Thepubsofyork.com should know better. It ought to be able to resist visiting this establishment late on a Saturday night after it has spent the day sampling the drinks and interiors of many of York’s finest pubs. Occasionally however, more drinks are sought in order to slate a slowly diminishing thirst and one of the only spots to obtain a pint of beer without having to pay for entry during the very early hours of Sunday morning is The Artful Dodger. And it’s pretty shit.

The layout and décor of the place are strange. The large bustling front area is the only part of the pub that you might want to get sat in.

There’s room to stand by the bar, but here you’ll be close to the draughty fire exit, the smokers who huddle around this egress and the rude, unfriendly bar staff. There’s a tatty area between the far end of the bar and the toilets that, when thepubsofyork.com visits is always cold and empty (like Scarborough in November?).

The management at some point in the past seem to have gone for a Mediterranean, terracotta type vibe on the walls, a look which would look conceited in a Tapas restaurant, let alone in a boozer with Sky Sports.

To be fair, there’s a decent array of drinks on offer, with people often waxing lyrical about their Landlord, while Old Peculiar has been sighted in the past too.

There’s a whole host of spirits on offer and they’re often displayed in extravagant colourful displays to no doubt entice female hockey teams to gracefully celebrate their latest victory while necking luminous sugary treats.

The Artful Dodger has a big screen and the subscriptions that allow them to show live football and other big sporting events. They even have mini screens on the beer fonts so that thirsty fans don’t have to miss a kick.

Its position at the foot of Micklegate makes it the best of a bad bunch, in the same way that Charlie Kray wasn’t quite as mental as Ronnie and Reggie. It is essentially a late night supplier of pints that can be entered free of charge, however Plonkers Wine Bar down by The Ouse does the same thing much, much better.

December 2009 - thepubsofyork.com paid a visit here during the very early hours of Christmas Eve 2009. York’s most up-to-date pub review website arrived here after visits to several cracking pubs and was, based on past experience, a little worried that it would have to shift from real ale to something far shorter and stronger as it marvelled at the snow covered streets outside. It needn’t really have worried as since it’s last visit the Artful Dodger’s management had wisely elected to stock a selection of tasty real ales. A wise choice indeed in the opinion of thepubsofyork.com, less welcome was the Christmas Eve hangover that the consumption of these extra beers seemed to induce.

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