JD WETHERSPOON really is the pub for everyone – students, families, young professionals, and retirees. It’s the place for meet-ups, catch-ups, quick bites and long nights. On our Thursday night visit to Llandudno’s Palladium for Curry Club, we saw the whole mix in action. The place was buzzing, chatter filled the air, music played in the background, and – in true Wetherspoon fashion – when a glass smashed, the entire pub cheered.
The Palladium is no ordinary ‘Spoons’. Housed in the former Palladium Cinema, built in 1920, it still shows off its stunning Baroque-style architecture, ornate ceiling and raised seating areas. With such magnificent features and history, it’s no wonder it’s considered one of the UK’s most spectacular Wetherspoons.
A couple of years ago, the pub underwent a £1 million restoration. Over 15 months, craftsmen carefully repaired, restored and redecorated the historic fibrous decorative ceiling, ensuring this striking heritage feature is preserved for visitors to admire for generations to come.
We came with our two children and ordered two chicken tikka meals (with poppadoms, naan, rice and a drink included) off the Curry Club menu. The 'classic curries' are £9.26 with a soft drink / £10.79 with an alcoholic drink and you can choose to upgrade your naan to a garlic naan or for an additional £1.86, make your curry 'large'.
For the boys, we chose a chicken korma and opted for a blackcurrant cordial, while our drinks were a coke and a J2O. A children's menu is available but since our eldest fancied rice, the curry option worked well.
Ordering via the app was simple, though the dim lighting made reading the table number tricky – it almost feels a bit like Vegas where it’s hard to tell what time of day it is. Food arrived promptly and the service ran smoothly. We requested an extra plate for the boys’ meals in person, since the app doesn’t allow for notes. The staff were polite, if not particularly chatty.
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The curries smelt great and the chicken was tender, though the tikka sauce was a little on the watery side. Rice was fine, poppadoms crisp, naan perfectly average. The portions were generous and the boys happily tucked into the korma.
Despite our youngest showing signs of tiredness, we gave in to dessert. Two warm cookie-dough sandwiches and two children’s ice creams arrived swiftly, complete with extra spoons for sharing. The ice creams came in neat little tubs, which the boys dived straight into, and the cookie dough was warm, soft and indulgent. Not quite a ‘sandwich’ as promised, but enjoyable all the same.
The trek to the toilets is no joke - several flights of stairs - but the view at the top is impressive. Looking down across the whole pub and that magnificent ceiling, you get a real sense of the building’s past. Less enjoyable was hearing a staff member 'tut' at the mess left behind by our toddler as we were leaving. Understandable, perhaps, but certainly not intentional, and we tried to clear up as best we could. It was a slightly deflating note to end on.
All in all, the Palladium offers exactly what you expect from Wetherspoon: affordable, speed, a buzzing atmosphere and portions that leave you full. What makes this one special is the grandeur of the building itself and the fact you can lose all track of time once your inside.
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