The Waterside, Mill End, Rickmansworth

This Punch Taverns pub finally reopened in July 2015 with new tenants and a fairly major refit to make it more food focussed. Took me a while to get round to it but popped in the other evening to see how it was going and the answer was rather well. It’s all modernised inside with a renovated bar area and new flooring and new furnishings throughout. But the biggest change is the addition of a new conservatory dining room, dubbed The Oak Room, which looks out on a new patio area and pub garden. This now means that it actually has two outside drinking areas as the original space on the other side of the River Colne is still in service, with its few bench seats but now comes a poor second to the new space. It is clearly now more focussed on food and the restaurant section was full and there were several people eating in the new garden area, whom we joined to try the menu options. The menu is slightly above standard pub fare but still reasonable and not bordering on gastro and what we had was very good. There are two changing beers from the punch list served and for our visit these were the very mainstream Doombar and London Pride although they were both well kept. So good to see this one back in action and hope the new landlord and his partner continue to make a go of it.

This isn't a bad pub, but it is forgettable and I thought that the seating arrangement was uncomfortable and there was a smell of food wafting through the pub which maybe emanated from the ‘Bloomsbury Lounge' upstairs. The barman was nice enough, but the disco genre music was a little cheesy and too loud for a quiet week night. Bass and Flowers IPA were available along with a premium lager selection and my Guinness was well served. I noticed a sign on the back wall that was advertising Stella at £2.75 a pint which is great for a London boozer; it's just a shame that I don't drink it anymore. There are better pubs in this area so I doubt that I'll return.

The Whip & Collar is a traditional old-fashioned pub with a bit of character, still keeping a connected Public and Saloon bar with the serving area stretching between them. It’s always fairly busy with the after work crowd when I am in on a Friday and I can guess this is due to the fast and friendly service and the decent well kept beers. Although it is a GK house they do usually have a decent guest beer on to complement the IPA. It is advertised as having a riverside location, but do not get too excited by this in that, although there is a pleasant enough garden area out back with bench seating and a bridge over the River Colne, it is hardly a raging torrent and it is easy to step in it and miss it.