Lunch at The Zachariah Pearson on Beverley Road in Hull

The Zachariah Pearson is a J D Wetherspoons pub on Beverley Road in Hull. There is a car park to the rear, although it could currently do with resurfacing, and some chairs and tables at the front of the pub. The place was visited early on a Sunday lunchtime and was pretty empty with only a few people in initially, and only slightly busier when it was left. In addition, because J D Wetherspoons venues don't have any music playing or television sound, it was also quite quiet.

Wetherspoons pubs have a number of different clubs running on different days; on Sunday this is the Sunday Club, which is a choice of a roast (including a vegetarian option) with a drink, as well as the option to have a reduced price dessert. The Zachariah Pearson sells a range of breakfasts, grills, traditional pub food, sandwiches, toasties and paninis and salads and pasta dishes.

Cutlery and serviettes are brought out with the food, and packet sauces can be had from a table in the pub itself. Wetherspoons pubs have no table service, so you must choose a table, make a note of the number and then go to the bar to order your food, which is brought over to your table when it's ready.

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The Zachariah Pearson, 386 Beverley Road, Kingston-upon-Hull, East Yorkshire, HU5 1LN.

The drink ordered was a draught Pepsi, whose price was included with the main meal, although this one was increased in size to a pint for an extra 30p. This was as good as can be expected from a draught soft drink.

This was a Mexican Dog, which came with a portion of chips and six beer-battered onion rings. The Mexican Dog is a hot dog in a bun which is topped with salsa, guacamole, grated cheese and chilli peppers. The dish is served on a rectangular plate, befitting a dish whose principal item is rectangular in shape. As mentioned earlier, this is one of the meals that includes a drink in the price, from a range of hot, cold and soft drinks, as well as wine, spirits and beers.

The hot dog itself looked to be close to a foot long and was served in what seemed to be a baguette, rather than a hot dog roll. The chilli peppers the hot dog was topped with were fairly large pieces of raw green chillies, not jalapeños or cooked green chillies as might have been expected, and so were actually quite hot; in fact, probably too hot for at least some customers. This may have been a mistake, as dishes of this type tend to be blander than this.

The chips were not quite overdone, but close to it, being a bit crispier than they should have been. Otherwise, this was an enjoyable enough main meal, although eating all the raw chillies was not feasible.

The dessert was a Belgian Waffle with Ice Cream with maple-flavour syrup. This is also available with strawberry & blueberry compote. The waffle is warm, and had two scoops of vanilla ice cream next to it, with the maple-flavour syrup poured over the waffle.

This is a partly warm dish because of the waffle, but the plate it was served on was unfortunately also warm, meaning that the ice cream was melting quite rapidly.

The cost of the meal including the drink came to £8.99. The service was today slightly on the slow side, given how empty the pub was, it taking ten minutes for both main course and dessert to be served. This wasn't due to the amount of custom, as the pub was, as mentioned, pretty quiet.

Having to return to the bar to order more food or drink due to the lack of table service is not especially convenient when you are visiting by yourself, particularly during busy times. This is a known factor in these pubs though.

This is not gourmet food, but is usually not bad, so overall, this is reasonable food at a reasonable price. 2.5/5.

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