Criterion, Leicester

The Criterion is quite an ugly50’s/60’s building located at the end of the best congregation of Leicester’s inner city pub. A long standing entrant in the good beer guide I was optimistic of a good pint in here especially knowing that the Landlady at the best kept beer pub in inner city Leicester in my opinion (Broood) used to have this place. I visited on a Saturday evening and the place way dead. A long bar round across the back wall with seating on the right hand side. The insides is very old and warn and looked completely void of care bordering on shabby, I like old fashion boozers but this was just old and pretty naff. Everything said that This pub was just ticking over from the lack of custom to the almost empty bar with a sparse few bottles in the fridges and a few optics. The pubs of which there were many were only half filled with half Market Harborough beers and half guests from unexciting breweries such as Nobbys which all ranged between £3.20-3.40. I had a pint of the MH Bitter and this was disgusting! Warm, flat, murky and tasting like soup! This was swapped for the mild which was just as bad...we left ¾ and walked out. How this pace gets in the Good Beer Guide I will never know. And can only assume there has been a drastic change of fortune since the previous landlady went to brood. Even Market Harborough Brewery has dumped this off to Dhillon's Brewery of Coventry. This was a pretty dire pub and if this gets into the guide this year then I’m afraid this is hard evidence furthering the argument against the credibility of the good beer guide. I hope the new brewery can make the appropriate changes because god help me this place was awful.

It is a while since we have been to this pub, and we found an impressive display of beers available. We chose a beer from Market Harborough brewery which did not impress those of us drinking it, but the ones from Pig Pub and Oakham were a bit better. Very quiet for a Friday we thought.

Agree that the building promises little from the outside and the front bar is equally basic and boxy with a large area to left for the dartboard (£5 refundable deposit on 2 good sets darts), very studenty vibe. The rear bar is much more pubby with some dark wood & booth seating. Regardless, it is certainly a beer pub, with barrels replaced within minutes of running out. Slaters Top Totty & Premium, Oakham Bishops Farewell, Spire Dark Side of The Moon (mild), Rugby Web Ellis & 1823 (mild), Sadlers Worcester Sorcerer, Old Rosie.

Dull-looking building with a plain but comfortably furnished twin-room interior. Regular live music advertised. However, it is the beer (and cider) that is the draw here, with a decent selection from ten handpumps (including my pint of Potton Gold, £2.80, which was a bit hazy but tasted fine). Worth seeking out if in the area

This is a fairly unattractive pub set in one of the city’s less aesthetically pleasing areas, but don’t let the looks put you off, as inside is a decent, two room ale house. The front door takes you into a corridor, with a front bar accessed through a door to the left. This room has a bit of a public bar feel to it, with some smart settles along the front wall, a covered pool table at the far end, a dartboard and a TV screen showing a 24h hour news channel. Numerous pump clips line the wall, hinting at the delights to be found on the bar, but the room was deserted when we arrived, so we retreated to the rear bar instead. This room has been carpeted, with a drinking ledge opposite the servery with some books and CAMRA literature on it and a juke box to one side. The room opens out to the right and some standard chairs and a few pews provide adequate seating options. The walls are decorated with various items of brewerania, much of which is from the Low Countries, amidst which hangs a map of the Netherlands. A few unusual spirit bottles have been arranged in one of the window sills. The ale range covered most styles, with the options on our visit being Oakwell Barnsley Bitter, Muirhouse Ruby Jewel, Black Iris Great Eastern Transatlantic Porter, Great Heck Citra and Blonde, Hop Bomb Explosive, Potton Gold and Hilden’s Barney’s Brew, with two real ciders tying up the final hand pumps. I gave the Transatlantic Porter a try and found it to be well kept. Aside from the decent ale policy, there’s not much that really stands out about this pub, yet I still really enjoyed our visit. It has the feel of a welcoming community based local’s pub in the middle of the city and I thought it was well worth including on any crawl around Leicester.