glass - the glasses, by the way, are immaculate. And yes, that is unusual enough to warrant comment - some pubs shut be shut down, their glasses are so horrible. There are seven hand pumps (plus a selection of keg products for those who know no better!), with six regular beers - Greene King’s Abbott Ale, Tim Taylor’s Landlord, Flowers’ IPA, Charles Wells’ Bombardier, Wychwood’s Hobgoblin, and Old Speckled Hen, also from Greene King, Morland’s having been consigned to the cellars of history - plus a frequently-changing guest beer, usually from one of the independent brewers; at the time of our last visit on May 15, it was Master Brew, from Shepherd Neame.
The “Back Room”
Take care with the Gent’s toilet; the statutory double doors are very close to each other, pushing in though the first one, it’s all too easy to catch somebody on their way out through the inner door.
There is, I was very glad to see, a decent toilet for disabled customers, like yours truly. There’s plenty of room for a wheelchair in there, too, though the handrails around the toilet are pretty rickety, I’m afraid. Whichever contractor installed them clearly hadn’t a clue (whatever they were paid was too much), and a side-transfer from a chair is impossible - you really do need to be ambulant, at least a little.
The bar is amply equipped with stools - though not so many that other customers can’t get served - and has it a brass rail for leaning or, in my case, parking my crutch. That’s my walking aid - do try and keep up! For me, stools are essential. I prefer to drink at the bar - it’s a generational thing, I’m pretty sure - but standing at the bar is agony, and no longer an option
During the day most of the pub is given over to the lunch trade (food runs from noon to 19:00, though the evening menu kicks in at 14:00), but I don’t think anyone would object to anyone taking a table just too drink - just so long as they were drinking and not just taking up space. Call me picky (I spent over 20 years in the pub trade, and things like this annoy the hell out of me), but I don’t think it’s acceptable to take up space in a pub, and sit there for hours spending little or nothing. That happens more than you might think, too, pretty much everywhere.
The downside - well yes, there had to be one! - is the absence of a car-park, the only option being to park on one of two busy roads (the pub’s on the corner); be sure to tuck your mirrors in wherever you find a space!
The Traveller’s is just across the road from Storeton Woods. On a good day it’s a pleasant place to spend an hour birdwatching before going to the pub - on a bad day there are so many sodding dog-walkers who, despite the requirement to keep their mutts under control, do nothing of the sort. Mostly the dogs aren’t a problem - it’s the dumb owners who lose sight of them and wander along bellowing their name and scaring off every vestige of bird life. Several witless pillocks like that, and a pleasant woodland walk becomes purgatory. It’s enough to drive you to drink…
One of the many brasses throughout the pub.