Authentic British Style Pub?

Yesterday the wife and I had the day off and decided a movie and dinner would be fun. For the movie we went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Which I will say was fun. I think I actually liked it more than the first one. Don't expect high art, but do expect to be entertained. Which is fine by me.

For dinner we went to a new place in Rocky River called The Pub. They call themselves an authentic British pub. Now I have never been to the U.K. so I cannot speak from first hand experience. I kind of wonder though how authentic this pub is. In a pub like this a lot of times my wife and I like to sit at the bar. I think you can get a better feel for the place this way. Unfortunately we were not able to do so here. The bar here is not that large and there were already a number of people sitting at it. The only open seating was right by the door and being a cold day we did not want the constant breeze on our backs as people entered and exited. So we asked for a table. The hostess took us to the enclosed patio side of the place. I guess in the summer it would be fun to sit here, but if you are looking for the pub experience do not let them sit you here. We are talking plastic patio furniture. How is that the British experience? So we went back to the hostess and had her get us another table. The real pub side is not that large. There are a few booths next to the bar which I guess they hold for bigger groups than just two people. The back has a long padded bench on one wall with several tables of varying sizes. We got a very small table which we had to take all the paraphernalia off of to give us room for our food and drink.

We started out with their curry fries which is a dish we first had in a British pub in the Cayman Islands. Sorry but this was not even close to that dish. Then we both got the bangers and mash--which the menu said was authentic British banger sausages. Sorry again but these sure were not British bangers. We were very disappointed in this dish. We finished up with another appetizer since we were still hungry and got the spinach and artichoke dip. That was a winner. The dip was very good and came with really good pita chips. So food wise I am thinking stay away from the "authentic" British food and go with good old American choices.

Where they did shine was in the beer selection. I had the Fullers ESB which on tap was very good. I followed that with a Kentucky Bourbon Ale. Wow! I highly recommend trying this beer if you ever get the chance. I finished up on Young's Double Chocolate Stout. A favorite of mine. They also have an impressive single malt scotch list to choose from along with small batch bourbons. The place got pretty crowded so I would recommend getting there early on a Friday night. Will we go back? I would say yes because of the beer selection. I don't know if I would go back for the food though and since it is a bit of a drive I do not see us heading there any time soon. Which is a shame since it held such promise...

addendum: I forgot to mention the service in my original post. Our server was named Jeff and he was very good. He was always walking back and forth so we never had to wait that long for additional drinks or food. He was also very friendly and I thought honest in his opinion of the food and drink. I noticed the other servers also were attentive of their customers. So I give a big thumbs up on service.