Now, I like Fancy A Pint. I find it useful, and it has directed me to a few really decent boozers (like the Eagle on Marylebone Lane, although their recent redecoration leaves plenty to be desired). If I’m meeting someone in a pub featured on the site, bunging my meetee a link to the appropriate page is a quick and easy way to send directions. Plus the recipient gets a piccy of the pub, which further prevents confusion.
It’s easy to query their grading policy: The Mitre, one of London’s very finest drinking holes, gets a miserly three pints out of five, while the nasty Shaw’s Booksellers gets an unbelievable four, and several fine pubs get an off-putting two. But that’s just a matter of taste.
Their pathological hatred of anyone in a suit is a bit of a bore, too. If you don’t like pubs full of City boys, your best bet is not to drink in City pubs in the early evenings… just a little tip.
These aren’t major quibbles, though. I’m writing this because they’ve managed to annoy me with their Pointers on Pub Etiquette, and I’m not sure why. It’s mostly right, but seems to be written for the benefit of those visiting the UK from Mars, who don’t realise that pushing drunks around is a bad idea. I think what annoys me most about it is that it makes going to the pub sound like attending a particularly strict and vicious Victorian public school, replete with draconian queuing dictats and unknowable drink ordering rules. Bah.
Oh, and in my experience the easiest way to start a fight in a pub is to go up to a psychotic-looking fellow drinker, spill his pint down his trousers and call him a bad name.