The Salutation, Doncaster

The pub is on the route from the town centre to the racecourse serving up to 6 real ales and food. The pub has brewery and sporting memorabilia on the walls and a function suite upstairs.

In a refined terrace of Georgian buildings it's an odd sort of pub. Comprising a large open plan space in a mock Victorian basic style but with a ceiling in fake beams and rough plaster which looks a bit weird and out of place. Otherwise a pleasant drinking environment with comfortable bench seating at small square tables with cast iron bases. Seven pulls on the long counter to one side, one pump is dedicated to cider, the others in use had smaller brewers from within 70 miles, mine was in very acceptable condition. There's a big screen and a machine, the continuous music is as ever a pain if it's not to your taste - this wasn't being 1980s pop. Interesting advert in the gents about Houdini doing his Chinese water trick in a tank of Tetleys!

This is a smart, single room pub located in a pleasant part of town, just a short walk from the centre. The place seems to have been opened out into the one large room from a previous multiple room format, as certain areas have their own characteristics. You enter into a quarry stone floored space with a seating area immediately to the left. There are a few banquettes here and the walls have been decorated with some framed beer mats and a large Tetley’s mirror. To the right is the main part of the pub, with bare floorboards, dark wooden beams running across a white ceiling and exposed stonework on the front wall giving it a traditional feel that might otherwise have been lost along with the partitioning. The servery runs down the right hand wall and has a pleasant bar back whilst old pictures and bits of brewerania are dotted around providing a bit of visual distraction. The highlight of this is a collection of old illuminated keg fonts from years gone by, which line a high shelf near the bar. In the rear right corner, the pub extends further back into a small carpeted dining area with a couple of banquettes flanking a nice fireplace which has been lined with various trophies won by the pub’s sports teams. A TV screen on the back wall was showing a promotional video on a loop whilst a juke box provided some background music. A decent line up at the bar allowed me to choose from Osset Pale Gold, Pheasantry Dark Ale, Black Sheep Bitter, Leeds Midnight Bell and Adnams Explorer as well as Weston’s Old Rosie cider. I gave the Dark Ale a try and thought it was a fairly decent drink in good condition. This is a pleasant, welcoming pub that is worth the short walk out of town to find. There was a nice atmosphere building on my early Saturday evening visit and I imagine it would be a good place to enjoy a lengthier session as well as a worthy addition to any crawl around town.

Located in a rather plush part of Donny in an attractive old building that, sadly, doesn’t quite present the majestic interior you might have hoped for and instead is a fairly pedestrian affair, almost chain-bar like in places although you get the feeling that once upon a time this would have been quite a cosy, multi-roomed coaching inn based on the dog-leg part of the layout. Four ales and a cider on the go, perhaps less adventurous than some other pubs in the town but still enough to tempt. My Osset Silver Fox was in fair condition. Various brewerania (the collection of old keg fonts will shiver some timbers) and DRFC memorabilia scattered around. Not in the premier league of Donny pubs but worth seeking out on an extended crawl. I'll give it a 7 as I can't do 6.5!