Rose & Crown, Nottingham

The Rose and Crown is situated on one of the busy main roads out of the city in a heavily populated student area of Nottingham a close distance to the University and it largest hospital the QMC. This obviously means it is a very poplar place with high footfall and lots of passing trade. This is one of those horrible flaming grill pubs where they have painted the outside brewery tudor a ghastly bright orange colour (surely there must be a law against monstrosities like this). Inside what once would have been a large pub with many separate rooms like so many others has been opened up. the bar is located against the centre back wall and bends round n an L shape that serves the right and left side of the pub. The decor is as you would expect with little in the way of unique or interesting features just rows and rows of cheap dining tables and chairs with a carpet throughout. The pub is manly set of for diners with loads of cheap food offers (we ate and it was quite bad and I’m not particularly picky with my food). There is however more of a drinkers section to the left hand side. Beer wise there were four hand pulls that had GK IPA, Abbot, Speckled hen and Shipstons Gold Star. I’m a huge fan of shipstons (or the new incarnation of Shipstions) and would usually always choose a guest beer over any GK dross as Shipstons bitter, Mild and Nut brown ale are very, very good but I really don’t like their Gold star pale ale at all, their strength certainly lies with their darker beers. Based on this Speckled hen would have been the order of the day but this annoyingly was off which left me with Abbot or IPA (WOW). I opted for the lower strength IPA at a very wallet friendly £2.29 and for my sins was actually very well kept. I’ve had it before in spoons and it’s always been very dull but here well kept it wasn’t actually that bad. Obviously I’d never usually order a pint of it but credit where credits due a bad beer well kept was drinkable. Overall this is a mass eatery with a bar and doesn’t feel that pubby as most of these places don’t but if you’re at the hospital and fancy a cheap well priced pint this is probably your best option. Although with that said depending on what side of the hospital you’re at it is probably worth the extra 10m minute walk to either the Johnson or the Boat as they have a better selection.

The Rose and Crown used to be a Shipstones tied house. This is a large pub and the closest to the queens medical centre it has been extended and knocked about over the years. Now it is a very smart pub with the bar in the middle and comfy seating around it, there are usually two real ales on here but nothing special with London Pride or GK IPA and the like being on. I have always liked this pub and you can always get a seat and relax having a pint in here. The pub also does a lot of food trade.