Formerly known as The Commercial HotelAddress:
Pubs Galore page
Facebook group
Ceredigion CC historical pub info page
Last APG visit: 04/03/2011
Background: Originally a comfy boozer back in ‘97, this place went for a full-on refurb and emerged blinking into the daylight as a binge drinkers paradise – an IKEA cocktail bar. Became massively popular and has remained an integral part of the circuit ever since, though it's starting to get rather tatty round the edges.
Student factor: 75% student. Some younger locals on a weekend, not that you’d notice.
Atmosphere: Veers from dead at 7:30pm to major crush at 8:30pm. Some evenings it will take you five minutes to get from one end of the bar to the other which is lethal if you’re desperate for a slash. Quieter outside of term-time.
Atmosphere: Veers from dead at 7:30pm to major crush at 8:30pm. Some evenings it will take you five minutes to get from one end of the bar to the other which is lethal if you’re desperate for a slash. Quieter outside of term-time.
Drinks range: Star Wars and University-themed cocktails, with their ingredients, are plastered all over the walls on slate discs; don't be a tool and ask for a menu at the bar. Cocktails are pretty much the only reason to go in. They’re not cheap, but they’ll do the job and they are big – most come in pint glasses. Biggest of them all is the Death Star – two pints of what looks like muddy water from the River Rheidol and one of those will be more than enough to get you bouncing off the walls. Service is normally pretty sharp, the staff in here earn their biscuits. Token real ale (Pride or Hancock's HB) not that it gets drunk much.
TV/Music: No TV, but ‘pumping’ music gets progressively loud during the evening, often ending up at unnecessarily ear-splitting levels after 9pm.
Other stuff: Pool table, which is permanently booked after 7pm. Food is served during the day, Sunday lunch is rumoured to be decent. Toilets often poor. Cambrian was the scene of the infamous hit-and-run egging incident of Halloween 2006 - hopefully the management have learnt to lock the side door on that particular night now.
Quinno’s verdict: Probably the best student bar in Aber. Notice I said ‘bar’, not ‘pub’; this a place for vertical binge drinking only. Don’t expect to make interesting conversation with the person on the next table (or indeed, opposite...). The interior and exterior are now getting pretty grubby, perhaps this is attempting to an invent a new cocktail genre.
