The Old Sun, Ampthill

An evening match against Premier league newcomers Ampthill Town meant we could visit The Old Sun. Picked from the 2012 Good Beer Guide we found the pub easily on Dunstable Street to find an ample car park around the back of the pub.

It was a pleasant evening so we opted to sit outside, but I can imagine that on colder evenings the pub would be very cosy with what looked like a real fire. 

Outside the pub were many signs advertising its various evenings entertainment, including a charity football match against another local pub. According to the Good Beer Guide The Old Sun did do bar snacks but as we had all eaten before leaving we did not sample their food.

Young Thomas was peckish, for a change, and popped next door to the Ampthill Fish Shop. The chips were very nice as we all tucked into Tom's chips when he popped in to use the loo.

The Old Sun is a lovely pub with a good range of beers and a fairly good sized decked beer garden in the rear with a bouncy castle for the kids. As a Charlie Wells pub it has he usual suspects Adnams, Director's and London Pride.

Rating 4/5

Railway Hotel, Greenford

On our way to the first match of the season against the London Tigers we popped into The Railway Hotel in Greenford, which holds a Cask Marque and is part of the Flaming Grill chain.

On arrival we had to pay to park in the pub car park (1 GBP). This may be the norm in London, but seemed unusual to us from leafy Dunstable. We were reassured by the locals that we would get our money back when we ordered at the bar.

Froggy was in the chair and had ordered the drinks. Five drinks came to £11 which must have been wrong, but we're never one to knock a bargain. The young bar steward must have been confused as he forgot the change from a £20 note despite the cheap price.

Just time for a quick slurp whilst Dad's not looking.

A quick look at the menu and the food was ordered, which was all reasonably priced. Whilst no longer a hotel this pub has got character but the choice of background music left a lot to be desired, even more so as I do find background music annoying in pubs.

Anyhow, the grub turned up on sizzling plates and was very impressive. The mixed grill was superb and others had BBQ spare ribs and cheese and bacon burgers all of which met with approval.

Mixed grill on a sizzling tennis racket.

As we were running a little late, thanks to traffic issues in Dunstable, we only had time for the one drink so had to rush off to the ground. We arrived at the ground just in time for kick-off.

All in all, our away day was a success (despite having to change a tyre on the way home) and we aim to return to the Railway for our FA Cup tie against North Greenford United in a couple of weeks with enough time to sample it's range of real ales.

Rating 3/5