I have certainly seen some pretentious establishments in my wandering around London, but I do find the occasional one that’s good to eat and drink in. My primary purpose for going to a pub is to drink good beer. My definition of good beer is craft cask ale (occasionally bottled craft). The food comes second. So many put the accent on food and then serve crap pints of pseudo-Australian sheep dip or another ice-cold bland ‘brewed under licence’ in the UK swill.
Yes, the food is often overpriced in these places, but so is the beer, and if I have to pay £6-7 for a pint, it had better be something darn good. The swill as mentioned above can be had for a quarter of the price at the ‘offy’ at the end of my road (which of course, is helping to kill off pubs!).
Surely, too, by definition, Wetherspoons is a chain of ‘gastropubs?’ The food might be basic, but at least I can get a decent beer in most of them; my nearest one has a well-kept cellar, a decent variety of ales, and isn’t full of noisy kids (of the young adult variety).
On the other hand, some of my favourite watering holes are small shops converted into taprooms. Great beer, often brewed on the premises, and although often quite spartan, are small and intimate enough to lend themselves to making easy conversation with fellow drinkers. Food options are usually crisps or peanuts, and even they are often a more reasonable price than the £1.50 I’ve been charged for a packet in a gastropub.