The Crockerton

Why, oh why, do people visit Lloyd’s? My complaint isn’t with the chain itself, which although pretty dreadful in general, has its better bars.
I just wonder why anyone wants to go to Lloyds in the middle of town and have a pretty awful time when they could go to any of the good, individual bars around the centre.
As with my criticism of Live Lounge, I’m going to level the majority of my complaint at the people. We all know what Lloyds offers; a bland, open bar, a dance floor and cheap drinks. What makes the whole experience bad are the hundreds of absolute idiots that turn up in droves and just want to be a pain in the ass. As a bloke I don’t suffer from this but I do pity girls who are forever fighting off the advances of Cardiff’s finest ‘I only have 10 words to use in conversation’ berk.
On my last visit, one of my girlfriends was followed all over the bar and actually blocked from going where she wanted. Great pulling tactic chap; entrapment. A bottle of Chloroform and his night would have been complete.
If you like sticky floors and being chased around by scowling, walking STD’s then this is the place for you.

This is simply just another wetherspoons and a personally I think a rough one at that. I’ve been here once and never again. The music was so loud I could barely hear my friend who was sitting opposite me.
The food as expected is really cheap and there is wide selection of booze but the atmosphere, just isn’t nice and the people who normally frequent this place seem to be rowdy and I simply don’t feel comfortable in this bar. It’s a personal thing so by all means go and check it out, but for me personally I don’t like the vibe it gives off.

Lloyds bar is situated on the row of bars that is Greyfriars road. Now, during the day, I am quite happy to go here, I like Wetherspoons, what is there really to not like about them? Cheap drinks, cheap food and afree wifi, hoorah. But the turn the clock on a few hours especially on a weekend and this place takes on a whole new lease of life, one that I’m not a fan of.
You will have to pay to get into Lloyds later on a weekend party night, you even have to queue, oh the horror. Once you’re inside, you’ll hit a mass of annoying dancing people, which just doesn’t seem right. I thought Wetherspoons didn’t even have music let alone a dance floor. It’s just my idea of hell in this place on a weekend, busy, dark and not a pretty building to speak of as other Whetherspoons tend to be.
Go here in the day, I’ll let you do that, it can be a relaxing place to be in the day, just how Whetherspoons should be.

Lloyd’s Bar is one of the more lively bars situated on Greyfriars Road. With reasonable drinks prices and good, inexpensive food served daily, Lloyd’s is a great place to stop off in the day for a bite to eat or in the evening for a pint or two on a night out.
Also, the atmosphere here on rugby internationals is one of the best in the city, although the bar is so popular on these occasions, after a while, it can be a hard task to move and you will soon find yourself a little too intimately acquainted with the people around you.
While not quite as fun as its neighbour, Varsity, it is still a really good bar to go to start a night out.

This used to be where we’d go for our pre-​Barfly drinks. I’m not entirely sure why…
As far as pubs near to Barfly (or Oceana, depending on what you’re into) go, it’s okay for a few pre-​club drinks.
As far as pubs in general go, and particularly Wetherspoons, it’s not so good. Nowhere near as lovely as the other Wetherspoons in Cardiff. And of course, being a Wetherspoons, it’s nice and cheap.
Unfortunately it’s very popular with creepy guys and hen parties, which isn’t the greatest company to be in. It also has a really weird kind of dance floor type thing going on, that is right in the way of everything, so you can’t make it from the bar to your table and definitely not to the toilet without having to navigate your way through a crowd of embarrassingly drunk thirty-​somethings and dodgy looking blokes.
Convenient starting point if you’re on your way to Oceana or somewhere else nearby. If not, there are much more pleasant places to have a drink.

Eugh. Reprehensible little choad of a place. One star!
… Oh, alright. I’ll do an actual review of the place. Not that it deserves any more words wasted on it.
I’m a fan of Wetherspoons, generally; they’re great, fun, chilled out places that are perfect for starting off the night. The drinks are cheap, the customers aren’t at that utterly blasted stage of drunkenness where they’re a nuisance to everyone in the surrounding five miles and it’s just a good place to hang out, laugh, chat and enjoy the start of a good night.
So; fun, chilled-​out and not filled with drunken louts, ploughing into tables and scattering drinks about like a puppy into a swarm of pigeons. The exact opposite of The Crockerton.
Not to cast aspersions on places, but this has a lot to do with the surrounding bars; The Crockerton is the perfect place to start before going to Oceana and Tiger Tiger. Oceana and Tiger Tiger are the places where attractive girls go out in groups to dance and have a good night, so it makes sense that all the gross, lecherous and violent men in Cardiff would want to follow them, and having them start in The Crockerton results in nightly fights, glassings and assaulted girls.
It’s just that kind of place. Don’t go there unless it sounds like your kind of place.

Ah, yes. The Crocketon. If you’re heading out to neighbouring bars like Laguna or Oceana for your evening’s revelry, then it’s the perfect haunt to catch a cheap and early tipple (it being a Wetherspoons and all).
As you can imagine, The Crockerton boasts cheap booze, but what surprised me on a few occasions was the quality of music blaring through its speakers. It is the only bar I’ve ever been to that’s played «Do You Love Me?» by The Contours, prompting a mass exodus to the dance floor where we (or maybe it was just me) pretended like we were in the iconic scene in Dirty Dancing — you know, the one where Baby is the watermelon transporter.
Anyway, the Crocketon is livelier than any other Wetherspoons I’ve been to, although it can be a bit too crowded at times. A word of advice: Avoid it on evenings when a rugby or football game is scheduled — it’s like hell with the lid off.
Another word of advice: The bouncer at the door will ID you if he deems it appropriate, so baby-​faced patrons will need to remember to bring their identification.

So this a Lloyds No 1 Bar, aka Wetherspoon’s with music!
The food is all the same and they have all the same drinks promotions, but it also caters to a bit of dancing in the nights.
Food is cheap and you pretty much get what you pay for. There’s a great selection of drinks and its great to have local choices too.
All in all, I’d probably say this is the perfect pre-​club bar. Its pretty busy at the weekends and has a good enough atmosphere with some super cheesy music. Not really my kinda crowd but hey it cheap!