This pub is managed by Sam Smiths and subsequently serves up the very affordable and tasty offerings from the Tadcaster based brewery. York’s most up-to-date pub review website quite likes Sam Smiths pubs, but like the Hansom Cab, one of it’s fellow city centre siblings, the York Arms has a bit of a seedy feel to it.
Rumour has it that this place is a gay bar, and the wholly male crowd that filled the small front bar room during thepubsofyork.com’s previous visits would certainly back this up (so to speak).
There’s nothing massively awful about the pub, but the mainly brown decor feels more tired than rustic, and the crowd always seems a little rough around the edges – but like Wetherspoons, it suffers from the fact it serves cheap beer and is subsequently more likely to be frequented by those patrons who make up grade ‘E’ in the NRS social grade definitions.
It is also always hard to ignore the nagging feeling that there are many superior pubs a tiny toddle away. The Three Legged Mare and Ye Olde Starre Inne are both within a two minute walk and offer, as far as thepubsofyork.com is concerned, a more enticing ambience, a better range of beverages and an altogether superior pub experience.
One thing that the York Arms does have going for it is an extraordinary view to the left upon exiting. It sits in the shadows of York Minster, which along with Cologne Cathedral is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe (cheers Wikipedia) and this is one of the most stunning sights thepubsofyork.com have ever seen upon leaving a pub.
However, if your favourite part of a pub is the view it affords upon leaving then its probably not worth entering in the first place, that’d be like a football team getting itself relegated just so it can experience the euphoria of promotion.
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