The Prince Albert, Ely

Located in something of a residential side street, but nonetheless only a few minutes stroll from the town centre and even closer to the cathedral, this is a pub of two halves with a classic no frills boozer feel at the front, but beyond that quite a contemporary area used as a restaurant with some more adventurous and expensive dishes available compared to your usual “pub grub”, although these made an appearance too. The front bar is quite traditional as mentioned, and not especially large. Blue patterned carpet was on the floor and plain plasterwork on the walls, cream in one half and slightly more brown on the other. Red button back bench seating was fitted around much of the perimeter, with regular chairs elsewhere. A couple of old black and white photos of the locale were on the walls, but little else of any note. Beyond this was something of an anteroom with black and white chequered tiling on the floor, and on past this again the restaurant. This had fresh whitewashed walls along with feature wallpaper down one side, rustic tables and pale green paint on the woodwork. Beyond this again was a good sized patio area and beer garden. The menu offered a decent choice of dishes, including pub favourites such as fish & chips, sausage & mash or beef burger as well as options such as sea bass fillet and a number of steaks. I went for the fish & chips, which at just a few pence short of £20 was certainly not cheap, but it was a generous portion and very tasty. Beers on tap were Tiny Rebel Cwtch, Rocket Ales Black Knight Mild, Black Sheep, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Tribute and a trio from Greene King with their Hopping Special, Abbott Ale and IPA whilst yet another pump appeared to have run out. Ciders meanwhile were Old Rosie and Rosie’s Pig. Overall, well worth taking a slight detour to check this out.

Official site of The Prince Albert - www.princealbertely.co.uk

Official site of The Prince Albert - www.princealbertely.co.uk

A Greene King backstreet boozer…but fear not! It's a superb place selling a range of great cask. A fairly simple and neutral interior with Farrow & Ball tones but enough variety to break things up a bit, with a welcome pub carpet. To the rear is a surprisingly large dining area and garden. Eight pumps, 2x GK and a variety of others plus two ciders. Spotting the old skool ceramic GK pump clips I decided to chance the IPA and was thrilled with the result, miles away from its usual malignant grot and really drinkable (NBSS 5). Couldn't quite repeat the trick with the Abbot but it was still pretty good (3.5) so I sank a couple more sublime IPAs. Barman had a tie on and there was cheese and scotch eggs gratis at the bar. A quiet pub, with just convivial chatter. Super. Why this isn’t GBG23 listed is a mystery to me, but thanks to this website’s fellow travelling topers I put it on my list and was immensely pleased I did. I rather liked Ely and if I moved here I’d make sure I wasn’t more than a few minutes away from this one. 8.5

This is a lovely back street local, multi-roomed and traditional, though with an extension at the back which helps to accommodate more diners. The two front rooms have been knocked into one, with the bar counter in the right hand side. There are 10 hand pumps (see photos - note the old fashioned pump clips for the Greene King beers), which seems a lot for a small pub, but there was no doubting the quality of the Black Sheep Bitter that I had, the best I've had since more than two years ago. A bit of a shock to be charged £2.45 for a half, but the blackboard in the next room listing all the beers shows they are all approaching £5 a pint. Nevertheless, I congratulated the landlady for the beer as I left.