No. 67 The Wheatsheaf

Visited on 28/7/11. On a warm summer evening what better way is there to while away a couple of hours than to trundle round a few pubs on a velocipede ? Answer: There isn’t. Our tour of Upton began here at this huge community pub up near the Zoo. After some debate, we decided that this is in fact Chester’s biggest pub. It might be, it might not. Who’s going to argue ? Frankly, who cares ? Anyhow, like many similar establishments, it’s been turned into a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ food outlet - in this case under the ‘Sizzling Pub’ brand. I’d never eat in a place like this but I guess the name suggests everything is fried. Mmm, healthy. It looks like and is branded in a similar way to No. 62 The Peacock (Flaming Grill), but there the comparison pretty much ends. For a start it’s popular – we reckoned there were about a hundred people in when we arrived. Also, the staff are more mature, polite and efficient. It’s brighter and a bit more sympathetically decorated an’ all. The only real ale on was the unremarkable, vaguely lageresque and probably ‘fast cask’ Marston’s EPA, but it was in reasonable nick to be fair. Not our kind of place, but a hundred people on a Thursday night ?! They’re obviously doing something right.