This ancestry of the app is reflected in the quality of the content. The reviews are generally much more helpful than the typical one-or-two line user reviews you'll find in Local Scout or Nokia Maps.
The app includes recommendations and fully independent reviews for 5,000 pubs across the country and there's the address and location details on an additional 20,000 pubs. You can search for pubs nearby (uses the phone's GPS), by name, by county, by postcode and by tube station (handy when you're in London). Once you've found a pub you like you can add it to your favourites list, pin it to the start screen or share it with friends (via social networks).
Pub locations are shown on an integrated Bing Map, but there's no way to get directions from your current location, which seems like a missed opportunity. Nor is there anyway to copy a postcode of part of an address, which would have been a useful work around. On the plus side you can call a pub or visit its website (where available) from within the app, which is handy if you need to make a booking, and there's also an option to send feedback about the pub to the Good Pub Guide's authors (presumably to be used in a future version).
In the guide pubs are categorised into three groups: approved (pub fully inspected by Good Pub Guide staff and is of the highest standard), recommended (pub fully inspected by Good Pub Guide staff and is of a high standard) and worth a visit (pub has been recommended for inclusion by readers, but has not been fully assessed). In the app search results are shown as a pivot that shows recommended, worth a visit and other pubs on separate pages, which means you'll see the best pub first, but can also eaily view other options.
For pubs that have been reviewed there are also handy symbols, which offer a summary of the services available (e.g. a cask for real ale, a dog if pets are allowed, a pound symbol for good value and so on).
The Good Pub Guide is a decent port of the paper guide to mobile. Yes there's room for improvement, most notably integration with the phone's own mapping and navigation functionality. But ultimately it delivers up what's most important, the pub reviews, in a speedy and consistent manner. Recommended for the frequent traveller and pub lover.
Marketplace description:
Have you read the Good Pub Guide 2012? Consistently the No 1 bestseller in the ‘Where to Stay / Where to Eat and Drink’ book industry chart, The Good Pub Guide has been bringing you the very best pubs in which to drink, eat and stay for 29 years. Now, we are bringing The Guide to your mobile, with the 2012 Good Pub Guide app!
The Good Pub Guide can be purchased from the Windows Phone Marketplace for £2.49. No trial is available, which is a shame, but you are paying quite a bit less than you would for the paper version of the guide (£15.99 RRP, £10.99 on Amazon UK).