The Eaton Cottage

The Eaton Cottage on Unthank Road is one of the pubs in the golden triangle area that I am more fond of. I offers good beer, a relaxed atmosphere and it is close enough to town and my home.
I recently went in to watch the mighty Norwich City take on Arsenal. I had thought that since the game had an early kick off the pub may not be overly busy but it was full which was good and added to the atmosphere. When I say it was full I don't mean it was literally bursting at the seams but it was more like all the seats were taken and the standing areas were full of football fans. There was enough room to get to the bar/toilet/door so it was still comfortable.
I sampled a pint of Wainrights from Thwaites which was very good, perfect temperature and a very good taste. At 4.1% an easy going drink which could have easily been consumed all day long. I also tasted a pint of London Pride which most ale drinkers will be familiar with. I do think though that Pride is very inconsistent, some places will serve it perfectly but some in some pubs it will come to you and taste rather dark and like a stout. The Cottage, fortunately, serves an excellent pint of Pride and this, to me, shows a pub that cares a little bit more about the beer it is serving.
To finish I tried a local pint, Tipples Moonrocket. Very citrusy but clean and crisp. Slightly stronger at 5% meant it had a little bit of a kick which was appreciated. Definitley one I would recommend to anyone.
The Cottage is a good pub overall, it shows major sports, which I have been critical of in the past but it is a little more cultured with local punters and a few students filling the seats. The beers are good and well looked after and there is also a wide variety to choose from. Inside the pub the front bar area kind of looks like someones living room but it is big enough and organised enough to work as a good seating area. There is a good outdoor terrace with a T.V screen and the pub is in an easy location for all to get to. Without a doubt this place should be a stop on anyones list while drinking around the edge of the city.

The Bread and Cheese

The Bread and Cheese is one of the more interesting pubs I have ever been into. It is like stepping back 30 years, into a completely different time. This pub is more like an old fashioned social club than a proper public house. The clients are mostly of retirement age. I wouldn't say this is a bad pub but there are a few things that really do need improving and updating. The bar is old fashined, made from very thin materials, almost like "put together yourself at home bar". The decoration is well out of date, although you get this in a lot of pub it is perhaps to far in this place. The televisions are miniature and never actually show anything. The music is usually just a radio with Norwich FM or Heart FM on which is just awful and the beer tastes like it will give you a stomach problem which brings me to the final point - the day after I was in the Bread and Cheese I had a serious gut ache. This could be down the the fact that because the Bread and Cheese only serve one real ale I had to drink lager all night.
It is interesting that a pub like this is still in business as we see them close all around us every day and considering there is no real pull to draw customers into the Bread and Cheese I am fearful for the future of the place when its current customers start to die off (which probably wont be too long).
It doesn't seem to do nice food or show any sports however they do have entertainment with local singers in on a saturday night. It is nice to see that there is a local pub which still has a customer base who are loyal and turn up to drink but this pub is going nowhere soon.

Twitter!

I will be adding beer reviews to Twitter and rating them regularly. This will make it easier to recommend quality beers without having to review a pub that has perhaps already been discussed.

Check back for reviews of: The Bread and Cheese, The Perseverance, The Hog in Armour, Delayneys, The Temple and some of the modern bars in town such as Vodka Revoloution, Essence and 100 Nights.

Stay tuned for the Twitter feed which will be up shortly.

Two more very impressive pints!

Another Norfolk Brewer, The Humpty Dumpty Brewery and another fine beer. A bit darker, but not by much than I usually go for. Recently voted the Beer of Norfolk 2010 and considering the competition from the other players such as Chalk Hill, Grain, Wolf and Elm Tree it has done well to achieve this accolade. It is no less than it deserves as it has a fantastic taste. It contains a combination of pale and crystal rye to sparkle it up a bit and it really makes for a good beer. The Fat Cat often have it on gravity and I would give it a go anytime!

Another beer from Grain Norfolk Brewery which makes it onto my list of favourites! I have to say that Grain are fast become my brewer of choice when it comes to real ale. Described as "A full bodied and hoppy pale ale. A strong bitter taste with resinous finish with a hint of citrus" you can definitely feel the citrus and because it is so light it is perfect for drinking with filling you up too much. I recently had a pint in the Kings Arms in Hall Road, Norwich and enjoyed it so much that I bought a cask for myself at home! A must try of any of the Grain beers.

The Earlham Arms - Previously the Schoolhouse, The Fountain and The Pickwick

Not the best pub around, when it was the Schoolhouse it was very much marketed towards students and when it was the Fountain it was pretty much a restaurant so there isn't a great deal of interesting history about the place. Now it is one of those pubs which is in an ideal location and just upsets me that more has not been done to make it a top establishment because it does have the potential.
On the plus side they show every single Norwich City game live and serve Norfolk Grain beer, which I think is one of the finest local breweries around. The last beer I had in there was a pint of Summertime.

This is really a fine beer, one of the best I have tried in recent weeks. Described as "a ludicously light summer ale, with fruity hops and a full mouthfeel" and I have to say I agree. This is a very light beer and perhaps too easy to drink! This pint was the highlight of my time in the Earlham Arms which was over crowded because of the football and when there is no football on the place is dead. Not too bad in terms of price and a fair selection of drinks to choose from but not a place I would put on my list of recommendations.

The Eagle - Newmarket Road

The Eagle on Newmarket Road is a pub which I have always had a problem with. It has never been a pub for real drinkers, a lack of ales and more of a 'foody' feel have detered me from venturing there too often. However, the pub used to get away with it by having an outstanding restaurant but in the last few years it has undergone serious change. I'm not sure if it is because of new owners or just a change around from the managers but it has changed into one of these 'gastro pubs' where you will find middle aged women eating olives, thinking they are extremley cultured. The food has gone massivley downhill and the wine selction is poor. There is no ales on tap and only two lagers to choose from. The pubs attracts customers with a large garde, ample parking and new interior decoration, which I feel has taken away some of the charm that the building used to have. It is expensive and better for a coffee than any alcoholic drink. Not one I would recommend.

The Trafford Arms

The Trafford Arms is one of those pubs which unfortunately I fear for. Currently it is doing good business with a strong customer base and loyal, local, regulars. They serve a good range of ales, a good range of lagers and also home cooked food. There is a pool table and darts and some live sport. However, the pub is unappealing to younger people, it is a little out of the way and the decoration makes you feel like you are in someones living room. Don't get me wrong, I like this pub. The Woodfordes Wherry is perfectly served and the food is well priced and generously served but I just feel that this pub could die out over the next five years. It is lively at lunch times and at the weekends with a friendly atmosphere so I would recommend it for a visit.

 

The beer is well priced with most ales still under £3 and most lagers under £3.50. Although it is not a city centre pub I feel that more could be done with it to maximise the profit and the customer experience. It does feel a little dated, which in some circumstances can add to a pubs character, but this is not one of those circumstnaces.

The Kings Arms

An old fashioned, traditional pub with wooden benchs surrounding the bar and a conservatory/dining area towards the back. Shows a lot of live sport and ALL of Norwich Citys Premiership games. There are usually between 6 and 10 ales on tap along with the standard lagers and Guiness etc. A real drinkers pub and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice pint. On my visit they had Fat Cat Honey Ale, previously discussed and enjoyed in this blog. They also had a selection of Adnams Ales and some Blue Moon Ales which were particularly nice. Very light and perfect for an afternoon session.

 

There are a couple of downsides to this pub. Number one - The atmosphere. It is never really too busy and because of this can seem a bit boring on some days. Number two - The area. The pub is on Hall Road in Lakenham and can occasionally attract one or two unsocial characters which is off putting.

However, this pub is a definite on my pub crawl list.

The Belle Vue

The Belle Vue is one of the pubs that I visit on a more regular basis, purely because it is very close to my house. They usually have a 4 or 5 good ales on tap and the lagers are all kept well. The last time I was in there I had a few pints of Woodfordes Wherry, they also had on Theakstons Old Peculiar which was surprising as I rarely see this beer on tap around Norfolk. The beer was ok, slightly too warm and also maybe coming o the bottom of the barrel as it had that stale taste coming through, making it feel not so fresh.
The pub itself is good, very popular with locals at the weekends and serves food througout the day. The food is, well, generous. You get plenty to deal with. The menu is full of pub favourites (Burgers, all day breakfast, chilli, sausage and mash, etc) and each of them is massive. They are also well priced for the amount you get which is a real bonus. This makes the place popular with younger people and students. The beer is also well priced at £2.80 for a pint of Wherry.
They have a pool table, smoking garden and show all football and sports on a big screen so occasionally you can get some thugs hanging around in there but most of the time it is a good place to be. Defiintely one for the pub crawl.

The Coachmakers

The Coachmakers is a small pub in the city centre, just off the St. Stephens roundabout. It serves a range of ales, lagers and ciders. When I visited on Friday they had 7 ales coming sraight out of the barrels behind the bar, a touch that I quite liked. IPA, Nelsons Revenge, Wherry, Abbot, Mardlers and 2 others that now I forget. I sampled the Wherry, Nelsons Revenge and Mardlers, all Woodfordes ales so produced locally, another nice touch. Out of the 3 my favourite had to be the Nelsons Revenge. Only just beat Wherry to the best for the day as it was that little bit stronger which was just what I was looking for at the time.

It was kept at a perfect temperature and come slightly darker in colour than Wherry, which is probably Woodfordes most popular ale. The Mardlers was more of a stout and much darker in colour and taste. Not my favourtie but would be enjoyed if you like Guiness, John Smiths or Boddingtons.
The Coachmakers as a pub is a nice little pub. Customers range from a few local drinkers to shoppers and students from the college. A good smoking area and live sports and darts board are all nice editions. The pub is very clean without having that modern touch that you might get with a Wetherspoons. Lots of brickwork and old wooden beams make up the interior decoration. The prices are fair and, for a pub in the town centre, realistic for regular drinkers.
I would definitely recommend this pub to anyoone visiting Norwich or anyone looking for a good beer without having to leave the town centre.

The Towan Blystra - Newquay

This is the second JD Wetherspoons bar that I have reviewed on this blog and as they are all pretty much the same I think it is difficult to talk about them in a critical sense, you either like them or you don't. Cheap and handy they can always provide a good stop on a pub crawl. This one in particular was very clean, very tidy and seemed to be serving a lot of families. Most people were eating and there were a few people in there for their lunch time pint, like myself. The ale in Wetherspoons is never that good so I avoided it and went for a bottle of cider, the safe option. It was fine and the whole visit was fine. Family atmosphere, clean and tidy surroundings, no music, some tennis on TV and the regualr wide selection at good prices that you would expect from Wetherspoons. In my opinion not the best but not the worst. Just an average bar, cosy enough and worth a stop for a quick drink.

Brothers Cider

I had a Brothers Cider for the first time when I was down in Newquay and I have to say that I was not impressed. This is unusual as I am usually a fan of something sweet and inexpensive. I had the strawberry and pear version and put simply, it was just too sweet. I like Koppaberg, especially the new strawberry and lime edition, they have become one of the leaders in fruity cider over the last few years and the Brothers version was just too sweet the handle. I could almost feel it eating into my teeth and causing my blood sugar to rise. In all honesty I could see this being a drink for teenage girls as you wouldn't know that it had any alcohol in it. Not my sort of thing.

The Chy Bar - Newquay

I will not dwell too much talking about this bar, mainly because I don't have a lot of good things to say about it. I went there slightly hungover looking for some refreshment. There was only 2 people in the place and I usually take that as a sign that it's not going to be that great. The staff were strange, there seemed to be loads of them but only one that would actually serve anybody. The selection was poor, 4 lagers, a few alcopops, a couple of ciders and that was about it. Everything was sticky and the place looked like it was trying its hardest to stay modern but failing because lots of things were a mess and showing signs of age. The pool table, for example, had loads of stains and required a £5 deposit just for the cues. The terrace area, although providing great views, was like a sancturary for seagulls. The staff were having their own conversation which contained some pretty colourful language and the toilets were unclean. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone.

Fistral Blu Beach Venue - Newquay

Fistral Blu Beach Venue is a bar situated right on Fistral Beach in Newquay. It is world famous because of its connections to surfing. It is a really unique location and probably the best spot if you want a drink on the beach without getting covered in sand. Usually full of surfers and tourists, the interior has lots of comfortable seating for the surf dudes to chill out on. For location this bar is hard to beat, great views out on to the bay, with surfers and watersports to watch for entertainment. As for the drinks they serve, well this is where the bar falls down. I had a bottle of St Austells Tribute which is recognised as a fine beer but in this bar it was kept in the fridge and served at a temperature close to freezing which completely ruined it. A friend of mine had a pint of Guiness which was only half finished because it had a bad after taste. There was not a great deal of the drinks you would expect from a bar like this and there was a large selection of cider which I found a little unusual.
You are not allowed to take drinksdown and wander on the beach and there was a security presence to enforce this which dampened the atmosphere a little. I wouldn't recemmend this bar for a casual drink but for an organised beach party or surf gathering it could be ok.

The Fort Inn - Newquay

The Fort Inn is a St Austells Brewery pub and it has that feel of a chain about it. It is very nice inside and out, it caters mainly for families and serves a lot of food. There is a kids play area inside and outside and because of this I think it is more the sort of place you might go to have lunch with the family rather than a pub for drinking. There are great views across the bay from the terrace and the building itself is a pretty picture.
The beer served is obviously St Austells and there are, of course, the lagers and ciders that you would expect from any pub. St Austells Tribute was formerly my favourite ale but the pint I had in The Fort was not up to scratch. It was too warm and too bitter, considering it hasn't had to travel very far I kind of expected it to be in better shape than it was. The other beer that I tried was St Austells Proper Job.

This beer was in much better condition, the right temperature and pulled properly, which makes all the difference. It is very fruity and you get a real taste of grapefruit. Very light in the mouth and pale golden in colour it is just the sort of beer that I like. On a hot day it went down with such ease it was worrying. It has won awards for its bottled batch and at 5.5% it has a kick which is well received. I would recommend it to anyone. As for the pub, more for families and tourists although it looked like it had a good menu, suitable for anyone.

Last week I went to a student festival in Newquay. This pretty much involved only drinking, bbqs and lots of late night dancing and other antics. I spent most of the daytime drinking in the pubs in the town centre and then the evening drinking by my campsite. The boxes of beer that we enjoyed in the evenings were the standard lagers that you can pick up at any supermarket - Budweiser, Grolsch, Carlsberg Export and Tuborg. Usually for this sort of thing I would always go for Bud but Tuborg were also on offer and they had a handy ring pull cap so there was no need for a bottle opener that would get lost while camping. I was happy that I went for Tuborg, it's probably not the most well recognised of all the big names in the supermarket but I would get it again without a doubt, refreshing, easy to open and at 5% a good strength.

The Woodfordes pub stops of Norwich poster!

Saw this poster on the wall in my friends house. It lists some of the best pubs in Norwich and suggests great routes for pub crawls. I will be getting a copy of the poster for my house and certainly trying some of the routes and some of the pubs that I am yet to visit. Check it out and get hold of one for your own place. Essential for the planning of a great pub crawl!

The Queen of Iceni - JD Wetherspoon

In my opinion most Wetherspoon bars present a bit of a dilemma. On one hand they are cheap, lively, they have the favourites in stock and they are located all over the place so you know what you are going to get. On the other hand they are usually full of strange looking and strange acting people in the day and young, heavily alcohol fueled locals in the evenings. Also the quality of beer from the pump, in my opinion, is very suspucious. I'm not sure what is what in the back at Wetherspoons but I have heard rumours that they buy in the beer in mass stocks for a cheap price because they buy it when it's close to reaching its best before date. Like I say, I don't know if this is just rumour or if it is true but it is something that I can began to think about as I took the first sip of my pint in the Queen of Iceni, Lloyds bar in the riverside complex in Norwich.
I had got myself a pint of Woodfordes Wherry - usually a fine ale, locally produced and well respected but the pint I received yesterday was, well how else do I put it, AWFUL. I am a fan of Wherry I think it's a great beer and although it isn't my favourite in the world I would still go for it above most others, especially when in a place like Wetherspoons, which doesn't have the best selection of real ale.
It was thick, very dark, pulled by an amateur and had that old, stale taste that is unfortunately common place in a lot of Wetherspoons bars that I have visited. This experience upset me so I ordered a pint of Carling just to see if the lager was the same. It was. Far too cold, and in a dirty glass, with that horrid after taste.
The thing is I kind of expected this from Wetherspoons but because it is so cheap and a popular haunt for a lot of my friends I will probably go there again. Not for a casual drink but for a proper sesssion. I will play it safe and go for bottled beers and ciders though, as I do think that Wetherspoons does serve a good range of bottles at great prices.
So what else was there about the place? Although the beer didn't taste great, there was a wide selection as you would expect a Wetherspoons. The atmosphere was quiet with plenty of people eating. I can only say I would never recommend any food from Wetherspoons to anyone after seeing some of the stuff that was put on peoples table and through my own experience. In the evenings I know the Queen of Iceni is more of a party bar with loud music and because if its large size it gets lots of clubbers drinking themselves silly before they go on to dance the night out somewhere else.
It's not the best pub in the world and the beer isn't great but its handy location, its cheap prices and selection of bottles make it one that you would maybe visit for a party night out.

 

First Review - The Fat Cat - Setting the standard

I'm going to put it out there - the Fat Cat is in the top 3 best pubs in Norwich, if not the best. Located in a quiet residential area, it has won many awards including the 'pub of the year' award from the good pub guide and CAMRA for 6 different years. It is a fairly small pub but the beer list is far from small. They usually have around 35 real ales on tap and then a selection of fruit beers, ciders, lagers and wines and spirits as well.
What makes the pub so appealing to real beer drinkers is the fact that they have their own brew available on tap and it's not just some juice than they've knocked up quickly in the back room. The 4 different house beers that are on offer are brewed in Norwich at the small brewey in the Brewery Tap pub in Lawson Road. They are all very popular and offer top class taste. Personally my favourite of their own brews is the Fat Cat Honey Ale, quite bitter with a sweet undertone, very easy to drink, quite light at 3.8% and very refreshing. Always served at the right temperature with a foamy, bubbly top just to cap it off.

The pub also offers ales from brewers across the country with regualr slots for Elgoods, Castle Rock, Woodfords, Adnams and a range of other breweries and micro breweries. Last night I sampled a pint of Burton Bridge Golden Delicious. Obviously had a slight apple taste but very bitter and very tasty. Another one which seeemed to fall back all to easily. The beers that I drink more often than not are light in colour and not so thick that they make you feel really full. The Golden Delicious was very good however, I also had a taste of a regular beer in the Fat Cat - Oakham Inferno. This is a fantastic ale, again at 4.0% quite light and perfect for a session. Not difficult to drink, lots of citrus flavours but still bitter. Really refreshing and one you could easily sit and drink in a beer garden for hours on end.

So, if I refer back to the few things that I said would make a good pub:
Good, tasty beer - well the Fat Cat certainly has this, in abundance. The beer is well cared for and not just thrown in for the purpose of mass sales. The lager tastes how it should and not old and sweaty. All of the fruit beers are kept well and you just feel that you can order your drink in the peace of mind that you know the barperson will return with a quality drink, whatever you order.
Atmosphere - the pub is always bustling, a hive of activity. There are, of course, the regular drinkers and also a collection of students who are probably attracted to the prices and the strong drinks available. The place is clean and tidy with a traditional feel, lots of hanging items on the ceiling and lots of old pub decorations and artwork on the walls. There is no carpets so there is no horrible smell of old, stale beer that has been spilt.
Choice - don't really need to talk much about this. The pub has a mass collection of real ales, popular largers, a large choice of spirits and whiskys, fruit beer, fruity wines, ciders, weak drinks and very strong drinks, 50 different bottled beers, something for everyone really.
Company - the pub only shows the main sporting events of the year and less football than other places so it's refreshing not to have the loud mouth, thuggish football fans around, swearing and talking trash all the time. Also the promotion of the ales rather than lagers or cheap alcopops means the crowd is generally a bit older which means getting involved in a discussion is easy and everyone is friendly. The bar staff are well informed and drinkers themselves, not just some minimum wage kids. There is no loud music so it is a very sociable place to be with friends and other drinkers.
The beers that are on offer in the Pub really show that the place is dedicated to real drinkers who want to sample good tasting beer and not just a beer which has been bought in to provide an alternative.
For more information the Fat Cat website is www.fatcatpub.co.uk and they have a facebook page and are located at 49 West End Street, Norwich, NR2 4NA.

Current favourite beer

My favourite beer is changing constantly, it can be the same for a week and then change ten times in a day. I think that most real drinkers will experience something like this. Currently my choice is the Adnams East Green ale. The carbon neutral ale is advertised as a beer from the coast and is produced in Southwold in Suffolk. It's light, easy to drink and relatively inexpensive. You can get it in supermarkets and off licenses for around £1.80 which is a good price for such a refreshing ale.
It's called carbon neural because it's sourced from local sustainable ingridients, using an energy efficient brewing process and offsetting any carbon costs of distribution. This is in keeping with Adnams traditions as they look to become totally carbon neutal as a brewer.
Adnams call it a "light, golden beer with citrus and grassy hop aromas, dry and refreshing with well balanced bitterness", it comes at 4.3% and is good for a session. It is rather dry and some people have commented on the other flavours being too subtle but because of the lightness combined with the bitterness I think it is a really refreshing beer especially with the summer approaching.

What makes a good pub and a good time?

What makes a good pub? Everyone will have a different answer for this question. In my opinion there are a few criteria that have to be met in a pub to give a good experience:
1: Good, tasty drinks. If a pub or a bar serves you a pint that tastes stale or has that old flat after taste then it is clear that they are not taking care of their lines or looking after the beer in the correct way. This is the number one thing that puts me off as the point of going to a pub is to drink, if the drink isn't right then the pub isn't right.
2: Atmosphere. When you enter a pub, if the barman is asleep, if there is strange drum and bass music pumping out of the stereo or if the place is falling down on the only customer in the place then it's fair enough to suspect that it's not the going to be the best place in the market. The place doesn't have to have lots of modern features, just evidence that a little care has gone into making the drinkers comfortable.
3: Choice. I want to go into a bar and have a few different things to choose from to make sure the session stays interesting. I want to have something a bit stronger, something with a bit of a different flavour, something you can shot, something you can savour and something which can take the session up a level if needed. If I go into a pub and they only sell one beer, their own special brew and a cheap and nasty wine then I don't think I'm going to have a great time.
4: Company. Could be regarded as part of the atmosphere but I think company is one if the most important things when it comes to having a good time. Obviously you want your friends around you when you go for a drink but if everyone else in the bar is 17 years old, or if every other customer has a long white beard and a ropey old dog then it might not be the best place to go. Similarly if the pub is always full of loud blokes shouting, swearing and spilling drinks all over the place then it can ruin the time for everyone.

These are a few of the things that I think are important for a pub or bar to be a good place to go for a drink. I will refer back to these when talking about some of the pubs that I visit. This is not an extensive list and if you think there is anything else that is critically important for a bar to be a great place then comment! 

Introduction

I am going to talk about pubs, beers, food and generally all things about drinking and having a good time. There are a lot of pubs in Norwich, probably too many to get around, so I am going to try and review some of them and discuss what's good and what's not.
I am intereted in real ales, lagers, wines, whisky, vodka, bar food, ciders, pub football and anything else which is part of a pub atmosphere.
If you know of any good pubs around that are maybe not as well known as you think they should be then please contribute to this blog!