Leeds Pub Quizzes: Dock Street Market

When: Mondays at 8pm

Where: Dock Street Market, Dock St, Leeds

The cost of a round: Bizarrely, licensing problems meant there was no alcohol on sale that night, so alcoholic drinks were purchased from the off licence. Soft drinks are £1.50 but the most popular menu items are the teapot cocktails, which range from £12 to £16.50.

The quality of the crisps: Kettle Chips, usually a very respectable choice but they’d sold out of salt and vinegar which was very disappointing.

The cost to enter: It’s free!

The questions: Eight or nine rounds of six questions with standard subjects such as sport, general knowledge, geography and literature. Musical intros are NOT my strong point, but luckily my friends are slightly cooler than I am so all was not lost. The questions started easy in each round and got significantly more difficult; a nice balance, I thought. They did tend towards the kind of question where you either know it or you don’t, rather than the type where you can make an educated guess or where you’re racking your brains for half an hour because you know that you know it. I don’t know which is more frustrating, though!

The experience: This was different to your average pub quiz because Dock St Market isn’t a pub, really; it’s more like a college café that happens to stay open at night and serve booze. It was quite chilled out with a friendly crowd, and it’s quite a small venue so it felt pretty cosy. It was a nice change of atmosphere, really. The drawback was the limited seating. We were lucky to get a table! But, you can’t penalise a place for being popular, so I’d just advise getting there early. The quizmaster spoke clearly, which is a huge plus for me, and it was all quite light hearted and laid back. The food is delicious; one of us who hadn’t eaten ordered a goat’s cheese salad which was just incredible. The game of bingo in the middle is inspired, and very rowdy, although I do apologise for the false alarm when I claimed I had a full house. I didn’t. With prizes for team names, the quiz, a bingo line and a full house, it’s fairly hard to go home empty handed, although we managed it.

The verdict: Overall I had a cracking night. Dock St Market has a great atmosphere and is really friendly and fun, and the bingo game added a nice twist to the evening. 4.5/5

Leeds Pub Quizzes: The Adelphi

When: Tuesdays at 8pm

Where: The Adelphi,Hunslet Road,Leeds

The cost of a round: £10.90 for a gin and tonic, a pint of Leeds Pale, an orange juice and a sparkling water.

The quality of the crisps: Salty Dogs in a variety of flavours including chicken tikka, sweet chilli and strong cheddar and onion along with your usual suspects. Top notch and a huge hit.

The cost to enter: 50p per person

The questions: Four rounds of ten questions, each on a different theme, with another ten questions in the picture round. The themes vary pleasantly, and this time included famous cats, film quotes and religion. The film quotes were difficult in a desperately frustrating way (‘I’ve heard that voice before, who the hell is it?!’) while the current affairs just required a fairly sound knowledge of the news. Which we did not have!

The experience: This is where the Adelphi let us down, unfortunately. The only table we could find, despite arriving 30 minutes early, was in a dark, dingy corner with no light at all. We were given two tea lights to see by, but still had to use our phones to light the pictures so we could even start guessing who they were. The table next to us seemed nice enough until the answers were read out, at which point they let out an earsplitting ‘BBRRRAAAAPPPP’ after every answer. (I don’t know, apparently it’s something the kids are doing?) Finally, at the table opposite was a man who stared almost non-stop at us throughout the entire quiz which made us quite uncomfortable. Whether it was an attempt to cheat or a very misguided effort at flirting, I don’t know. All in all, we finished the quiz feeling more like we’d been working than like we’d had a few drinks with some mates. Yet I can’t help but think that this was an experience very specific to this visit: I’m quite tempted to give it another go, sat in a lighted room and hopefully near more balanced competitors. I suspect I’d enjoy myself a great deal more. On the plus side, the quizmaster had buckets of personality and excellent diction, so not all was lost.

The verdict: This quiz has potential, and excellent crisps. The pub has overall a nice atmosphere and some impressive bar snacks, but it was spoiled by the (lack of) lighting and our rowdy neighbours. 3/5