Britain's ideal pub serves food as YouGov reveals features of the country's perfect boozer

What would your perfect pub look like?
What would your perfect pub look like? Credit: David Rose

Would your perfect pub be a quiet, cheap, cosy place to have a pint or a gleaming gastropub?

The latter seems to be what Britons would prefer, as a new YouGov survey has shown the UK's number one desired trait in a pub is that it serves food.

Although what Britain's average pub looks like - and certainly the food it serves - may have changed, most of the requirements of the perfect pub have stayed the same since 1946, when George Orwell detailed what an ideal boozer would look like - the fictitious “Moon Under Water”.

YouGov's study showed at least half of Brits agree on five key characteristics their ideal public house would have, four of which featured in Orwell’s essay. 

One point which has changed is that while Orwell thought it was essential the perfect pub sold tobacco and cigarettes, this comes right at the bottom of priorities for most Brits.

The perfect pub
The perfect pub Credit: YouGov

However, while Orwell said the most important trait of the perfect pub is that it has a beer garden, Britons now think the number one quality is that it serves meals.

The Telegraph's Michael Deacon agrees that the perfect pub should serve meals - but it is low down on his list of what makes a perfect pub and "it should have no pretensions to being a restaurant, and certainly not an upmarket one. Scampi in a basket or steak and ale pie. Take your pick."

Also in the top five features are the presence of a fireplace - the only one in the top five which is not in Orwell's lsit - bar staff knowing regular customers, and selling snacks.

Further down the list - and not on Orwells - are that a pub should serve real ale, host live music and have background music, and host pub quizzes.

Perhaps controversially, 27 per cent of those surveyed think the perfect pub does not allow children.

The least essential feature of a pub is that it should have fruit machines, with only five per cent of Britons saying it would feature in their perfect boozer.

Women care more about food than men, with 74 per cent of women saying they'd like their perfect pub to serve food compared to 60 per cent of men.

Men appear to care more about real ale than women, with 46 per cent saying it would be an essential feature of their ideal boozer compared to 28 per cent of women.

 

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