Ashland Pub

Great place for a low key date night for gourmet pizza & beer/wine.

I was in town to see the folks and take in a little Mardi Gras Mobile Style (yep, just in case you were wondering - Mobile, Al was first - sorry New Orleans).  Anyway, we decided to check out the Friday evening parade and as usual, all of the restaurants filled up downtown.  With some excellent navigation skills by this guy, we ended up in the Mid Town-ish area.  We passed by this place called Ashland Pub - the parking lot was full, but we decided to brave the crowds.  It's a really small place, but fortunately someone was leaving when we arrived.  I would say Gastropub exactly, but it's about the closest description that I can come up with.  They have a fair amount of regional brews (probably could expand that a little) and fair amount of wine selections.  They do have $2 PBR - that's pretty freakin awesome.  The major theme of the restaurant aspect is pizza/Italian.  We had a few people with us that night, so we opted for 2 pizzas - Cheeseburger (I was personally in a very cheesy mood) and the Mediterranean Shrimp.  Both pizzas were excellent!  The waiter said that the Cheeseburger was their cheesiest pizza and that was no lie.  I think it went well with the chunks of burger.  Pesto and shrimp are always a winning combo in my book (just a tad bit too salty) and that combo went well with the thinner more "brick oven" type of crust (I'm sure they don't have a brick oven, but somehow they pulled it off nicely).  Pricing was not bad at all - both large pizzas were price in the lower $20 range.  The service was a little on the slow side, but like I said - it was busy.

Overall, a great post parade experience.  Next time I am in Mobile visiting the folks, I will be back!

My experience at Ashland was nothing to write home about. Everything was "ok" from the service to the food. I ordered the Chicken and Conecuh Sandwich. It didn't list cheese in the ingredients, so lactose intolerant people beware. The sandwich was $8.75 and came with chips. I thought that was a bit pricey, especially when the chips were a bag of Lays. At least serve some kettle chips or something a little bit nicer. My friends ordered a pizza. They seemed fairly content with it although they said the crust was flavorless. Maybe the pasta dishes are a better choice?

The restaurant is small and loud. I feel the space could be better utilized with some bench seating along the wall. The positioning of the tables is crowded and awkward.

The restaurant came off as a new business, still working out the tweeks. Overall, I wasn't thrilled. It was ok.