Golden Shield, Leicester

Another village local that was busy with a mix of drinkers and diners on our Sunday lunchtime visit. Abbot & Landlord are regular beers here. The guests were Knowle Spring, Doom Bar & Hobgoblin. A discount is offered to CAMRA members, but there was nothing I fancied amongst what was a fairly bog standard ale range. A barmaid was trying her best, but was struggling to cope with the increasing number of drinks orders being thrown at her by waiting staff, such that I'm not sure if she calculated our drinks order correctly. £6.10 certainly seemed steep for a half of cider and a soft drink, especially compared with other local pubs. Local drinkers were all of the elderly variety. But they were all in good form, reminding me of Last of the Summer Wine. An expensive pub that would dearly benefit from some more varied and perhaps local ales.

Although The Golden Shield is on Main Street, this is in fact to the west of the main road through the village so if just passing through you'll miss this, as I nearly did on returning from Leicester races. The building is solid and traditional with dated furnishings including the, now rarely seen, swagged curtains. There's a lovely fireplace with an adjoining table suitable only for the shortest of short people and an artificially glowing coal fire. Seating spreads around the bar and to the rear of the bar is a large restaurant area. I didn't look at the restaurant menu but the bar snack menu had various standards on all for under £5. Our flying visit was early on Friday evening and the place was rapidly filling up with good natured regulars sharing a joke with the friendly landlady. It made for a good atmosphere. Beers on: Langton All H'Ale, which was decent, Banks Bitter, GK IPA and Abbot, Caledonian 80/- and TT Landlord. A reasonable, if uninspiring, selection. I'd happily pop in if passing but would probably make the detour to the Chandlers Arms in Shearsby.

On entering through the front door with the serving bar directly infront ,to the left is an Inglenook with seating around but only a coal affect fire while to the right is an L shaped carpeted section with an area called Amen Corner which contained a flatscreen (off),a quiz and fruit machines.The seating was mainly benches with traditional tables while the windows were leaded.It had the feel of a comfortable lounge.At the rear of the building is a restaurant with table service,although there were cheaply priced bar snacks if that is what you are after.There are six handpumps which were drawing on my visit GK IPA,Abbott ,Langton Hop On,Caledonian 80 shillings,Banks's Bitter and an outstanding TT Landlord (£3.10),properly served via a tight sparkler and the best I've had outside Keighley.On that basis alone I feel this pub would be a worthy entry in the GBG and given Mr Winfield also found Oakham Bishops Farewell in here,I would definitely seek this pub out again when in the area.

The Golden Shield is set sideways onto the road,this is a largish old looking pub. Once inside there was a comfortable bar at the front this was L shaped,this room was carpeted and had tall chairs at the bar and comfortable seating in the main room,there was a smaller seperate dining room to the rear. There was a decent choice of beers on the bar with six real ales being on i had a drink of Oakham Bishops Farewell and this was a very nice well kept pint,the other beers were Taylor Landlord, John Smiths cask, Theakston Old Peculiar, Banks's bitter and Gk Abbot. The pub was fairly busy and seemed to be popular with older drinkers. Pub visited 9/12/2011