Perkin Warbeck

Outside of glasgiw probably largest and emptiest Weatherspoons i have been to. Taunton is an arid place when it comes to good beer. The selection of beer at thus Weatherspoons dud not improve thus view.

Food is ok, price is cheap enough and deal days or burger and a pint for under a fiver is good value. the Perkin is in the centre of town and I would rather take a walk to the coal Orchard at the bottom of town as it is less busy and the service is better for it. you cant go wrong in a «spoons» really for a budget bite to eat and drink.
They are now open for breakfast from 7am and the breakfast deals are good £1.79 for a breakfast roll and a drink.

I’m becoming a big fan of the Wetherspoon chain as the meals are such excellent value and good quality, and the service is usually quite fast as well. There are lots of vegetarian choices and a couple of vegan ones too — more if you count some of the panini on offer. The curries are delicious!
I went to this Taunton branch yesterday for lunch and particularly liked the ‘booths’ (comfortable ‘settles’ with tables) over on the right hand side because they are such excellent and private places to chat without being surrounded by other people.
The pub seems very dark when you first go in from the brightness of the outside world, but once you become accustomed to the mellow lighting it’s very pleasant.

Perkin Warbeck was a guy who was a pretender to the throne of King Henry VII. He pretended to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the princes that Richard III alledged did in in the tower. In fact, he was probably some Flemish bloke who saw a chance to become King. He went first to Ireland, and then to Scotland to try to get some support and money and troops together. It didn’t work. Then he came over to Cornwall, which had just had its own rebellion against the king over taxes imposed to pay for war with Scotland. He wanted to capitalise on the bad feeling of the Cornish against the King. He trooped through the south west of England gathering support, until he was arrested at Taunton by the Kings army. He was taken to the tower of London, and gruesomely done in by hanging, drawing and quartering.
The pub named after this unhappy and unsuccessful character is reasonably cheap, reasonably cheerful. There was no jukebox or radio, the tv was showing news about the snow with no sound but the subtitles were on. Good that there was nothing of tha racket youngsters today call music. We had fish and chips twice with a cup of tea for £3.20 each. Not bad, possibly the best that can be said of this place, its not too bad. Be careful if you are small and stand at the long bar, its easy for you to be obscured from the barman’s vision by bigger people.

Exactly what you would expect. Reasonably priced medium quality food. Standard menu but little atmosphere. Plus points — popular with all ages and you can get a curry and a pint for fiver!

I understand the need for this kind of pub. Cheap beer and food thrown in, but I dont like it. It is is long and very dark and uninviting. Its a macdonalds with beer! Mothers take their children in at lunch time so you get the pram/​tattoo brigade in there a little too much. The staff always seem run off their feet and never smile. The carpet looks like it is sodden with beer and tears and to be honest one of the last places I would go to in Taunton. I am sure though if I was 18 and single I might feel differently.

Dark all day and basic, no frills menu. Cheap and cheerful and ok if you’re in town and want a quick snack.

It’s the same story with the Perkin at every other Wetherspoons pub you’ve been to — cheap drinks, carbon-​copy food menu, and that’s it.
One thing to bear in mind is that technically it’s not a Wetherspoons bar, it’s a Lloyds No 1 — which means it’s the same as a ‘Spoons, but all the food is about 20% more expensive.

I’m not a citizen of taunton or a regular visitor. It was infact by chance that I happened to be in taunton in need of some refreshment when I discovered the Perkin Warbeck.
Firstly — what a name! All pubs should have odd names, maybe the government should make a law about it (however, I think it’s fair to say that their is enough Government Legislation in regard to the UK pub trade at the moment).
So walking in expecting a reasonable sized lager only pub, to my surprise this pub just goes deeper and depper, it’s like a Cave of Wonders, and I was Aladdin. They had twelve real ales, a half dozen fruit machines, and at the far end, through the family section a Cider bar to match any I’ve seen with 8 ciders /​perries on tap.
The thing with this pub is that it caters for everyone, (as most weatherspoons do, for it is one of them). The perkin has the typical JD weatherspoon menu. The food was very good compared to other pub chains i’ve been to. Alongside the cider and real ales was the lagers the alco pop drinks etc. It’s the kind of place you could bring the family to on a saturday daytime for lunch and come back that evening and stay all night.
The last real good point was the entertainment, live music seemed the order of the day atleast once a week.
Now the bad points. This pub could be five stars so so easily. Sadly it’s missed out. The décor is awful, it’s like a tacky night club with booths thrown in for intimacy, which don’t fit in with the overall theme. With it being so long and thin it’s extremely dark inside, most pubs are quite dim but surely they can buy a few more lightbulbs.
Speaking of quite dim brings me to the bar staff. As per most weatherspoons, the staff excluding the bar managers don’t really have a clue. The ones I met were somewhere between useless to standard. The time it took to get served here was very slow, despite their not being many customers. I’m being overly harsh because this really isn’t a major problem, bar décor and staff this place is excellent. I imagine some people really like the décor. I imagine the same people also like designer sports wear.
A great pub for all, from families to real ale and cider fans via lads on a night out. come here.

There is so much to say about this pub and so little time… You would think for a Wetherspoons (OK, so now a Lloyds No1 bar) it must be fairly similar to all those other flat-​pack chain pubs across the country. But that would be to underestimate its importance to the drunks of Taunton over the last 10 years. It was the first of the pile-​it-​high chain to come to town and is easily the biggest unit in Taunton. My own personal history of drunkeness is inextricably linked to it, having worked two stints behind the bar there before and after the millenium, and I was reassured to see on a recent return that a Friday night was predictably packed with talent and the bar rammed as ever. Brings a tear to my eye…