The Royal George

This is a typical student pub. Drinks are the cheapest around and service is good too. The food is good for what it is, helping’s are plentiful but just not that filling.
Very strange crowd in here on some days which has put me off this place a bit. You can really have some fun in here though, great place to start a night out before you head in to town

If ever proof were needed Roath dual calendar-​based identities — during university terms and all other times — The George provides it in spades. During the summer it’s haven to handfuls of dedicated drinkers who give off the impression they’d eat undergraduates if only the food here wasn’t so goddamn cheap. And the grub will, indeed, make Wetherspoon’s look like rip-​off merchants by comparison. Once the autumn rolls around, it’s a very different story: packed to the gills with students, particularly on the more raucous weekend evenings. The blasting jukebox can be rather integral to enjoyment on the latter occasions, especially as happens more regularly than you might think, somebody pumps in a bunch of pound coins to hear the back catalogues of Oasis and The Fratellis on repeat. It wouldn’t exactly offend anybody looking at this review (ie those who can read) to suggest it’s difficult to manage a particularly enjoyable night out soundtracked exclusively by lad-​rock. But the George’s thrifty prices make everything else a mere distraction in general, not least if you get stuck into their rather great selection of ciders. Careful as you stumble out the door homeward bound though, because chances are you’ll have to negotiate Roath’s most lethally confusing road junction in the process.

‘Yo’am from Dudley?’ asked a group of guys in the beer garden of this cheap and cheerful student hangout. And so, after a few minutes of bonding over endearing questions such as ‘how am yow?’ and ‘Yo’am alwright, aer kid?’ we formed special friendships built on ‘ow we spake’.
As my years of studying ground on, this became my reliable local and my home-​from-​home. What started off as a place which echoed familiar places became my new frequent hangout
This is a theme carried on through the George not just for me. To bring a special local touch, tables have been customised with maps of the area and subtle touches here and there allow the place to break from the generic.
Although I can’t speak for the boys, the girl’s toilet has quirky little details — I shan’t spoil the surprise!
But, décor and dialect aside, perhaps the best element of the George is that you always know what you’re going to get. I used to have a flatmate who we could bring into the pub blindfolded, turn around ten times and she would still successfully manage to recognise and indicate her usual order on the menu.
Just watch your wallet, though. I saw a man stroll over, lift my friend’s wallet then have to cheek to pretend he was just doing it for a joke. Likely story!
URBAN CHALLENGE: Find a new friend from near your home-​town.

Yay for Scream pubs, the more of them the better I holler. This Screa joint is situated out in Roath, amongst no other pubs really, so not the ideal choice when on a pub crawl. This can be a local to many a Roath living student, so be prepared for this to become rather busy on your weekdays when they can’t be bothered to venture into town.
This particular Scream pub has the one floor and is rather large in size, booth seating is scattered around as are the large TV screens to view the live sports. They also have a little outdoor seating area out the back that is well lit and nice for those warm evenings.
I do like Scream pubs, I find them interesting, the drinks cheap and food pretty good. This one is a little out of town but brilliant if you are one of Roath’s dwellers, go enjoy it.

The Royal George is a scream pub, get yourself a student yellow card and get a10% discount approximately on all drinks for a £2 card. The prices are only reasonable after you have the yellow card. Sometimes they sell pints for a pound, «ca-​ching».
The location was great for me when I lived in the area. The pub is situated on the 5 spoke junction from mackintosh place, albany road, city road etc. I wouldn’t want to stumble out drunk, as I might as well jump in a coffin.
The place gets packed but never to the point where you are waiting to long to get served, food has never been good especially as the seating and tables aren’t setup for food, so you’ll end up leaning over to eat which doesn’t help digestion. The student offers are what people go there for and the football matches on the massive projector screen. It has little character though and I always went elsewhere for a better night out if I was in a more adventurous mood.
The leather seating in some parts of the pub are highly sought after so getting there early for a big matches is recommended.
It a noisy place and the toilets are below par standards.

I must say I was very impressed with the Royal George. All my friends happen to be smokers and therefore whenever going on a night out with my friends the one thing that crosses my mind is if the smoking area will be big enough to facilitate those who perhaps aren’t smokers so that can have a good time and not be talking to their friends through a haze of thick fog. The George delivers and the smoking area is fairly open so non smokers can enjoy their drink. Like some of the other reviews have stated that the drinks are cheap and with the Yellow card you can get a discount but what I found pretty cool (speaking as guy) was the range of premium beers that were sold.
The pub located in the middle of Cathay’s so in term time be prepared for it to be overrun by students, during the holidays the George still has its group of regulars who are just as much as part the furniture as the pool table. I would definitely say this is the place to start a pub crawl or to go for a quiet pint one weekday evening.

I have mixed feelings about The George.
On the one hand, it’s in a good location that’s easy to get to, especially for students who usually live around the Roath area. This makes it a good meeting place and starting point for a night out.
The drinks are cheap, and, being a Scream pub you can get discounts with a Yellow Card. However… I only ever order something that comes in a bottle. Anything else I’ve ordered from this place has either been flat, watery, or just tastes terrible. And I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been given the wrong drink. At least when you order a bottle you know what you’re getting and you can see if it’s wrong before you take a big mouthful of what you thought was Stella and turns out to be Strongbow.
It’s usually packed with students, which can be a good or bad thing depending on whether you’re a student, and how many students you can cope with. I have also found that there always seems be a high frequency of chavvy boys who hound girls and can’t take a hint when their company isn’t wanted.
The quiz night on Mondays can be a good laugh though, and for smokers there’s a heated, sheltered area out the back.
The food’s supposed to be pretty good too, but after all the problems I’ve had with drinks in this place, I’ve never risked ordering anything.
Not somewhere to go if you don’t drink or are planning on staying sober.

The Royal George is known simply as The George by the people who regularly frequent this popular pub, and being Scream pub since 1996, the people who regularly frequent it are somewhat inevitably students. Before it was taken over by Scream it used to be Clancey’s Irish Bar, and although some of the old guard still use the place, the mood and tone have changed beyond all recognition.
The George is one of two Scream pubs in Cardiff, with The Woodville being the other. I’m not too enamoured with the idea behind the chain as I’m none too keen on the whole sports pub thing. Scream pubs seem to feed students a diet of beer, burgers and sport at discounted prices, with a loyalty scheme that just keeps them coming back for more. Nevertheless, this is essentially what a lot of them want, and so they would naturally find these things for themselves if it weren’t all put together in a tidy package for them by Scream. There’s no denying the popularity of the place during term time!

Thanks to its central Roath location right on Death Junction, this is a popular student drinking hole — but for those of us who are no longer students, it only leaves you wishing you were!
It gets heaving during term-​time nights later on in the week and at weekends, but during university holidays it’s inevitably far quieter.
The staff are friendly, and they usually have some cheap drinks promotions which help to pull in their target audience. There’s a decent beer garden outside, too, although this shuts about an hour before the pub closes (presumably due to noise restrictions in such a residential area).

This is a really great pub, right in the middle of Cathays, so normally frequented by students. They are part of the chain of pubs to offer yellow cards, which you buy for a few pounds and then use to get discounts on your drinks throughout the year.
My housemate and I went looking for tickets to one of the student club nights (because sometimes the union box office sells out before these places) but decided to stop for a drink.
It was really sunny and hot and having a refreshing drink in the cool was just heaven. Unfortunately there isn’t a garden, so far as I am aware, so if we had wanted to bask a little in the sun’s rays we would have been disappointed.
The prices are pretty standard for the pubs around here. However, that means that they are actually really cheap and you’ll be surprised at how little a drink costs, especially if you’ve come from London.

First visited this pub around 1997, when I was a student and it was Clancy’s Irish Bar. Thing’s haven’t changed much, it’s still a popular student drinking hole, though thankfully the brown walls, ceilings and radiators have been re-​painted something a little brighter.
The Royal George, once a hotel, became a kit pub in 1999 and is part of The Scream chain. The pub is spacious, serves cheap food, has two pool tables, lots of flat screen TVs (seemingly showing sport non-​stop), a jukebox and a beer garden. It’s hectic in term-​time and rarely empty outside of student season.

Very busy student pub which, if you are like me and aren’t a student, you might want to avoid at the weekends and during term time!
For students I imagine it’s fantastic as there are lots of drinks offers and it’s really centrally located (right on Death Junction).
I do like The George during the summer (when most of the students are away — sorry). The beer garden is pretty cool, I love the outdoor pool table. It’s a shame they have to be so rigid about getting everyone out of there a good 40 mins before they close — tough luck if you are in the middle of a game!
Note of interest — I love the painted toilet doors: the entrance to the ladies looks like a bar of chocolate. Very cute!

The George is ok if all you want is some cheap (ish) food and a pint of an afternoon but of an evening it tends to descend into something resembling a sardine tin. Even with the garden open (and they shut it an hour or so before they close) space it pretty limited so go in the daytime if you want to be able to breathe.

a pound a pint on a tuesday hot food 2 pool tables sky sports great quizzes a bit studenty but its cheap so it to be expected. great little outside garden nice friendly staff great little pub.