In 2002 I was just finishing secondary school and going out into town (underage, I know). This was the year that the Riverhead was developed in Grimsby and numerous pubs and clubs were added to lacking nightlife. Over the years, most of the other pubs and clubs have been shut down, mostly due to underage drinking but Lloyds no.1 aka Ice Barque is the one place that has stayed open the whole time. I even worked there for a very short period of time quite some years ago now.

Ice Barque is easy to see in the town center, either from one entrance of Freshney Place Shopping Center or from the bus station. The pub is large with a glass front which makes it stand out quite well. From the outside, Ice Barque looks nice but the windows can cause problems especially on nights out when people start fights. As soon as you enter the pub, you can see the bar straight ahead and the numerous tables and chairs. There are two raised areas downstairs, one which is used for a dance floor at night times. There is also a set of stairs which leads to a balcony area which has additional seating and another bar. During the day time, this does well as a restaurant but there are also plenty of day time drinkers to be found in there.

Generally, I will come here to eat nowadays rather than for nights out. I don't go home to Grimsby very much anymore but this is always somewhere that is cheap and you know what you're going to get when it comes to food. You can choose to either sit at a normal table or there are comfier sofas and tables if you wish to be a bit more relaxed. The menu at Ice Barque has changed so many times over the past 10 years but there are always some good offers on food.

Food needs to be ordered from the bar, so you can get your drinks at the same time. Once you have ordered, you will be given a receipt and told a rough time for how long your food is going to be. I have found that general waiting times are between 10-25 minutes depending on what you order and when you're visiting. Saturday day times for example are much busier than during the week so you can expect a slightly longer waiting time.

Here you can get 2 meals for £5.99. The choice of meal here isn't very extensive but what else can you expect for that price. On this offer, you can get things like ham, eggs and chips, a superfood salad, chilli con carne or sausages, chips and beans as well as a couple of other choices. While this menu isn't great, there is a full menu available. Ice Barque also offer different themed nights like curry club on a Thursday, steak club on a Tuesday and a Sunday club where a Sunday dinner is on offer. These club deals all include a meal and a drink for a set price where a couple of different meals are available.

The full menu obviously offers a much wider range of food. Here, you can get meals such as burgers, wraps, salads, pasta dishes, numerous meat dishes and sandwiches as well as many other things. On the full menu, you can expect to spend anywhere from £3 to £10 depending on what you order. The BBQ chicken melt is one of my favourite meals to have when eating out here. With this meal, you can a chicken breast, smothered in BBQ sauce, topped with cheese and bacon with sides of chips and peas. Last time I had this it cost about £6.50 and the meal is extremely filling and tasty.

A children's menu is also available although I have obviously never eaten from this! Something else that I love about eating here are the desserts. There is a lot of choice on the desserts menu which is something you don't normally see in a chain pub. I'm always torn about what I want for dessert but the chocolate fudge cake or Belgian waffles with ice cream are really nice. I do think that Wetherspoons in general offer a great menu for pub food and slightly better than other cheap chains.

It has been a while since I have been here for a night out but I know that over the weekend, Ice Barque is open until about 2am instead of the usual 11pm. I know this because of working there more than anything. Drinks are averagely priced with spirits and a mixer costing roughly £2. I tend not to drink anything else while I'm out other than vodka and coke so cannot comment on prices of other drinks. However, for something like a coke, you can look to spend about £1.50. The drinks don't seem to be any more expensive than other pubs which is why the bar always gets so busy on weekends. I did used to really enjoy nights out here but maybe that was because there wasn't much else on offer after the other pubs on the Riverside closed down.

Overall, Ice Barque is a good Wetherspoons pub and one of the better ones in my opinion. The seating areas are always clean and tidy so you don't feel as though you're eating in a mess. The staff are mostly pleasant, more so in the day time when it isn't so busy. The food is cheap and cheerful and you get what you pay for.