The Plough, Norwich

Set on an attractive street in the historic part of Norwich, this is a two bar pub that serves as the brewery tap for the Grain Brewery. As you enter, the servery is located to the right, where you will also find some bench seating and bar stools, but no tables in a cramped space that can be awkward to access in order to see what is on the hand pumps. The servery looks fairly modern and is split level, rising as you move further back towards the rear bar. The front left space is pretty appealing, with a semi-partitioned raised seating area with standard tables and chairs and a nice looking fireplace on the end wall. The rear bar is very simple, with bare floorboards, half panelled walls and white uppers plus what appears to be a large carpet covering most of one wall. A high shelf had a particularly impressive display of twigs and the seating options were limited to high tables and stools. A side door leads out to a patio garden with a small grassed area to the rear. A contemporary soundtrack played throughout my visit at a surprisingly loud volume and the customers were a strange mix of trendy young townie types and grumpy old men. On the bar there were five Grain beers available on handpull - IPA, 3.1.6, Blonde Ash, The Best and Slate. Having had an outstanding pint of the 3.1.6 earlier on in the day at The Cottage, I decided to try it again here and whilst it was once again a very enjoyable pint, it wasn't quite as sparkling as in their sister pub. Staff were friendly enough, which is more than can be said for the group of miserable old sods who were sat at the bar and refused to budge to allow people to pass and see what was on the handpulls. I found this pub to be a bit of a mixed bag. The interior seemed a bit bland and I found it hard to get comfortable and settle down anywhere. The music and clientele didn't help matters either but the service was fine and the beer went some way to making up for these shortcomings. On balance, I'd give this place the benefit of the doubt but would probably try to time a revisit to miss Saturday evening.