RegalPub

MoonShadow concurs. The food is comparable in both price and quality to any other chippy or fast food restaurant. (Although the curry nights are said to be quire good, MoonShadow hasn't made it to one, and MoonShadow's prejudice says that MoonShadow will probably prefer the TandooriPalace anyway.)

PeterTaylor reckons some of the food is better than the average chippy, and recommends the ChilliConCarne?. With rice, obviously. Also, they have a two-meals-for-about-3.50 offer which is pretty good value-for-money.

MawKernewek thinks that the curry night is good value, except for the time I visited with a group of Boaties when there was no curry, or indeed food of any description available.

M-A, can you explain how you managed to achieve this remarkable feat? >:> --MikeJeggo

Vitenka doens't know where it is, either.  Surely TheCastle is somewhat more unmissable, being on a major road and surrounded by basically nothing?

Hmm, I still fail to see any attraction the Regal has, other than to people looking for somewhere cheap to eat that's nicer than MacDonalds? or BurgerKing?.

MoonShadow: It serves alcohol.

(PeterTaylor) 1. The food is cheaper _and_ nicer than either McD?'s or BurgerKing?.  2. Coke is a lot cheaper than most pubs.  3. Alcoholic drinks are a fair bit cheaper than most pubs.  4. It's big enough that you can go as part of a group of 20 - before CityChurchCambridge moved to CheddarsLane?, a crowd of 20-30 students used to decamp to the RegalPub for Sunday lunch most weeks. Very few other places would accommodate such a crowd.  5. No music. Sometimes that's a bad thing, but sometimes a good thing.

Good pubs should have some kind of atmosphere, which is certainly lacking in the Regal. On Friday and Saturday nights the centre of town is somewhere to avoid; being at ChurchillCollege I sometimes go to TheGrapes? or the pub in Coton (can't remember its name) which tend to be slightly less packed. -- Hawk

Is that ThePlough?, or the other one (can't remember its name either). -- Senji

IME ThePlough? is the only pub in Coton worth going to. -- Emperor

It's the only one I've been to, but it gets positive review points from me.  Friendly and a good atmosphere. -- Senji

Personally, I find the lack of atmosphere refreshing. On weekdays the Regal is a pleasant, neutral place to meet and talk with friends without music, huge clouds of cigarette smoke, or other 'atmosphere' getting in the way. On weekends it's too loud, but no worse than anywhere else in the centre and in fact considerably better because of its sheer size. I'm not quite sure what 'atmosphere' adds when all you want is somewhere to drink and chat, and where what you're interested in is the people you meet and not where you meet them.

Comfort, and other psychological doobries.  TheRegal? has big empty ConsumerCulture? boringness vibes.  It's OK if there's a reasonably sized group of you there, but small huddles often feel quite small huddle-like, rather than bunch of friends at pub for a pint like.  It's nice to get to know the BarStaff? too...

MoonShadow: PubAtmosphere is not smoke and music, IMO. In fact, smoke and music are the opposite. It's thick stone walls, a thatched roof and a roaring fireplace, with that wonderful Christmassy smell that pre-central-heating buildings have, and a friendly barman who recognises you when you come in. It's somewhere with lots of cosy quiet nooks and crannies where you can settle and chat without the people at the next table joining in (or getting up and running away when they hear what you're actually talking about) should you want to. It's probably somewhere that serves RealAle. Some of the regulars might play chess or bridge, some others might get together with the barman's family for a barbecue every so often, and invite whoever's around in the pub when they're planning it - not because of a pub chain marketing promotion, but because they want to, all of them at once. An atmospheric pub is, rightly or wrongly, one of a community's hub points. (dons his well-used, tattered FlameRetardantSuit)

Mmm, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of.  Well said :) -- Senji

When I was 10, I used to really like McDonalds and BurgerKing?. Now I prefer TandooriPalace and ErainaTaverna?. When I was 14, I used to go underage drinking with my friends in the local nightclub. It made me feel grown-up. When I got to 16, I suddenly discovered that going to a place full of 13-year-olds in the middle of their rebellious phase wasn't fun any more. When I'm out with my friends, of course I'd rather go to the Regal than not go at all, but I'd rather go somewhere with PubAtmosphere than the Regal if it's a pub we want, or a restaurant (even one of the cheap ones on MillRoad, or the YingWah?) if it's food we're after. Then again, that's just me - I'm sounding like an 80-year-old codger there, even to myself :/ And I don't have *that* much against the Regal - every so often I get a craving for a burger, or whatever, and I certainly tend to enjoy the time there when I do go with friends and it's not packed full of people. It's just that there do exist better things.

I agree about PubAtmosphere, MoonShadow.  The CambridgeBlue and GreenDragon? both display a fair amount of it.  And there's even sometimes space in the former to get in for a drink on a Friday or Saturday (haven't tried it at the latter, which tends to be a Sunday night venue AFAIAC). --MikeJeggo

Well, I have to disagree. Roaring fires and thick stone walls are nice, but I don't want a barman who recognises me: I want a barman who brings me drinks with the minimum hassle. I don't want to be invited to barbecues. I don't want to get to 'know the regulars'. I just want a space, preferably aesthetically pleasing (which the Regal is, an an art-deco kind of way), in which I can talk to and drink with my friends, with the minimum of interruptions from 'atmosphere'. ChiarkPerson

That's just the thing, though, isn't it? I can't talk to my friends whenever we go to the Regal. I can't hear them over the noise :( - MoonShadow

Simple solution to that: steer clear of the place on Saturday and Sunday evenings. And steer clear of most of the pubs in Cambridge while you're at it. In general I find the Regal nicer because its sheer size means the noise is diffused, whereas somewhere cramped like the Kingston it is hard to hear people.

I once got told off for telling them the wrong table number for some food.  Apparently, I should have known that my table couldn't have been number 91, because that's an outside table number, so my table must be number 16... --M-A