The Harlequin, Kelham Island, Sheffield

Corner pub with eye-catching graphics on the signage and name boards. Once inside, you find a traditional (if quite plain) L-shaped bar and another seating area down a few steps at the back. There is a total of 13 handpumps on four different parts of the polygonal counter, although only four of these were in use on my Sunday evening visit. I found three cask ales from Jolly Boys - Jolly Yorkshire Bitter, Supa-Citra (£4.20) and Jolly Colliers Porter - plus RedWillow's Head Less.

This didn't make my original list of pubs to visit while in town but I ended up in here one late evening and quite glad I did . It was deceptivly roomy inside and fairly well attended giving it a good pubby buzz. There was plenty of beer choice and my pint of Red Willow Headless was in great shape. Enjoyable.

The former Manchester gained its current name around 2008, at which time the S. H. Ward's brewery windows were removed. As described below, this was a very decent stopover on our crawl and I enjoyed my Animal Brewing's Hop Kitty - most enjoyable, especially so given the £1.65 a half price. Would certainly return.

At this point of the recent Pubs Galore crawl of Sheffield I found myself taking a detour with the group apple juice slurper to visit this regular winner of the local CAMRA branch Cider pub of the year award. A decent looking corner Victorian pub and I liked the way it was still surrounded by brick buildings of the Sheffield industrial era. Once inside somehow I completely missed the Exit 33 beers, presumably because I was distracted by the pumps on the main bar section carrying the guest ales which included Oakham Citra, XT Brewing Hop Kitty and Moor Brewery Nor Hop alongside Hawkshead Brewery Lakeland Gold, Tapped Brew Company Station Porter and Dark Revolution Luminous, and the Nor Hop was in fine form. I cannot comment on the cider but according to the chalk board dedicated to alcoholic apple and pear beverages there must have been a choice of over 16 of them. I wasn’t as drawn to the interior decor of this carpeted single room pub as others seem to have been but it is certainly spacious and perhaps the fact that there wasn’t many in didn’t help the overall ambience during our visit.

It was fairly quiet in here at the time of my most recent visit, around knocking off time on a Friday. Numerous hand pumps featured three Exit 33 beers and five guests (plus a guest keg from Sheffield's newest brewery, St Mars of the Desert - see photo); there were also, as always, plentiful cider offerings. There was nothing wrong with my beer, a pale one from Great Heck, but I found the background music intrusive, varying as it did between annoying and very annoying. Other than that, this is a comfortable enough pub that I have somehow never really warmed to. Others may find it more to their taste.