The Green Man

There is certainly no shortage of pubs round these here parts in Kingsdown and I’ve been to most of them. They do say variety is the spice of life so during regular meets with a pal of mine who lived near me in Cotham I would always suggest somewhere new and this rarely failed to disappoint. We walked into the Green Man during some kind of city wide organic beer festival which meant they had lots of organic stuff on tap and in bottles and were stamping loyalty cards for free booze. What better incentive to try a load of new beer and cider?! It is also a fab pub to sit down and have a good old catch up with an old mate. There is a caveat though; if you don’t like cats or are allergic to them then I’d probably give it a wide berth as there is a resident black cat who comes up and nuzzles up to people who encourage it. Meaning not me.

Quite possibly Bristol’s only organic pub, but I’m happy to be proven wrong! This is a busy little pub with a great atmosphere. On the way here my drinking partner in crime and I witnessed a face-​off between a cat and an urban fox — amazing! That doesn’t tell you much about the pub though does it?
Well, nestled away between St Michael’s Hill and Horfield Road, I suspect the charm of this place is due to how relatively unknown it is outside of the local area — I certainly get the impression that this is a local pub for local people. Not in a League of Gentlemen way though, far from it.
We were welcomed in with open arms, having no idea about the organic food and drink on offer. The barmaid was lovely, letting my drinking buddy sample lots of organic (and local) ales while I tried an organic single malt whisky. Although a little on the expensive side, the drinks were delicious and I got that warm, smug feeling inside knowing I’m doing my bit for local businesses and the environment.
Quite possibly my new local, I would defiantly recommend this pub to anyone conscientious about what they put in their mouths.

The Green Man is a great pub. It always has fantastic drink deals, friendly atmosphere, magnificent selection of ales, fun events and good service. This is all amazing, but unfortunately leads to the pub’s one downfall — it is so popular that even finding a space to stand is difficult. The Green Man is always rampacked especially when there is a special night on. However, the wait is worthwhile both in terms of quality and because the experience is kind to your pockets. The feline resident George is a staple drinking buddy and is always centre of attention. I would recommend coming here in the early evening before eight o clock to make sure you have a comfortable drinking experience here.

This is a nice little pub on the backstreet of Cotham/​Kingsdown (depending on your viewpoint). It’s a pub associated with the Green Brewery, and sell ales of the same name. The ale we tasted was nice; not too heavy and a wholesome taste, but the price wasn’t great; £3.20 for an ale is quite steep, especially for a pub like this where you’d expect it to at least match the cheap prices of their rivals around the corner (cotham porter stores). The atmosphere is quite nice, though I’ve never seen it busy in here — it feels like a real locals pub. They won’t look at you too threateningly if you do decide to come for a drink though. I think the owners have a dog who is usually in the pub, which provides some cute entertainment.

The Green Man is a really nice pub in the Cotham area. It is tucked away off the main road down a little side road and can easily be missed. There is also no signs apart from the one outside the door. It is quite a small establishment but offers all you could ever want/​need from a pub.
There are special food evenings, in particular Krishna’s Real Curry Night every Tuesdays is really good. In addition they do a good Sunday Roast. But probably the best thing about the Green Man is that all their ales/​beers etc are all organic and from local areas. All the food they produce is also all organic and from local farms which in my opinion really enhances the flavour and its nice to know that your money is being fed directly back into the local community. They also have an extensive 20+wine list which I am slowly eating my way into!
Definitely worth a visit… if you can find it!

I visited this pub after work at around 9pm and was one of about 6 people in there. It was rather nice to get some peace and quiet after a busy shift, but without any music or rumble of chatter, the atmosphere was somewhat lacking. My friends and I found a box of games under our bench; an old school set of tiddlywinks, a box of dominoes and several chessboards. I chose a pint of cider; organic of course, which tasted pretty vinegary and we soon moved on back to our local for last orders. The Green Man is a cute pub, but the beers are expensive and somewhat pretentious. Perhaps a pub like this would be better located somewhere in town where it could draw more environmentally aware individuals and reach its full potential.

I’m a bit of an organic sceptic, it all seems like an racket to sell expensive vegetables that haven’t been washed to me. This meant I delayed going to the Green Man for a while, which styles itself as an organic pub.
Fortunately, being organic just seems to mean they have different range of beers than usual, the prices aren’t that cheap, and there is lots of green decoration. No major differences to a normal pub. I don’t know what I expected from an organic beer, but the pint I had here, called Green Barrel, was certainly drinkable. They didn’t have any largers on tap when I went down which was a bit annoying, but apparently they usually do.
I think there was one other customer when I went, this being a Monday night. I like a place that’s a bit quiet but there wasn’t really any atmosphere here because of it. I imagine things liven up a bit around the weekend though.
There’s a food menu that follows the organic theme, and the peace and quiet means it would probably be a lovely place to have Sunday lunch. It’s not too badly priced, though you can probably buy two meals for the price of one down at Weatherspoons, not that I would particularly want to do that. The Green Man could do with being a bit busier and is nice enough to deserve a few more customers.