Black Dog, Grantham

A Marstons pub, the list of breweries on the pub sign reminds us of the Carlsberg tour of destruction. A long oblong inside with a slightly sunken area to the right, the counter is middle to back on the right. There’s a lot of brick pillars down the centre separating off a back left games area with pool and darts. Uninterested staff didn’t improve things when I was told the only cask beer (Tetleys) was off. There are four handpumps, the reversed clips were for Banks Sunbeam and Brakspears Gravity, at least they didn’t advertise anything on the other pump. A bit of a pubs r us type place, the exterior promises a lot the interior can no longer deliver having been renovated to death, the low nautical like ceiling at the back is still a nice feature. Obviously it suffers from the trio of modern curses; machines, screens and constant music.

The Black Dog is a large high street boozer that had a younger crown in during a recent Tuesday evening visit. To the left of the entrance is some seating that is faced by an inglenook with piles of logs either side of a burner. Closer inspection revealed that the burner has a plug so was in fact a heater. To the right of the entrance is a sunken seating area and the long serving counter runs up the right-hand wall where standard and premium keg is available alongside Neck Oil. I didn’t spot any hand pumps, but I may have missed them. A pool table and dartboard are located in the left rear corner and televisions are found throughout for live sports. There’s a DJ booth for the weekend, but only some background music off a jukebox could be heard during my visit. This feels like a high street pub co venue much like many others up and down the country so I’ll probably walk past next time.

Clearly an old building with a very low ceiling,but Marston's have over refurbed the interior which has lost character and is full of cheap looking furniture.The rear room has a pool table and two darts throws, and sports flatscreens so maybe it gets lively later on,but was quiet on my Monday lunchtime visit. So few pubs in Grantham serve food and it was the food service offering which attracted our visit.Cheap and cheerful ,at least there was lots of it. At the bar 4 handpumps but just two real ales Banks's Sunbeam (NBSS 3.5,cheap at £2.60) and Wychwood Hobgoblin.Expect Marstons portfolio brews in here. Could be so much better with some love and attention,there are far better pubs close by.

Quite modernized inside but retains some distinct areas and a low ceiling. There are some high glass and wood pane in dividers, lit by disco lights on our late evening visit. Some impressively lubricated local punters in situ, with some real urban zoo tales being relayed about other people’s activities in other parts of the pub. Pool table spotted. Four pumps with Hobgoblin, Pedigree, Wainwright (so-so) and Mansfield cask (fine). Perhaps we picked the wrong time to visit but I felt a bit out of place in here and wasn’t too disappointed to move on. 5.5