The Fat Cat, Kelham Island, Sheffield

A must when on a real ale crawl in Sheffield. A pleasant friendly bar that is usually very busy, and a separate room across the corridor, plus a garden seating area at the back. Plenty of beers to choose from includin 3 from the nearby Kelham Island brewery. We chose beers from Ascot and Chin Chin breweries, both in excellent condition. Reasonably priced meals and popular pork pies available.

Another cracker in Kelham Island. A small pub with 2 rooms. The bar area has 12 handpumps of which 2 were serving a cider and a perry. Kelham Island beers were obviously to the fore. I found this to be better than the one round the corner, though that doesn't mean the other isnt good, I just preferred this one.

Official site of The Fat Cat - www.thefatcat.co.uk

Official site of The Fat Cat - www.thefatcat.co.uk

ps. TT Landlord wasn't on Mon, but I think was listed at £1.89, to give you an idea of prices... 4 February 2009 I've been to FatCats in Ipswich & Colchester but this, allegedly, is the original & not part of the group owning the others (clearly held to be plagiarists in these parts). The beers on offer on Mon were predominantly dark & strong following a weekend winter ale festival, on handpump; Saltaire Winter Ale, Dunham Massey Winter Warmer, Kelham Island Pale Rider & Best Bitter, Derby Brewery Dark Princess, Spire Draymans Delight, Ascot Winter Reserve, Brew Dog Rip Tide (8%), Wensleydale Hardraw Force, Darkstar Victorian Ruby Mild. Nice traditional little bar, welcoming real fire, banquette seating, small tables & stools, serving hatch opposite to corridor, other side of which is a slightly larger, similarly furnished room. Both have some old photos & breweriana mirrors, the latter also displays a signed cartoon by Mike Atkinson (author of the ‘Fat Cat' series). There is an upstairs room for functions or overspill, but flyers in bar announced its use as a bistro one w-end a month (trial venture for chef not connected with pub, £35 for 3 courses matched with beers). Sounds expensive compared to daily lunches such as steak, mushroom&tarragon pies, mexican chicken & rice or Kelham cheese & onion, all £4.40. Pub is very close to Kelham Island Brewery (which is not related to nearby ‘K.I.T.') also the Industrial Museum apparently housing largest working steam engine, the River Don Engine.

Another famous pub that although not as busy as its neighbour was packed around the bar area so I got a a beer that seemed to be a prototype by Isca from Devon called No. 133. It was a pale ale in excellent nick and although I forgot to note the price was around the three quid mark. I did spot some faces from earlier which is probably a commonplace occurrence in this area. Although rather more comfortable than the KIT this place is still a victim of its own success and I would be inclined to return to both of them early doors and preferably on a weekday.