The Fat Badger, York

An interesting small pub in a building of indeterminate age adjacent to Bootham Bar in High Petergate, York. The front door with an intriguing tiled floor, opens into a passage dividing the “pub” side from an adjoining Georgian townhouse containing a warren of snugs and parlours, together with a number of letting bedrooms. We’d come to York to see our student son early in February, so decided to stay the night here: a good choice, though I managed to break the flush on our lavatory .Having achieved that, we met our son in the bar, a simply furnished space overlooking the comings and goings of High Petergate. We subsequently moved into the Top Parlour in the Georgian area, where we spent the rest of the evening. As is often the case in York, this pub has a decent range of beers the regulars being Great Heck’s Golden Mane, Black Sheep Best, and I believe Taylor’s Golden Best, backed up on this occasion by Copper Dragon IPA, Old Mill Traditional Bitter, together with Yorkshire Blonde from Ossett.All ales were in excellent condition, though I found the Ossett unusually dull. Mid week in mid winter, we found this highly atmospheric,with an eclectic clientele lurking in various snugs and nooks. The food isn’t bad, either. I would think things get a touch hectic in busier periods, being within tolling distance of the Minster and its bells, but we’d like to return and make use of the inviting beer garden under the city walls.

Enjoyed our first visit to this pub. It has many rooms on different levels so is fun to wander round the snugs and front parlour and bar area. I explored outside and there are stone steps leading up to a fantastic beer garden. We chose Great Heck Golden Mane and Copper Dragon IPA. Both good.

This is a deceptively large upmarket pub situated just inside the city walls next to Bootham Bar. It opened as a pub in late 2008, having previously been a restaurant called Four High Petergate, and is owned by the same people as the nearby Guy Fawkes Inn. The left hand side of the pub houses a compact bar with bare floorboards, a few tables and chairs and large windows giving good views out to the bustling street outside. A corridor leads to a small snug with room for a couple of tables and beyond this signs lead you to the Top Parlour which is to the front right corner of the building. This room has a mix of pew and standards seating, old pictures of York on the walls and a nice fireplace at the rear. The weather was terrible when we visited, but when we walked around the city walls the following day we discovered that the pub has a nice courtyard at the rear where you can watch people go by on the walls or enjoy a fine view of the nearby Minster. The bar supports four handpulls which offered a choice of Great Heck Golden Mane, Copper Dragon Challenger, Black Sheep Golden Sheep and Walls Glory Days, The Golden Mane wasn’t the most exciting pint of the day but it was at least in decent condition. We tried some food here as well, opting for one of the generously portioned sharing platters. The menu is reasonably priced considering what you get for your money and the other half was quite keen to return for the food again a few days later. I thought this was a really nice place to stop off for some good quality food, although I’m not sure that it makes the comfiest pub for the drinker, unless perhaps you can bag yourself a seat under the windows in the front bar. Would make a good addition to any crawl around the city walls.

The best beer garden in York which has views of the York walls and more importantly York Minster. Well run pub now that it has escaped the clutches of serial bankrupts The Hattersley Group. Much improved are the quality of the 4 handpulled beers and the new Irish landlord brings some welcome wit and charm to proceedings.Food is supposed to be of good quality if you can get a seat as its always busy due to its location. Well worth the effort though...