Now, I'm not a real ale drinker, but I do love quality cider and it's really refreshing when you come across somewhere that sells 'proper' regional ciders rather than the mass produced commercial brands. Although I do drink the commercial brands, when I'm out and about I like trying new things and during a recent break in York (anyone sick of hearing about my trip to York yet?!) we stumbled across this lovely old fashioned looking pub which sells real ale and cider.

The pub is run by York Brewery, and this is obvious as soon as you walk in with lots of posters, a display of different ales (including a gift pack of Yorkshire ales we got for a birthday present for someone), and I hardly recognised the names of any of the drinks that were on draft.

The pub is quite traditional with oak beams, and is long and narrow with tables in front of the window, and also at the back of the pub near the bar. There aren't that many tables and it's not really the kind of pub to get absolutely packed with people standing so the capacity can't be that many people. We were lucky to find a table just opposite the bar (less distance to walk!) which was in the form of a barrel and was one of a few barrels along the wall with a high bench and high stools for seating.

I didn't actually use the toilets during my visit (bit of a Dooyoo error there!), but the pub itself was clean and tidy and had a lovely quaint traditional feel to it. It wasn't at all tacky or full of drunk people, as the people here were here to enjoy real ale rather than get hammered. The staff were friendly and I got the impression a few of the gentlemen at the bar were locals by the way they were chatting. They didn't look at us or make us feel uncomfortable when we walked in though.

There were signs in the pub saying they did food and there were various offers available for lunch or main meals. I'm not sure what time they serve food though as nobody was eating in the evening (about 8pm) so it could be either just a daytime thing or maybe they have an early evening cut-off ready for the evening drinkers.

The atmosphere in this pub is delightful, there's no music, just the low noise of people chatting and enjoying themselves. Although it attracts certain types of people they welcome everyone in the same way, so you don't have to feel uncomfortable walking in here. Their policy is that they have no jukeboxes, gaming machines or children, so it is aimed at the serious drinker!

Drinks wise, they had lots of real ales as you'd expect, including Yorkshire Terrior, Guzzler, Blonde and Centurion's Ghost Ale. I have never heard of these personally but they seem to be the four popular ones in this area. I noticed they also offered tasters for a small price, so you could sample each ale before deciding which one to have. I thought this was a nice touch for people not local to the area and therefore who wouldn't know the ales. They also offered 10% off to CAMRA members (the real ale society) which again I thought was a nice touch and they take their ales seriously and have pride in what they do. They offered a few bottled drinks but it was mostly on draft, and we enjoyed a lovely Stowford Press cider which is one of Henry Weston's somerset ciders. This was a nice change to the usual Bulmers or Magners we had been drinking for the majority of our break. The person we bought the gift pack for really enjoyed the ales, so I can only imagine they taste even nicer on draft.

There were ramps inside the pub leading to the bar at the back and the front door was accessible with lots of space to enable someone in a wheelchair to be able to get round easily. It is not child friendly unfortunately, as per the signs dotted round the pub which I mentioned earlier.