It would be wrong to pick a favourite out of the two. The Tame Otter is a better pub and does good food but The Red Lion has got a local, friendlier feel to it and possesses a fantastic beer garden.
I am sure that Shelley will vouch for the fact that I am not a fan of beer gardens that aren't proper beer gardens, The Horse and Jockey in Sutton Coldfield springs to mind of a perfect illustration of my point. The beer 'garden' is effectively tables and chairs over looking the pub car park which is situated near traffic lights on a major road junction. Compare that vision with the view of the beer garden at The Red Lion.
Although I'd been on the Aspall cider in The Tame Otter the prospect of a pint of Sharps Doombar was too good an opportunity to miss so I reverted back to drinking ale. Lack of Aspall meant that Shelley went onto Th*tcher's cider which she commented, in contrast to Aspall, tasted quite sweet. I was quite surprised as surely anything carrying that name would, by definition, be bitter and leave a very unpleasant after taste !!
The beer garden was nicely full but we managed to secure prime position with a seat in the sun. One unpleasant consequence of v*lla's win against Chelsea the previous day was the predictable abundance of people in their rarely worn v*lla shirts. There were three in the beer garden at The Red Lion that day including one on a small child. This blatant act of child cruelty made me want to contact Esther Rantzen at Childline !!
We were entertained as we witnessed a domestic on an adjacent table. The lady in question was unhappy that her other half had taken her out on the proviso that they were going out for an Italian meal, but, as she loudly informed the pub, all he had done was 'spend the day drinking' . How we laughed when he unashamedly told her that her hunger was 'all in the mind' !! Unsurprisingly at that point she stormed out !!
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